Enlarge the size of VirtualBox disk (HD)

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To enlarge the size of the virtual disk that you use in VirtualBox is necessary creating a new virtual disk with bigger size and then copy into the new disk the contents of the old virtual disk so as to keep all configurations and the sw installed.
To make these changes follow the instructions below.

  1. Download the SystemRescueCd-x86-1.5.6.iso linux distribution (live-cd) is very small but also contains GParted we will use later.
    Some links for take SystemRescueCd-x86-1.5.6.iso are listed below:

    http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
    http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=e2aaad5974bea7ef7fcf20bc569e5fc0d4f7fb6e&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Linuxtracker+%28LinuxTracker%29
    http://www.torrentroom.com/torrent/2729379-systemrescuecd-x86-1-5-6-iso.html
    http://www.torrentz.com/50f48f0608f417aec696344384dc4bb13fbab350

  2. In your virtual machine make sure that the sequence of boot is:
    CD/DVD and then the Hard Drive.

  3. Create a new Virtual Disk using the Virtual Disk Manager.
    From the VirtualBox main menu select:
    File → Virtual Disk Manager
    or, if you have the VirtualBox in Italian
    File → Gestione Supporti Virtuali
    with the dimensions that are appropriate.

  4. Change your CD/DVD drive to point to SystemRescueCd-x86-1.5.6.iso and add your new Virtual Disk, in my case is NewHardDisk1.vdi, see (Fig.1)

    Fig.1


  5. Turn on your VirtualBox and if you did everything correctly, you will see a menu of the live-cd from which to launch the graphical version, the menu item n.5 (Fig. 2).
    If appears a command prompt type: startx.

    Fig.2


When your live-cd will be running, in the command window type: gparted (Fig3)

Fig.3


From the graph menu that appears select (top right) your new HD (/dev/sdb 50.00GiB) and then press on: Device and then click Create Partition Table... (Fig. 4).

Fig.4


Now click on Partition and then NEW (Fig. 5).

Fig.5



From the window that appears make sure to format with ntfs and then press + Add (Fig. 6)

Fig.6


Now go to Edit and click on Apply All Operations in order to apply the changes.


Now select your original disk and then click inside the disk (/dev/sda 30.35 GiB) with the right mouse button and select Copy (Fig. 7).

Fig.7



Now go back to the new disk (50.00 GiB), right-click inside the partition /dev/sdb1 50.00 GiB and select Paste (Fig. 8).

Fig.8


Now go to Edit and click on Apply All Operations
Now wait patiently for the end of copy.

When the copy is finished, press the right mouse button on the disk and select "Manage Flags" and set the flag to BOOT.
This serves to indicate that the disc is a bootable, Fig.9 and Fig.10

Fig.9



fig.10



Exit from GParted and turn off your virtual machine Fig.11 and Fig.12.

Fig.11


Ricordatevi che per riavere il puntatore del mouse dovete premere il tasto Ctrl quello di detra.

Fig.12


Change the settings of your virtual machine so that it has again a single disc (select the largest), uncheck the ISO image from inside the CD/DVD and reset the CD/DVD on HW-CD/DVD on your PC (in my case MATSHITA UJ-822Da).
Restart your virtual machine that now has a larger HD (Fig. 13).

Fig.13





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