PD 4.0.3810, fixed VM hdd - how to reduce size?

After reading through numerous posts here and elsewhere, I'm still not sure how or even if I can reduce the size of my VM hdd. Why? I want to switch from an expanding hdd to a fixed one for better performance (4.x is slow as a dog after upgrading from 3.x, even after applying all the optimizing tricks).

I tried converting a copy of my hdd to a fixed one, but the size went from 38GB to 100GB+, which will not fit on my internal MacBook Pro drive (not an option to use an external drive). There is no option in the Image Tool to reduce the size of a fixed hdd that I could see.

If you know a way around this, I'd love to hear about it.

Ed

 

Switch to expanded, it length is as much as you have data,
As for size I guess some temp files are there, after mac OS restart they should be deleted

 

John,

Expanded is slower, which is why I want fixed. Converting to fixed triples the size, which won't fit on my internal drive.

Checkmate. Stuck with slow.

es

 

I understand this, but the difference is not too big, unless you are performing high I/O operations,
and you cannot reduce disk size unfortunately,
My suggestion is to use expanded, and in case of high I/O operations, please move VM to external disk

 

Thanks John. As far as I'm concerned, anything in Windows is I/O intensive! Running with the fixed size disk was noticeably faster over the expandable, but that was also influenced by the fact my external drive (FW800) is a faster drive than the internal MBP (7200rpm) drive.