Virtual Server, HD Size, & BartPE

After copying an old Virtual Server clean image to use as the basis of a new Team Foundation Server CTP image, I discovered the virtual hard drive set up was way too small for the first prerequisite: SQL Server 2005. That's when I discovered the ugly little "secret" of dynamically expanding hard disks. They are only expandable up to the initially specified size (in my case, it was only 5gb). Since I put a new 400gb drive in the box, I had the room & wanted to increase it to 30gb for that virtual machine.

Enter BartPE (Bart's Preinstalled Environment). This is a free program (downloadable here ) that will take a windows CD/DVD & make a limited bootable version of windows, along with network support, ntfs, and most importantly, a backup program that's nice & fast at drive imaging. (Think knoppix for windows)

So after I set up 2 additional 30gb drives, I was able to back up the old tiny virtual disk to 1 virtual hd, restore to the other, and delete the one the files were backed up to, as well as the original tiny disk.  Boot up and all is well.

Moral of the story? There should have just been a way to expand the maximum size of the dynamic hard disk. Perhaps in the next release?