We are on ESXi 5.5/win2012 and trying to back up all critical VMs via simple download of a VM folder from datastore to local machine using datastore browser.
This particular VM in question is showing 80gb Hard drive space and has NO snap shots at the moment (they may have been deleted in the past) but the downloaded local machine VM folder is showing 300gb. vmdk file is showing 300gb but vSphere client and Windows 2012 OS is showing 80gb.
If the VM is 80gb we would like that it also holds 80gb in backup space on local machine and not 300gb to conserve space.
What are we overlooking and how to fix it?
Thanks in advance and please kindly advise.