Wildly varying estimates of free space on hard drive

I get wildly varying estimates of the amount of free (purgable) space on my MacBook depending on whether PD is running or not.
When I boot up the MacBook and go to "About this Mac...storage," I only have 175GB available (none purgable). When I start the vm and check again, I have nearly 330GB available, with approx 200GB "purgable." Which is correct?

I have a 2017 Macbook Pro 15" with a 512GB HDD. I installed PD with a 256GB expanding drive (probably way too large, in retrospect). My pvm ballooned up to 200GB after enabling SmartGuard. Following some helpful advice, I turned off SmartGuard and deleted the snapshots. This reduced the size of the pvm and C drive to around 60GB. I have tried the typical ways to get rid of purgable storage (e.g., turn off automatic backups, iCloud optimization, etc.), but still have this problem.

I am guessing this has to do with the size of the HDD I specified for the vm - any other possibilities?
Dumb question 1: If I set the PD HDD at 256GB, does that mean PD always sets aside the full 256GB only for the vm?
Dum question #2: Is it possible to decrease the size of the vm's HDD? Configuration will not let me do this (This does not seem to be question clearly answered in the forums).

 

Hi @JosephL6 , if you allot 256GB to Windows virtual machine , you are setting a limit to the virtual machine (ie How much data your virtual machine can save inside it, provided your Mac has enough free space). Yes it is possible to decrease the size of the virtual machine. Please check this blog for further information.

 

Thank you for the reply. I followed the directions in the blog. After I adjust the disk size to the new size I want (128GB, but I've tried many different sizes), I get a window that tells me I should back uo the vm, and if I want to continue. Each time I hit "continue," the window vanishes, and it reverts to the prior screen with the old disk size (256GB). Any other way I could approach this problem?
Thanks, Jerry

 

To help us understand the issue better, please take a screenshot of it and reply with the same. Thanks!

 

Here you go.
In the first image, I have used the slider to choose 128GB as the new size (from the current 256GB). In the second image, I get the "do you want to continue?" screen. I click "continue," and get the third screen, which just reverts to the previous display.

 

Thank you. I have sent the Technical Data. The report # is 229895656.

Regards,
Jerry

 

#1 No. It is maximum disk size allowed for VM. If VM writes 10 Gb, for example, then disk will take around 10GB on Mac disk.
#2 It is possible. You need remove unnecessary data or applications inside VM. Then do Reclaim disk using VM configuration windows General Tab.

 

According to Parallels, the pvm is only taking up 64GB. This is now consistent with the "About this Mac..." report. Yet, I still cannot reduce the hdd space from 256GB to 128GB (which should be more than enough). Reclaim disk space only provided 270MB of additional space.

 

JosephL6, the disk is expandable up to 256 GB and it is 64GB in your case why you need to reduce the size? It will not reduce the real size on the disk. The disk has logical capacity.