If the virtual disk is located on a Windows host, you can use the virtual disk manager to prepare and shrink virtual disks. You cannot use the virtual disk manager to prepare or shrink virtual disks located on a Linux host. You cannot use the virtual disk manager to shrink physical disks. Shrinking a virtual disk does not reduce the maximum capacity of the virtual disk itself. For more information about shrinking, see Defragmenting and Shrinking Virtual Disks.

You must prepare each volume of the virtual disk for shrinking before you can shrink the disk. To prepare a volume for shrinking, you must first mount it. To mount the volume, use the VMware DiskMount Utility, available as a free download from the VMware Web site. Go to www.vmware.com/download/diskmount.html.

The VMware DiskMount user's manual is available from the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/pdf/VMwareDiskMount.pdf. It contains instructions on mounting and unmounting virtual disk volumes with DiskMount.

VMware DiskMount mounts individual volumes of a virtual disk. For optimal shrinking of a virtual disk, you should mount all the volumes and prepare them for shrinking.

After you mount a virtual disk volume, use the virtual disk manager to prepare the volume for shrinking. Once you prepare a volume, unmount it, then repeat the process for each volume of the virtual disk. After you prepare all the volumes of the virtual disk, you can shrink the virtual disk. For examples, see Preparing a Virtual Disk for Shrinking and Shrinking a Virtual Disk.