How to decrease Virtual Disk size?

Discussion in 'Parallels Image Tool' started by Nathan Hall, Oct 11, 2007.

  1. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    Hi, jskm

    What version of Parallels you are using?
     
  2. JinyoungK

    JinyoungK Bit poster

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    parallels version 4

    Thanks Stuw for reply. I am using parallels version 4. version 5 was released just few months after I bought version 4...

    The image tools compress did not reduce size at all, but within Parallels VM (windows XP), I tried to use parallels compressor and it worked.

    It keeps making '..._restore' directory, though, which already contains like 700MB...

    I would still like to know if I could reduce the default size for the expanding hard disk size.

    Thank you very much!
     
  3. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    Which "default size" do you mean?
     
  4. JinyoungK

    JinyoungK Bit poster

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    expanding disk default size

    When see the default size of the expanding disk, it's 32GB.
    It seems like I can only increase the size using Image Tools, but can't decrease the size.
    It it possible to redefine maximum size of the expanding disk without reinstallation of parallels?
    Thank you! -- jsk
     
  5. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    In Parallels Desktop 4 you are able to increase virtual disk capacity only (using Parallels tools). But in guest operating system you can reduce partition's size. In this case some part of virtual disk will be not used (in VM preferenes virtual disk capacity will not be changed).
     
  6. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    Tried everything in the forums but VM still bloated!

    Hi,

    I've tried everything I could find in these forums. I've compressed and re-compressed my VM and now it says it is 4.1 G, the problem is that in MAC it is taking up 24.83 G!!

    I don't have any snapshots. I looked at "show package contents" of the winxp.hdd file and this is what it has in it:
    -winxp.hdd.0.{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}.hds 23.43 G
    -winxp.hdd 0KB
    -DiskDescriptor.xml.Backup 4KB
    -DiskDescriptor.xml 4KB

    PLEASE help if you can. I am down to 300 MB on my 75G disk and I should not be there. There is a lot of space left, I just can't find it.

    Thank you
     
  7. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    I am using Parallels 5.0 and I have Mac 10.5.8
     
  8. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    Hi, Nicole

    Please, show me files list for VM bundle. (In terminal type ls -lahR /full/path/to/vm.pvm)
     
  9. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    Hi Stuw,

    thank you so much--

    I copied what you wrote into terminal and this is what it said:
    -lahR /full/path/to/vm.pvm
    Last login: Tue Apr 21 15:50:27 on console
    nicole-tunstalls-macbook:~ Nicole$ -lahR /full/path/to/vm.pvm
    -bash: -lahR: command not found
    nicole-tunstalls-macbook:~ Nicole$


    I do have a file in My Documents called "Microsoft Windows XP.pvm" which contains the following (see attached screen grab).

    This is separate from my Parallels file that has the 24.83 GB file "Windows.HDD." This .pvm file has a "Windows.HDD" file that is the same size as what the Guest OS thinks it is (4.18 GB).

    Does this mean I can erase the Parallels folder with the huge file?

    Thanks

    Nicole
     

    Attached Files:

  10. JinyoungK

    JinyoungK Bit poster

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    after compressing in image tool, use compressor in the parallels desktop

    Hi Nicole,

    I hope your problem is solved by now.
    After the compression step at the image tool, open the parallels desk top again (in my case it's windows xp).
    Then in the parallels desktop you can use parallels compressor.
    After the second compression in windows xp, the size did get shrink, and I could recover the disk space.

    Good luck!
     
  11. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    Oops I missed the ls on the first try. Here is what the full command returns:

    ls -lahR /full/path/to/vm.pvm
    Last login: Tue Apr 21 15:50:27 on console
    nicole-tunstalls-macbook:~ Nicole$ ls -lahR /full/path/to/vm.pvm
    ls: /full/path/to/vm.pvm: No such file or directory
    nicole-tunstalls-macbook:~ Nicole$
     
  12. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    Hi Jinyoungk,

    I did try what you suggested, but it did not help. I still have 2 Windows hdd files--one 24.83GB and the other 4.18 GB. Only the 4.18 GB is the one I use. The other seems to be an extra file.
     
  13. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    /full/path/to/vm.pvm must be replaced to correct path of your VM bundle (for example "/Users/Shared/Parallels/Micorsoft Windows XP.pvm"). This command shows recursive result, but screenshot was enough in your case.


    Before deleting, be sure that this file is not present in VM configuration and it is not a backup.
     
  14. Nicole Tunstall

    Nicole Tunstall Bit poster

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    Hi Stuw,

    Thanks for your reply. Do you know where I can find how to do this? Replace the path?

    Thank you again,

    Nicole
     
  15. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    I don't need information about files within VM bundle any more.

    p.s. About path: just type in terminal what you want. /full/path/to/vm.pvm is just sample path. I wrote it because I have no idea about real location of your VM :)
     
  16. TapisV

    TapisV Bit poster

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    Running latest Parallels 5 with Windows 7 on Mac 10.6.3. VM was 52GB and taking a while to load. I followed the steps recommanded by Stuw earlier and reduced its size to 18GB. Thanks!
     
  17. Michael Hodges

    Michael Hodges Bit poster

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    Any advice would be appreciated:
    Compressor fails with the message that my disk is corrupt or I have snapshots. I have confirmed that neither are true.
    This is for Parallels 5 (upgraded from 2,3,4 over the years) on Mac OSX 10.6 hosting WinXP.
    The folder /documents/parallels/ shows only the file mosafer.pvm. No other files.
    From within the guest OS the Compressor tool also generates the above message and the button to resize the disk is greyed out. If this can be resolve it will free up 40Gb for me.
    Thanks
     
  18. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    Hi, Michael

    Please try Parallels Image Tool to merge snapshots. For detailed information see the Parallels Image Tool User's Guide.

    If "merge snapshots" action will be unavailable in your case, post a message here.
     
  19. Michael Hodges

    Michael Hodges Bit poster

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    Hello Stuw,

    After 30 minutes the Parallels Image Tool, Processing the Disk, progress bar for Merging the snapshots has made zero progress. cpu stats show no work being done. If it's any help, the HDD was created under Parallels verison 2 and I've migrated through each version to get it to version 5. Under version 3 I used to have some snapshots, but deleted them in version 4.

    Next steps?
     
  20. Stuw

    Stuw Parallels Developers

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    296
    Michael,

    please create a problem report (during the virtual machine session) and tell me it's number.
    How to create a problem report described at following link: Reporting a Problem to Parallels Team

    Thanks
     

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