I uninstalled Parallels+Windows, but still haven't reclaimed 100+GB of space

Hi, everyone!

I hope someone can help me. Before installing Windows 10 through Parallels, my Mac had 120+GB of free space. Now, however, after having uninstalled Parallels, I've got only 20+GB left.

Any way to reclaim that space?

Thanks!

 

Hello,
did you remove your Windows virtual machine? Or just Parallels Desktop application?

 

Hi!

Thanks for getting back at me. I uninstalled both the Windows Virtual Machine and Parallels Desktop. After doing that, I went through every folder that I could find on a google search about this issue and deleted every folder I could find. I literally did everything I could to erase every trace of Parallels, but not only I didn't get the space on my hard drive back, but then when I reinstalled it I still had all my applications still installed on Windows as if it had never left (so, for example, Fortnite was still intact, I didn't have to re-download it). Please note that I'm still trying to uninstall Parallels/Windows and I only re-installed it to try and reclaim the space, I was missing. I even believe I might be missing even more space from previous timed I had installed windows through Parallels

 

Thank you for your reply.
Do you have a .pvm file on your Mac?

 

Currently, I do, as I've reinstalled it in order to properly uninstall it. However, when I made my post, I had deleted the .pvm file and I made a search on the whole computer (through Spotlight) to make sure there wasn't any other, and I still hadn't gotten my hdd space back. The current .pvm file is only 13GB big, even though I've got Fortnite that is 30GB installed on Windows (through Parallels).

 

Thank you for your reply.
Could you click on the Apple icon -> choose "about this Mac" -> Storage -> and check here the biggest size in Applications, Documents tabs.
Also do you have there virtual machines tab?

 

The VM (vitual machine) tab only shows in Disk Utility, not on the About This Mac tab, and it states that the VM occupies only about 2GB of the system, which is already not true as I've got Fortnite installed within Windows (through Parallels) and it's at least 30GB in size, not to mention Windows itself.

Within the About This Mac tab, I believe Parallels must be accounted within "Other", as the "Apps" bar states I've got 16GB of apps.

 

I will absolutely never use this program again. Ever. Wow. I had 160 GB of free space before downloading this. It slowed my mac down to a snails space, so I uninstalled it. WELL, now I have 112.GB of 'other' in my storage completely used up by a phantom Parallels and I can't delete.

Worst Product Ever. Posting this everywhere I can find.

 

H

Hello, Sorry for the inconvenience caused, Please refer (https://kb.parallels.com/123553) and follow the steps to free up disk space on Mac. Thanks!

 

Hi there,
I'm having the same issue.

I've upgraded my OS to Ventura, and could not log into Parallels any longer.

At first it showed up as a tab under my storage - Parallels Desktop - and was taking up 25GB. My used storage on my computer was showing as 760GB, and "system" was showing as 65GB.

I deleted the app, and searched for everything related to it. I deleted all of that.

Now, the section for parallels is gone on my system settings under storage, but my used storage has remained at 760GB, and now my system is showing at 90GB. Somehow it still exists somewhere and I cannot figure out where. Can you help?

The photos on your how-to are all outdated screenshots from an older OS and don't apply here for me.

Thank you in advance.