I am a complete newbie at VMWare, so forgive me if this question is something that would be considered basic. After you delete a virtual machine, how do you reclaim the virtual memory/ hard disk and turn it back into physical memory? If that doesn't make sense, I probably am not saying it right, but basically, I lost a huge chunk of space and am looking to reclaim that space. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
asked Sep 23, 2014 at 20:00 Paul Swedjen Paul Swedjen 1 1 1 silver badge 1 1 bronze badgeIf the virtual machine is powered off then it's not using virtual memory at all, more information is required to help
Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 20:08 What do you mean by "space"? Disk space? Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 21:29 @DavidSchwartz I think it is obvious that he means disk space. He uses the word "Hard Disk". Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 23:27 @lzam But he also says he wants to "turn it back into physical memory". Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 23:28 @DavidSchwartz I think he just doesn't know the correct terminology very well. Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 23:29Programs on your computer are able to use your ram, but once you stop them they free the ram backup. Virtual Machines get memory the same way, and once you close them the memory is re-freed.
You can verify this using the command systeminfo |find "Available Physical Memory" . Here's an example:
As you can see as the VM powers off it gives back the memory it was using.
As far as hard drive space goes, you can re-claim the space by deleting the virtual machine from your hard drive. Typically stored in a folder of the same name as the machine, with a large virtual hard drive file, and some small configuration files. Just navigate to where you saved the virtual machine, and delete it.
In VMware Player the default save location is "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Virtual Machines\THEVIRTUALMACHINENAME"
