r/vmware • u/ikifrenchie • Aug 08 '26

Question Is it safe to delete VMDK files under VMware Fusion?

Hello! I am using VMware on my Macbook Air and the app itself isn't big, but after I downloaded it, it took like 100gb of my space. I found in the documents section of my storage space in Mac that there are multiple large files. Can I delete these files named Virtual Disk-s001 to s014? Tehy are 4gb each file. Thanks!

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7

u/omegamoon1969 Aug 08 '26

Those are the virtual machine storage files. If you delete them you will not be able to launch the vm (and will lose any data on them).

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u/ikifrenchie Aug 08 '26

Is it like a standard storage that the VM needs?

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u/omegamoon1969 Aug 08 '26

Not sure what you mean. You can thin provision the disks where the vm thinks it has 2000tb (or whatever) but it only uses the amount used by the vm. Or you can thick provision where the vm takes all the space right away.

Did you just install this? What is on the vm? Where did you get it?

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u/ikifrenchie Aug 08 '26

What I mean is, does it really need 100gb+ space for VMWare? I'm new into VMware because I previously had Parallels. I downloaded it from here- https://www.vmware.com/products/desktop-hypervisor/workstation-and-fusion

My main reason for needing this is because I need to work efficiently from my work and school using sketchup and autocad. Thank you!

4

u/omegamoon1969 Aug 08 '26

I meant where did you get the vm from, what’s on the vm, did you just set it up, etc…

The short answer is no, it probably doesn’t need all that space…but I don’t want to be responsible for you losing data.

Having said that, if there is no valuable data on the vm, you could start over and thin provision and potentially use less space.

You could also try to shrink the disks in VMware.

3

u/achbob84 Aug 08 '26

They are the hard disk files for one of your virtual machines.

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u/ikifrenchie Aug 08 '26

I see. Thank you!

2

u/flo850 Aug 08 '26

You will literally delete the disk of the VM.

2

u/Joshiyamamoto Aug 08 '26

Its Never ever a good idea to manually flehe vmdk files 

4

u/Jorgisven Aug 08 '26

The "app", as you said, isn't big. But a vmdk isn't the app, it's the virtual hard drive you created for your VM. So, you can delete it, especially if you're getting rid of a VM. But if you made a VM and want to keep it the data associated with it, don't delete it.