How to Resize a Disk in VMware Fusion for Windows 11

I recently needed to resize a virtual disk in VMware Fusion for a Windows 11 VM. It was a bit tricky to find clear instructions, so I thought I’d share the steps here in case anyone else needs to do the same thing.

Step 1: Shut Down the VM

Make sure your Windows 11 VM is completely shut down. You can’t resize the disk while the VM is running or in a suspended state.

Step 2: Open Virtual Machine Preferences- Hard Disk Settings

1. In VMware Fusion, select your Windows 11 VM from the library.
2. Click on “Virtual Machine” in the menu bar.
3. In the settings menu, click on “Hard Disk” under the “Virtual Machine” section.
4. Here, you’ll see the current size of your virtual disk. Click on the “Resize Disk” button.

Step 3: Resize the Disk

This is where it gets a bit tricky. If you open diskmgmt.msc in Windows 11, you may not see that the new space is unallocated. To fix this, you need to use the DiskPart utility adn delete the recovery partition.

Here are the steps to do that:

Deleting a Recovery Partition Using DiskPart

1. Click on Windows Search and type Command Prompt.

2. Right-click on Command Prompt from the search results and select Run as Administrator. Click Yes in the UAC prompt.

3. Type the following and press Enter:

   diskpart

4. Type the following and press Enter. This command will show you all the disks installed on your system:

   list disk

5. Select the disk on which the Recovery Partition exists. Replace # with your disk number (e.g., select disk 1):

   select disk #

   You will see a confirmation message: “Disk # is now the selected disk.”

6. Type the following and press Enter. This will list all partitions on the selected disk:

   list partition

7. Select the Recovery Partition. Replace # with the partition number shown by DiskPart:

   select partition #

   You will see a confirmation: “Partition # is now the selected partition.”

   Tip: To make sure you’re selecting the correct partition, open Disk Management and check the size of the Recovery Partition you want to delete. Match that size to the one shown in Command Prompt.

8. Delete the partition by typing:

   delete partition override

9. Close Command Prompt once you receive the confirmation message.

Step 4: Extend the Main Partition

Now that the recovery partition is deleted, you can extend your main partition to use the unallocated space. Reboot your VM and open Disk Management again. You should now see the unallocated space next to your main partition.

1. Right-click on your main partition (usually C:) and select Extend Volume.
2. Follow the prompts in the Extend Volume Wizard to add the unallocated space to your main partition.
3. Once completed, your main partition will now include the additional space.