How to expand a Virtual PC VHD
Today I wanted to install SQL Server 2008 on one of my demo images. The problem was however that I was running out of free space on my local C: drive. Too bad because upgrading SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 required some gigabytes. (Not sure how much it was exactly).
I did a lot of searching and using diskpart, GParted was suggested quite a lot ..However, nothing seemed to work exactly for me. Gparted just gave errors after a while of converting (took a long time too), diskpart just said that I could not extend the volume.
First things first: expanding the VHD. For this you need VHD Resizer from VMToolkit. You can download that following the link.
1) Select your original VHD file
2) Adjust the size
3) Click resize
With VHD Resizer, you create your new & bigger VHD.
Once created you need to go to Virtual PC – Settings and change your previous VHD with the new one.
Now comes the expanding part..it does require 3rd party tools. The good news is, if you are running XP, Vista or Windows 7 then the tool is completely free. If you are using a windows server OS then you’ll have to cough up the dough. But let me tell you something, I spent (wasted) a lot of time trying to expand the drive. I’m so happy about this tool that I just had to write about it. I opened the tool, selected the drive, selected the command, confirmed my actions and 5 seconds later my disk was expanded.
The tool that I’m talking about is EASEUS Partition Manager. You can download or buy the application on this link. Steps you need to take are:
1) Select your volume
2) Select the resize command in the toolbar
3) Adjust the size (using the unallocated size available) using the simple slider
4) Apply changes
5) Done
It’s quick and it works. Just the way I like it 
