Help ContentsAbout reclaiming free disk space
In Microsoft Virtual PC, you can create two types of virtual hard disk images: fixed-size disk and dynamically expanding virtual hard disk images.
A fixed-size virtual hard disk image remains the same size, regardless of the number of files that are added to or removed from it.
A dynamically expanding virtual hard disk image expands to a specified maximize size as more files are added. However, dynamically expanding virtual hard disk images do not automatically shrink as files are deleted. To reclaim this space, you must first "zero out" or permanently remove data from the virtual hard disk image.
For example, let's assume you have created a dynamically expanding virtual hard disk image that can grow to 3 GB. You have installed Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office and the virtual hard disk image has now expanded to 2 GB. If you remove Office, the virtual hard disk image is still 2 GB. The dynamically expanding virtual hard disk image does not automatically shrink when files are removed.
Reclaiming free disk space is a two-step process. First, you must use a third-party product to "zero out" or permanently remove this data from the virtual hard disk image (1 GB in the preceding example). Then you can use the Virtual Disk Assistant in Virtual PC to reclaim the free disk space.
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