Virtualbox: is my partition dynamic or not?

Solution 1:

How to check to see if virtual hard drive is "dynamic(thin)" or "fixed(thick)":

• File --> Virtual Media Manager
• Select the Hard Drive in question
• Check storage details in info panel

How to convert clone a fixed virtual hard drive to dynamic:

• You can't convert the image currently, but you can clone a new one then remove the old.
• VBoxManage clonehd [old.VDI] [new.VDI] --variant Standard
• You will have to detatch the old and attach the new in your VM properties.

How to expand a dynamic hard drive max size if it is full:

• VBoxManage modifyhd IMAGENAME.vdi --resize SIZE Size is an integer in MB

How to expand hard drive partition within Linux OS after expanding .vdi:

• apt-get update && apt-get install gparted
• unmount the affected partition umount [mountpoint]
• open gparted, select the partition in question and choose resize/move and expand it to the end of the unallocated space.
• NOTE: you may have to boot your vm into a GParted live cd to make the change if you are expanding a partition that you can't unmount first such as /, you can get one here: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php