Disk Management vs. Windows Explorer

Storage

When you make a change to a virtual machine’s hard disk size, you may notice that Windows doesn’t reflect the change. Of course, you will have first already gone through the steps to extend the volume, utilizing Disk Management.

This is a rare occurrence, but it has been reported that it most often happens in older operating systems, normally Server 2008 R2 and earlier.

To correct this discrepancy, you may utilize the built-in DISKPART utility.

  • Open a command prompt and type DISKPART to activate the function.
DISKPART before and after
  • Next, type LIST VOLUME to view a quick list of each volume since you’ll need the number of the volume you need to adjust.
LIST VOLUME view of available volumes
  • To modify the correct volume, type SELECT VOLUME #
    (where # represents the actual numerical value of the volume you want to correct.
SELECT VOLUME to modify
  • Once selected, type EXTEND FILESYSTEM and this will sync the size shown in Windows with the size you expected based on what you extended in Disk Management.
EXTEND FILESYSTEM to modify volume

That’s all there is to it!

Now Windows reflects and can utilize the change you made in your virtual environment that you modified in Disk Management without any loss of data, lengthy storage migrations or other tedious processes.

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