1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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2 | <!--
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3 | manpage, user manual, usage: VBoxManage modifymedium
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4 |
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5 | Copyright (C) 2006-2020 Oracle Corporation
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6 |
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7 | This file is part of VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE), as
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8 | available from http://www.virtualbox.org. This file is free software;
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9 | you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
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10 | General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
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11 | Foundation, in version 2 as it comes in the "COPYING" file of the
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12 | VirtualBox OSE distribution. VirtualBox OSE is distributed in the
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13 | hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY of any kind.
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14 | -->
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15 | <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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16 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
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17 | <!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
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18 | %all.entities;
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19 | ]>
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20 | <refentry id="vboxmanage-modifymedium" lang="en">
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21 | <refentryinfo>
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22 | <pubdate>August 2019</pubdate>
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23 | <title>VBoxManage modifymedium</title>
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24 | </refentryinfo>
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25 |
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26 | <refmeta>
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27 | <refentrytitle>VBoxManage-modifymedium</refentrytitle>
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28 | <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
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29 | </refmeta>
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30 |
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31 | <refnamediv>
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32 | <refname>VBoxManage-modifymedium</refname>
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33 | <refpurpose>change the characteristics of an existing disk image</refpurpose>
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34 | <refclass>Oracle VM VirtualBox</refclass>
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35 | </refnamediv>
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36 |
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37 | <refsynopsisdiv>
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38 | <cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-modifymedium">
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39 | <!-- The 'id' is mandatory and must start with 'synopsis-'. -->
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40 | <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command>
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41 | <group>
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42 | <arg choice="plain">disk</arg>
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43 | <arg choice="plain">dvd</arg>
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44 | <arg choice="plain">floppy</arg>
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45 | </group>
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46 | <group choice="req">
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47 | <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
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48 | <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
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49 | </group>
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50 | <arg>--autoreset=on | off</arg>
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51 | <arg>--compact</arg>
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52 | <arg>--description=<replaceable>description</replaceable></arg>
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53 | <arg>--move=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></arg>
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54 | <arg>--property=<replaceable>name</replaceable>=[<replaceable>value</replaceable>]</arg>
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55 | <arg>--resize=<replaceable>megabytes</replaceable> | --resizebyte=<replaceable>bytes</replaceable></arg>
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56 | <arg>--setlocation=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></arg>
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57 | <arg>--type=normal | writethrough | immutable | shareable | readonly | multiattach</arg>
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58 | </cmdsynopsis>
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59 | </refsynopsisdiv>
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60 |
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61 | <refsect1>
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62 | <title>Description</title>
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63 | <para>
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64 | The <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command> command enables you
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65 | to change the characteristics of an existing disk image.
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66 | </para>
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67 | <note>
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68 | <para>
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69 | For compatibility with earlier versions of &product-name;, you
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70 | can use the <command>modifyvdi</command> and
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71 | <command>modifyhd</command> commands.
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72 | </para>
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73 | </note>
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74 | <variablelist>
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75 | <varlistentry>
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76 | <term>disk | dvd | floppy</term>
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77 | <listitem><para>
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78 | Specifies the media type of the image.
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79 | </para></listitem>
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80 | </varlistentry>
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81 | <varlistentry>
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82 | <term><replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
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83 | <listitem><para>
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84 | Specifies the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or path
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85 | name of the disk image on the host file system. You can
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86 | specify the UUID only if the medium is registered. Use the
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87 | <command>VBoxManage list hdds</command> command to list the
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88 | registered images. You can specfy an absolute or relative
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89 | path to the medium.
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90 | </para></listitem>
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91 | </varlistentry>
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92 | <varlistentry>
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93 | <term><option>--autoreset=on | off</option></term>
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94 | <listitem><para>
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95 | Specifies whether to automatically reset an immutable hard
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96 | disk on every virtual machine (VM) startup. This option is
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97 | only for immutable hard disks and the default value is
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98 | <literal>on</literal>. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />.
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99 | </para></listitem>
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100 | </varlistentry>
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101 | <varlistentry>
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102 | <term><option>--compact</option></term>
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103 | <listitem><para>
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104 | Compresses disk images by removing blocks that contain only
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105 | zeroes. This option shrinks a dynamically allocated image
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106 | and reduces the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
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107 | image without affecting the logical size of the virtual
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108 | disk.
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109 | </para><para>
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110 | You can use this option for base images and for differencing
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111 | images that are created as part of a snapshot.
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112 | </para><note>
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113 | <para>
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114 | Before you compress the image, you must use a suitable
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115 | software tool to zero out free space in the guest system.
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116 | For example:
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117 | </para>
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118 | <itemizedlist>
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119 | <listitem><para>
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120 | <emphasis role="bold">Windows guests.</emphasis> Run
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121 | the <command>sdelete -z</command> command.
