tag
5 posts
How WSL ext4.vhdx allocation grows, what sparse mode and discard can reclaim, why deletion is not compaction, and how to back up, change, and verify safely.
When wsl --import-in-place is the right migration tool, how it differs from a tar import, and how to avoid registering your only copy of the disk.
Each WSL2 distro lives inside a dynamically-expanding .vhdx file that grows with use but never shrinks back down automatically after deletions.
Deleting files inside WSL2 does not shrink the Windows-side .vhdx automatically. That is expected dynamic-disk behavior, fixed with diskpart compaction.
A complete diskpart walkthrough for shrinking a WSL2 distro's .vhdx file after deleting large data, since Windows never reclaims that space on its own.