C: Drive allocation increase failed

A

amjohnston

Bit poster
I am running Win10 on Parallels 13.3.2. I tried to increase the C drive allocation by 128 GB but the outcome was the creation of a new 128 GB OEM partition and I can't find a way to merge this partition with the existing C: drive partition. Any suggestions?
Also, the need to increase is because the existing 128 GB C: drive partition is almost full at at Used 118 GB. However, the total summed capacity of the existing individual components (all hidden folders displayed and included) is only 36 GB. Any suggestions for where the remaining 82 GB might be?
 
Hi kat
Thanks for your suggestion. I have gone through all of the suggested procedures without achieving any real improvement in reducing disk space used. I still can't see where most of the disk usage arises. As I mentioned previously, the total space identified as used in the folders displayed in Local Dick C: is about 36GB. I have no idea where the remaining 82GB used storage is. If I could see this used storage I might be able to delete unwanted/unnecessary data. If not, I will need to find some way of allocating the 128GB OEM partition that I created to C: drive. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
Arthur
 
Hi Arthur,
Just to make sure you have also done this: https://kb.parallels.com/en/122660 with the above instructions.

I have a few question for you : Are you using snapshots, if you are that will take up hard drive space
"2. If your virtual machine has one or more snapshots, you can neither compress nor resize the virtual hard disk."

How did you expand/add to your hard drive in your VM did you follow these instructions: https://kb.parallels.com/113972
If you did follow the above instructions and you still have issues this (older) information may help you: https://kb.parallels.com/121313

Without having more information I generally don't give as many options as to what something can be. So if you are not using snapshots please disregard that information.
I hope this information helps. Please let me know.
kat
 
Hi kat
Going through each of your points in turn.
1. I did follow the procedures in the first link above several times. Some notes on each of the options that in the most recent attempt are:
(a) I have no snapshots
(b) Resume and Shutdown - no suspended VM found
(c) Reclaim disk space - It started with 4.8GB reclaimable and total used 121GB so I activated the reclaim process. The reclaimable returned to zero and then gradually increased back to 4.8GB over the next few minutes. repeating the process gave the same result
(d) Cleanup Parallels Desktop cache files - No came files found
(e) Archive (VM will take up to 60% less space) - Opened Control panel and searched in each of the 5 Configuration windows (General, Options etc) for any option for Archiving unused VMs - found no such option - Concluded I have no unused VMs to archive​
2. As above, I have no Snapshots
3. I did use the procedures outlined in the 3rd link to expand the allocated space of my hard drive. The principal difference between the procedures outlined and my experience was that, when I found in File Explorer that the space allocation had not increased, Disk Management showed that the extra partition of 128GB was not labelled as Unallocated but was a OEM Primary Partition which could not be used to extend the C: partition.
4. I have now tried the procedure outlined in Option 1 of your 4th link above. This resulted in an apparent extension of the Filesystem but when I checked the size of the C: drive, no extension has occurred. I have not yet tried option 2.
Any further advice would be appreciated,
Arthur
 
Hi kat

Many thanks for your latest knowledge based article. Following the procedure outlined enabled me to delete the additional partition and then extend the C: drive to 256GB. I can now operate without any restrictions caused by limited free space on my C: drive. So thanks again.
It would still be interesting to find out why I cannot see the folders/files that account for the missing 82GB on my hard drive so, if you come across any articles that might have a bearing on this, please let me know.

Regards,
Arthur
 
Hi Arthur,
Your very welcome. If I come across any information, about what caused the missing 82GB I will most definitely let you know. But I do have one question how much hard drive space does your Mac use, and are you sharing desktop?
 
kat said:
Hi Arthur,
Your very welcome. If I come across any information, about what caused the missing 82GB I will most definitely let you know. But I do have one question how much hard drive space does your Mac use, and are you sharing desktop?
Click to expand...
Hi kat
I solved the mystery of my storage. In Windows Settings/System/Storage I double clicked on "This PC (C:)" to see if anything happened and it opened up a window showing all the contents of C: not just those shown in File Explorer. This revealed that the missing 82GB was taken up by OneDrive! As a precaution, I enable download of One Drive files to the Finder on my iMac but not to the Windows VM. In Windows all my folders had the Cloud icon next to them so this should not have happened. I have now removed One Drive from the Windows VM completely and my storage has come back down to what I would have expected.
 
Hi Arthur,
I am happy you solved your missing storage issue. Its always a good feeling to be able to figure thing out.
 
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