VMware Fusion Concepts
Internal
Virtual Machine Library
VMware Fusion -> Window -> Virtual Machine Library
VM Bundle
Fusion creates a virtual machine as a bundle, which is a set of files grouped together as a package. Each virtual machine bundle contains the VM's virtual disks and settings files. For more details on the location of bundle files on disk see Location of the Virtual Machine Bundle. The bundle contains the following types of files:
.vmx
The VM configuration file. It contains:
Location of the virtual disk files
scsi0:0.fileName = "forge-1.0-000002.vmdk"
.vmdk
A virtual disk file.
Virtual Disk
Pre-Allocated Disk
It is not possible to reduce the size of pre-allocated disk. The size of a pre-allocated disk is always approximately equal to the size allocated to the VM's operating system.
Sparse Disk
A sparse disk's footprint on the host operating system will grow larger than the size to the space the guest operating system is currently using. This is because when the guest OS is told to delete a file, it does not actually delete the file. Instead, it stops remembering what is stored in the space that was used by the file. However, the data is not removed from the host disk. The space can be reclaimed by running a defragmenting and shrinking procedure. Unlike a sparse disk, a pre-allocated disk cannot be shrunk.