| 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 | <!--
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| 6 | Copyright (C) 2006-2020 Oracle Corporation
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| 7 |
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| 8 | This file is part of VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE), as
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| 9 | available from http://www.virtualbox.org. This file is free software;
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| 10 | you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
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| 11 | General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
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| 12 | Foundation, in version 2 as it comes in the "COPYING" file of the
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| 13 | VirtualBox OSE distribution. VirtualBox OSE is distributed in the
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| 14 | hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY of any kind.
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| 15 | -->
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| 16 | <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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| 17 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"[
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| 18 | <!ENTITY % all.entities SYSTEM "all-entities.ent">
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| 19 | %all.entities;
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| 20 | ]>
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| 21 | <refentry id="vboxmanage-modifymedium" lang="en">
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| 22 | <refentryinfo>
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| 23 | <pubdate>$Date: 2022-08-18 17:27:14 +0000 (Thu, 18 Aug 2022) $</pubdate>
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| 24 | <title>VBoxManage modifymedium</title>
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| 25 | </refentryinfo>
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| 26 |
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| 27 | <refmeta>
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| 28 | <refentrytitle>VBoxManage-modifymedium</refentrytitle>
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| 29 | <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
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| 30 | </refmeta>
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| 31 |
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| 32 | <refnamediv>
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| 33 | <refname>VBoxManage-modifymedium</refname>
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| 34 | <refpurpose>change the characteristics of an existing disk image</refpurpose>
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| 35 | <refclass>&product-name;</refclass>
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| 36 | </refnamediv>
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| 37 |
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| 38 | <refsynopsisdiv>
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| 39 | <cmdsynopsis id="synopsis-vboxmanage-modifymedium">
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| 40 | <!-- The 'id' is mandatory and must start with 'synopsis-'. -->
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| 41 | <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command>
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| 42 | <group>
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| 43 | <arg choice="plain">disk</arg>
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| 44 | <arg choice="plain">dvd</arg>
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| 45 | <arg choice="plain">floppy</arg>
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| 46 | </group>
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| 47 | <group choice="req">
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| 48 | <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>uuid</replaceable></arg>
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| 49 | <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
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| 50 | </group>
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| 51 | <arg>--autoreset=on | off</arg>
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| 52 | <arg>--compact</arg>
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| 53 | <arg>--description=<replaceable>description</replaceable></arg>
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| 54 | <arg>--move=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></arg>
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| 55 | <arg>--property=<replaceable>name</replaceable>=[<replaceable>value</replaceable>]</arg>
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| 56 | <arg>--resize=<replaceable>megabytes</replaceable> | --resizebyte=<replaceable>bytes</replaceable></arg>
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| 57 | <arg>--setlocation=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></arg>
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| 58 | <arg>--type=normal | writethrough | immutable | shareable | readonly | multiattach</arg>
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| 59 | </cmdsynopsis>
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| 60 | </refsynopsisdiv>
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| 61 |
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| 62 | <refsect1>
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| 63 | <title>Description</title>
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| 64 | <para>
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| 65 | The <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command> command enables you
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| 66 | to change the characteristics of an existing disk image.
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| 67 | </para>
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| 68 | <note>
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| 69 | <para>
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| 70 | For compatibility with earlier versions of &product-name;, you
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| 71 | can use the <command>modifyvdi</command> and
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| 72 | <command>modifyhd</command> commands.
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| 73 | </para>
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| 74 | </note>
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| 75 | <variablelist>
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| 76 | <varlistentry>
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| 77 | <term>disk | dvd | floppy</term>
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| 78 | <listitem><para>
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| 79 | Specifies the media type of the image.
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| 80 | </para></listitem>
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| 81 | </varlistentry>
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| 82 | <varlistentry>
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| 83 | <term><replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
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| 84 | <listitem><para>
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| 85 | Specifies the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) or path
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| 86 | name of the disk image on the host file system. You can
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| 87 | specify the UUID only if the medium is registered. Use the
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| 88 | <command>VBoxManage list hdds</command> command to list the
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| 89 | registered images. You can specfy an absolute or relative
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| 90 | path to the medium.
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| 91 | </para></listitem>
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| 92 | </varlistentry>
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| 93 | <varlistentry>
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| 94 | <term><option>--autoreset=on | off</option></term>
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| 95 | <listitem><para>
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| 96 | Specifies whether to automatically reset an immutable hard
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| 97 | disk on every virtual machine (VM) startup. This option is
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| 98 | only for immutable hard disks and the default value is
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| 99 | <literal>on</literal>. See <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />.
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| 100 | </para></listitem>
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| 101 | </varlistentry>
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| 102 | <varlistentry>
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| 103 | <term><option>--compact</option></term>
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| 104 | <listitem><para>
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| 105 | Compresses disk images by removing blocks that contain only
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| 106 | zeroes. This option shrinks a dynamically allocated image
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| 107 | and reduces the <emphasis>physical</emphasis> size of the
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| 108 | image without affecting the logical size of the virtual
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| 109 | disk.
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| 110 | </para><para>
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| 111 | You can use this option for base images and for differencing
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| 112 | images that are created as part of a snapshot.
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| 113 | </para><note>
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| 114 | <para>
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| 115 | Before you compress the image, you must use a suitable
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| 116 | software tool to zero out free space in the guest system.
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| 117 | For example:
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| 118 | </para>
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| 119 | <itemizedlist>
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| 120 | <listitem><para>
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| 121 | <emphasis role="bold">Windows guests.</emphasis> Run
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| 122 | the <command>sdelete -z</command> command.
