HyperV Checkpoint Out of Space Issue

Question

In HyperV (Standard 2016) we have a 3.2TB Disk configured as Dynamic which the Windows Disk Management utility won’t expand and also tried EaseUS Partition Manager with the same results. On this disk we have a .vhdx and two .avhdx with the following specs 1.3.TB, 1.2TB and 750MB Hence the there is enough space for merge to occur – which I didn’t realize before starting the process the technical questions/optiona I have as are follows starting with might resolve the problem the fastest 1) Can I delete the older .vhdx and .avhdx and simply merge the youngest into a new .vhdx – based on the size it would seem the youngest is all I need to keep. 2) If I move all three virtual disks to a new volume/disk and I merge on that disk and then bring back the result? 3) Is their a way to skip a child? For example I could delete the 1.2TB virtual, then it would leave me space to merge the youngest with the parent – and how would I do this? 4) Anyway to actually retrieve the files within the .avddx

Answer 1

Hi,

If you want to merge the older checkpoint, please right click "delete" the checkpoint in the checkpoint tree, please don't delete the avhd or vhd directly in the file explorer.

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

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Answer 2

It seems the ultimate answer to my problem is to simply add more disk space. Hence if anyone runs into this problem here are the key take aways.

1) Never use Dynamic disks for your volumes they are simply a trap that some wise guy at Microsoft came up to kill your day/night/etc.
2) Make sure you shutdown and don't power the VM associated with the datadisk until all merges are fully completed with no errors - very important
2) Double check your space before any checkpoint merge - always make sure you have at least 10% more space than the combine sizes of the checkpoint files to be merged. Not 100% if the 10% rule is the ultimate but it's a good safety precaution.
3) It seems if you are down to one child and the parent - you can do the following to get some files back if everyone is yelling at you
A) copy the parent and child to another location (volume/etc)
B) create a new VM and attach the child - when start the VM you will likely see an error in disk manager that the datadisk if offline - just click to the left and put it online - from this point you should be able to access the files
C) for safety I would not give users access to this volume but rather to a copy of the files - say on the new VM
4) finally once you have sufficient disk to fully complete the merge do that

Finally Good Luck or better yet switch VMWare - at least that's what everyone I tried to ask for help is using