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122 | </para></listitem>
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123 | <listitem><para>
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124 | <emphasis role="bold">Linux guests.</emphasis> Use the
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125 | <command>zerofree</command> utility, which supports
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126 | <literal>ext2</literal> and <literal>ext3</literal>
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127 | file systems.
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128 | </para></listitem>
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129 | <listitem><para>
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130 | <emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X guests.</emphasis> Use
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131 | the <command>diskutil secureErase freespace 0
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132 | /</command> command.
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133 | </para></listitem>
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134 | </itemizedlist>
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135 | </note><para>
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136 | Note that you can only use this option to compress VDI
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137 | images. To compress non-VID images, you can zero out free
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138 | blocks and then clone the disk to any other dynamically
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139 | allocated format.
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140 | </para></listitem>
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141 | </varlistentry>
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142 | <varlistentry>
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143 | <term><option>--description=<replaceable>description</replaceable></option></term>
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144 | <listitem><para>
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145 | Specifies a text description of the medium.
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146 | </para></listitem>
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147 | </varlistentry>
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148 | <varlistentry>
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149 | <term><option>--move=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></option></term>
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150 | <listitem><para>
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151 | Specifies a relative or absolute path to a medium on the
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152 | host system. Use this option to relocate a medium to a
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153 | different location on the host system.
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154 | </para></listitem>
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155 | </varlistentry>
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156 | <varlistentry>
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157 | <term><option>--property=<replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></option></term>
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158 | <listitem><para>
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159 | Specifies a property name and value for the medium.
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160 | </para></listitem>
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161 | </varlistentry>
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162 | <varlistentry>
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163 | <term><option>--resize=<replaceable>size</replaceable></option></term>
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164 | <listitem><para>
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165 | Specifes the new capacity of an existing image in MB. You
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166 | can use this option only to expand the capacity of an image.
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167 | You can cannot shrink the capacity of an image.
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168 | </para><para>
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169 | Note that you can resize only dynamically allocated disk
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170 | images that use the VDI and VHD formats. This option adjusts
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171 | the <emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk and
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172 | has only a minor affect on the physical size.
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173 | </para><para>
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174 | For example, if your dynamically allocated 10 GB disk is
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175 | full, you can use the <option>--resize 15360</option> option
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176 | to increase the capacity of the existing disk to 15 GB
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177 | (15,360 MB). This operation enables you to avoid having to
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178 | create a new image and copy all data from within a VM.
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179 | </para><para>
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180 | Note that using this option only changes the capacity of the
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181 | drive. So, you might need to subsequently use a partition
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182 | management tool in the guest to adjust the main partition to
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183 | fill the drive.
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184 | </para></listitem>
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185 | </varlistentry>
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186 | <varlistentry>
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187 | <term><option>--resizebyte=<replaceable>size</replaceable></option></term>
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188 | <listitem><para>
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189 | Specifes the new capacity of an existing image in bytes.
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190 | This option is similar to the <option>--resize</option>
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191 | option, but you specify the size in bytes instead of
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192 | megabytes.
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193 | </para></listitem>
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194 | </varlistentry>
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195 | <varlistentry>
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196 | <term><option>--setlocation=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></option></term>
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197 | <listitem><para>
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198 | Specifies the new location of the medium on the host system
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199 | after the medium has been moved. The path name can be
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200 | relative to the current directory or be absolute to the
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201 | root.
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202 | </para><para>
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203 | Note that the <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command>
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204 | command does not perform any sanity checks on the path name
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205 | you specify. Ensure that the path name is valid.
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206 | </para></listitem>
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207 | </varlistentry>
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208 | <varlistentry>
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209 | <term><option>--type</option></term>
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210 | <listitem><para>
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211 | Specifies the new mode type of an existing image. Valid
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212 | values are <literal>normal</literal>,
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213 | <literal>immutable</literal>,
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214 | <literal>writethrough</literal>,
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215 | <literal>multi-attach</literal>,
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216 | <literal>shareable</literal>, and
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217 | <literal>readonly</literal>. For descriptions of these mode
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218 | types, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />.
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219 | </para></listitem>
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220 | </varlistentry>
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221 | </variablelist>
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222 | </refsect1>
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223 |
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224 | <refsect1>
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225 | <title>Examples</title>
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226 | <remark role="help-scope" condition="GLOBAL" />
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227 | <para>
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228 | The following command modifies the description for the disk image
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229 | file called <filename>disk01.vdi</filename>.
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230 | </para>
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231 | <screen>$ VBoxManage modifymedium disk disk01.vdi --description "Oracle Linux 7 image"</screen>
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232 | <para>
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233 | The following command modifies the write mode for the disk image
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234 | file called <filename>disk01.vdi</filename>.
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235 | </para>
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236 | <screen>$ VBoxManage modifymedium disk disk01.vdi --type writethrough</screen>
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237 | </refsect1>
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238 |
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239 | <refsect1>
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240 | <title>See Also</title>
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241 | <para>
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242 | <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
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243 | </para>
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244 | </refsect1>
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245 | </refentry>
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