By using VMware Converter 5 the following disk optimizations can be easily done on your existing VM:

• Convert one or more partition(s) on single disk to partitions on a separate disks. When you want to increase disk space on the C: partition this is a problem because of the D partition is on the same disk.

[]

• Resize one or more partition(s)
• Align on or more disks. (not needed anymore for Microsoft Windows 2008, Windows Vista  or greater). This example shows a partition that is not aligned

[]

• Adjust the cluster size

V2V procedure:

• Power down the VM
• In VMware Converter select “Convert Machine”
• Follow the instructions on the screen till you got the options screen
• Edit the “Data to copy”

[]

• Change the “Data copy type” from “Copy all disks and maintain layout” in

“Select volumes to copy”.

[]

• Select “Advanced” and choose the “Destination” layout
• Change the disk size (in the example we change the C-partition to 30GB)
• Use “Add Disk”, the VirtualDisk2 is created.
• Move the partition down (in the example the E: partition)
• Be sure that the “Create optimized partition layout” option is selected for all the disks.  VMware Converter optimize the disk partitions alignment”
• The cluster size in this example at the default value

[]

• After the V2V the VM has 2 disks, the partition size is increased and both disk are aligned.

[]

Check the disk alignment by using msinfo32.exe

VMware Converter 5.0 is available as public beta and can be found here.