If you use virtual machines as mush as I do you will be in need of storage space and running out of it all the time. One way to expand the storage capacity of a virtual machine is to add a second virtual disk.

For this tutorial I will be adding a 25GB virtual hard disk to a Windows Server 2003 virtual machine. The instructions should apply without any changes to Windows XP and Windows Server 2008.

How-To

Start VMware Workstation and select the virtual machine you wish to add the second disk. Click on Edit virtual machine settings.

A new window will open. Click on + Add….

Now the Add Hardware Wizard will present you with several options. Click on Hard Disk and then click on Next.

Select Create a new virtual disk and then on Next.

Usually, VMware Workstation will suggest a type of virtual disk. In this case the suggested type is SCSI (Recommended) and click on Next.

Choose the size of your virtual disk in GB. My personal preference is to Store virtual disk as a single file and click on Next.

Now just tell it where to store the new disk file and click on Finish

Again you are presented with an overview of the system configuration. Now you can see we have two disks and click on Save.

Initialize the new disk

If you boot the virtual machine the new virtual disk will not appear under windows. You have to make use of a Windows utility called compmgmt.msc which will allow us to manage the new disk.

You will need administrative privileges

Click Start > Run and type compmgmt.msc and then hit OK.

This will bring a new window, click on Next to continue.

Here you are being asked which disk to initialize. The C drive is know as disk 0, using logic you know that our new disk is known as disk 1. Check Disk 1 and click on Next

Select which disk you wish to convert. Of course, we want to convert Disk 1 to a dynamic disk. Check and click on Next

Now the wizard is giving you an overview of whats about to be done to the disk. If you are OK with the changes click Finish.

Guess what we still have some work to do before we can use that new disk. Now right click on the unallocated volume and select New volume….

Click Next on the new volume wizard.

Select the volume type. In this case Simple and click on Next.

In this screen you are being asked to select the disk and disk size. I want to use all of the available space, just click on Next to continue.

Just accept the default drive letter and click on Next.

Now this is important. You are being asked whether you want to format the drive with NTFS and the volume label. Don’t be lazy like me and give the volume label a proper name. Then just hit Next.

Again you are being presented with an overview of whats about to be done with the drive. If you agree, click on Finish.

The new drive will now be formatted, allow for some time.

After the formatting is done you can close the window and go to Start > My Computer and you should be able to see the new drive with the assign letter E.

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