Freeing Windows Disk Space

There are a few steps we can take to try to reduce the disk space usage of Porta On Prem.

1. Decrease Porta’s disk usage

Purge MySQL binary logs

2. Free up Windows disk space by compacting the virtual disk

After taking steps to clear out Porta disk space, it may not be immediately reclaimed by the Windows drive. To compact the virtual disk used by WSL and free up Windows disk space immediately, follow the steps below.

2a. Backup the virtual disk

Use the system tray to shut down Docker Desktop.
After Docker has finished shutting down, open Powershell.
Run wsl --shutdown to stop all distributions.

Run wsl -l -v and ensure the docker distros are stopped. A successful output will look like this:

NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-22.04         Stopped         2
docker-desktop-data    Stopped         2
docker-desktop         Stopped         2

Export the docker-desktop-data distribution to a .tar file.
1. Open powershell as an administrator.
2. Confirm that docker-desktop-data exists and is stopped by running:
```
wsl -l -v
```
  A successful output will look like this:
```
NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-22.04         Stopped         2
docker-desktop-data    Stopped         2
docker-desktop         Stopped         2
```
3. In Powershell, run the following command to export the docker-desktop-data distribution to a .tar file.
  - In the command, replace D:\path\to\backup with your desired backup directory.
    - This directory must already exist prior to exporting. Create a new directory if necessary.
  - Make sure the export destination has enough free disk space.
  - The export may take a while if the virtual disk is large (anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes).
  - Terminal window
    wsl --export docker-desktop-data D:\path\to\backup\docker-desktop-data.tar
4. You’ll know the export has finished when the PS C:\Users\username> prompt appears again on the next line.
Verify the backup file was created successfully.
1. Navigate to the backup directory you specified in step 2.
2. Confirm that the docker-desktop-data.tar file exists.
3. Check the file size to ensure it’s greater than 0 bytes.

2b. Compact the virtual disk

Open Powershell.
Run the following command to stop the WSL distributions:
Terminal window
```
wsl --shutdown
```
Run this command to open the program diskpart so we can interact with WSL’s virtual disk:
Terminal window
```
diskpart
```
In the diskpart prompt, run the following command to select the WSL virtual disk:
```
select vdisk file="%LOCALAPPDATA%\Docker\wsl\data\ext4.vhdx"
```
This command assumes that Docker Desktop’s WSL data is stored in the default location. If your Docker installation is using a different location for WSL data, adjust the file path accordingly.
Next, run the following command to attach the virtual disk:
```
attach vdisk readonly
```
Now, run this command to compact the virtual disk:
```
compact vdisk
```
- This will shrink the disk to free up space on the host’s drive.
Finally, run this command to detach the virtual disk:
```
detach vdisk
```
Type exit to leave the diskpart program.

2c. Start Docker Desktop

Once finished, you can run Docker Desktop again. Everything should boot normally and the disk space should be freed.

2d. Restoration (if needed)

If something goes wrong, use the restoration guide to restore the virtual disk from the backup you created in step 1.