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| 123 | </para></listitem>
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| 124 | <listitem><para>
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| 125 | <emphasis role="bold">Linux guests.</emphasis> Use the
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| 126 | <command>zerofree</command> utility, which supports
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| 127 | <literal>ext2</literal> and <literal>ext3</literal>
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| 128 | file systems.
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| 129 | </para></listitem>
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| 130 | <listitem><para>
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| 131 | <emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X guests.</emphasis> Use
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| 132 | the <command>diskutil secureErase freespace 0
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| 133 | /</command> command.
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| 134 | </para></listitem>
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| 135 | </itemizedlist>
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| 136 | </note><para>
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| 137 | Note that you can only use this option to compress VDI
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| 138 | images. To compress non-VID images, you can zero out free
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| 139 | blocks and then clone the disk to any other dynamically
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| 140 | allocated format.
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| 141 | </para></listitem>
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| 142 | </varlistentry>
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| 143 | <varlistentry>
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| 144 | <term><option>--description=<replaceable>description</replaceable></option></term>
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| 145 | <listitem><para>
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| 146 | Specifies a text description of the medium.
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| 147 | </para></listitem>
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| 148 | </varlistentry>
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| 149 | <varlistentry>
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| 150 | <term><option>--move=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></option></term>
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| 151 | <listitem><para>
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| 152 | Specifies a relative or absolute path to a medium on the
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| 153 | host system. Use this option to relocate a medium to a
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| 154 | different location on the host system.
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| 155 | </para></listitem>
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| 156 | </varlistentry>
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| 157 | <varlistentry>
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| 158 | <term><option>--property=<replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></option></term>
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| 159 | <listitem><para>
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| 160 | Specifies a property name and value for the medium.
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| 161 | </para></listitem>
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| 162 | </varlistentry>
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| 163 | <varlistentry>
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| 164 | <term><option>--resize=<replaceable>size</replaceable></option></term>
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| 165 | <listitem><para>
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| 166 | Specifes the new capacity of an existing image in MB. You
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| 167 | can use this option only to expand the capacity of an image.
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| 168 | You can cannot shrink the capacity of an image.
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| 169 | </para><para>
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| 170 | Note that you can resize only dynamically allocated disk
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| 171 | images that use the VDI and VHD formats. This option adjusts
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| 172 | the <emphasis>logical</emphasis> size of a virtual disk and
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| 173 | has only a minor affect on the physical size.
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| 174 | </para><para>
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| 175 | For example, if your dynamically allocated 10 GB disk is
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| 176 | full, you can use the <option>--resize 15360</option> option
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| 177 | to increase the capacity of the existing disk to 15 GB
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| 178 | (15,360 MB). This operation enables you to avoid having to
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| 179 | create a new image and copy all data from within a VM.
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| 180 | </para><para>
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| 181 | Note that using this option only changes the capacity of the
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| 182 | drive. So, you might need to subsequently use a partition
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| 183 | management tool in the guest to adjust the main partition to
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| 184 | fill the drive.
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| 185 | </para></listitem>
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| 186 | </varlistentry>
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| 187 | <varlistentry>
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| 188 | <term><option>--resizebyte=<replaceable>size</replaceable></option></term>
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| 189 | <listitem><para>
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| 190 | Specifes the new capacity of an existing image in bytes.
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| 191 | This option is similar to the <option>--resize</option>
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| 192 | option, but you specify the size in bytes instead of
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| 193 | megabytes.
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| 194 | </para></listitem>
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| 195 | </varlistentry>
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| 196 | <varlistentry>
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| 197 | <term><option>--setlocation=<replaceable>pathname</replaceable></option></term>
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| 198 | <listitem><para>
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| 199 | Specifies the new location of the medium on the host system
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| 200 | after the medium has been moved. The path name can be
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| 201 | relative to the current directory or be absolute to the
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| 202 | root.
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| 203 | </para><para>
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| 204 | Note that the <command>VBoxManage modifymedium</command>
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| 205 | command does not perform any sanity checks on the path name
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| 206 | you specify. Ensure that the path name is valid.
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| 207 | </para></listitem>
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| 208 | </varlistentry>
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| 209 | <varlistentry>
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| 210 | <term><option>--type</option></term>
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| 211 | <listitem><para>
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| 212 | Specifies the new mode type of an existing image. Valid
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| 213 | values are <literal>normal</literal>,
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| 214 | <literal>immutable</literal>,
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| 215 | <literal>writethrough</literal>,
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| 216 | <literal>multi-attach</literal>,
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| 217 | <literal>shareable</literal>, and
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| 218 | <literal>readonly</literal>. For descriptions of these mode
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| 219 | types, see <xref linkend="hdimagewrites" />.
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| 220 | </para></listitem>
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| 221 | </varlistentry>
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| 222 | </variablelist>
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| 223 | </refsect1>
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| 224 |
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| 225 | <refsect1>
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| 226 | <title>Examples</title>
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| 227 | <remark role="help-scope" condition="GLOBAL" />
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| 228 | <para>
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| 229 | The following command modifies the description for the disk image
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| 230 | file called <filename>disk01.vdi</filename>.
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| 231 | </para>
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| 232 | <screen>$ VBoxManage modifymedium disk disk01.vdi --description "Oracle Linux 7 image"</screen>
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| 233 | <para>
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| 234 | The following command modifies the write mode for the disk image
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| 235 | file called <filename>disk01.vdi</filename>.
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| 236 | </para>
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| 237 | <screen>$ VBoxManage modifymedium disk disk01.vdi --type writethrough</screen>
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| 238 | </refsect1>
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| 239 |
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| 240 | <refsect1>
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| 241 | <title>See Also</title>
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| 242 | <para>
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| 243 | <xref linkend="vboxmanage-list" />
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| 244 | </para>
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| 245 | </refsect1>
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| 246 | </refentry>
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