Severe Disk space discrepancy issue - revisited

I originally started this thread, but for some reason, can't reply or update it any more, which just forces me to open a new one.

Parallels (b4128) / Windows XP is eating disk space on the host like there's no tomorrow. I have a Windows XP machine with ~5.5Gb of data on the C drive (I've been removing files from the guest to shared folders on the host. But my HDD is now 17.6Gb and growing.

I tried running the compressor (useless, took over 20 hours) but it returned no space at all?

Where is the other 12Gb of disk space going? Why can't the compressor reclaim it? How do I get the .hdd size back down to represent the 5.5Gb + minor overhead. 200% overhead is insane!

I have a few Windows 2000 VM's in use that don't do this. Only this XP VM. It's been an issue for quite some time now, and I keep hoping that new builds of Parallels will fix it. I'd be willing to send in analysis data, and have opened support tickets with the black hole support system, but haven't heard a peep out of anybody from SWSoft.

I know that a couple other individuals on the original thread have seen this issues, but so far we are all at a loss to explain it.

Does anybody have any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it. Support obviously doesn't.

TIA, Steve

 

Might the problem have something to do with Restore Points? I've turned off System Restore (My Computer > Properties > System Restore > Turn Off System Restore) in my Windows XP VMs, and this has freed up a considerable amount of space.

 

What do the properties for the C drive say in Windows? Right-click on the hdd file and select "Show Package Contents" in OS X, how many files are shown? There should only be two.

Please update to the latest build. It has a significant Compressor performance improvement. Compacting should only take minutes instead of hours.

 

Just FYI, I just finished upgrading to the latest build, and it core-dumps on every machine just as windows launches. Core dumps like bad. The parallels crash dumper doesn't catch it, it goes all the way back to "report this issue to Apple". I've learned to back up all my parallels machines before upgrading for just this reason. I've had problems with every build in the 3.0 realm....

I've reverted everything to build 4128 to answer these questions:

In the Package Content for the .hdd file, there are only two files. One is 17.7Gb, and the little tiny xml file.

As for turning off system restore, I don't see it in the System Properties Panel. Help indicates

If you cannot turn System Restore off, your domain administrator might have enforced administrative system Group Policy on System Restore. Contact your domain administrator.​

But I am the admin, and this was installed off the WinXP SP2 Media. I seem to recall on the previous thread a suggestion to right-click on the "C" drive, go to cleanup -> More Options, and delete all but the latest restore point. Maybe this is why it's not an option.

I'm running WinXP SP2 with the latest security patches, Zone Alarm Internet Suite, and about the only App I use is Outlook 2003. Everything else I've moved to the Mac side.

I'd sure like this 12Gb of disk space back without having to rebuild the machine from scratch just to install Outlook 2003, but I'm about ready to go that way.

Thanks for the tips/hints so far!

Steve

 

Whoops. Forgot about the "C" drive question.

Used Space: 15.6Gb
Free space: 3.87Gb
Capacity: 19.5Gb

It's an "expandable" 20Gb drive.

I have "show hidden files" turned on, double-click on "C" to show all files/folders, do a CTL-A to select all, right-click, properties, and see
Size: 5.59Gb
Size on disk: 5.59Gb
21,516 files, 1881 folders

Thanks again for looking at this.

Steve

 

What do the properties for the C drive say in Windows? Right-click on the hdd file and select "Show Package Contents" in OS X, how many files are shown? There should only be two.


THERE ARE 3 HDD.0 IN MY SYTSTEM.

BEEN USING PARALLELS SINCE BUILD 1970 BUT I CANT COMPRESS MY HARD DRIVE

C DISK 20 GB INSTALLED 12 GB FREE

ON MAC SIDE 42 GB BIG

WHO CAN HELP ME ???????????

 

Sparker, I posted this possible workaround this morning in another thread and thought I'd post it here in the hopes it may help you, too.
I have had the same problems not being able to compress my .hdd, both before and after upgrading to build 4560 despite having deleted all Snapshots and disabling Undo Disk. After some web searching, I decided to try another VM compressor that says it works with Parallels .hdd. It is MakeVM, which you download, install and run within your Windows VM (it only occupies 998 Kb on my Windows XP machine). It has a clone option that you can use to copy your hdd, and, in the copy process, optimize it. It took a very very long time, so I let it work over night. But it seems to have successfully compressed my Parallels hdd from 40GB+ on OS X down to less than 9GB in OS X, which is consistent with the space size XP reported as being in use. Hopefully, the new one is still an expanding disk (I think it is). Because I changed the hdd name for this copy, I still have my ginormous hdd to go back to if anything goes wrong. Here's a link to the MakeVM website: http://www.sysdevsoftware.com/soft/makevm.php. It costs $19.95. On that site, scroll down to see the instructions for Custom Clone and Optimize Disk to do what I did. It takes many hours, like I said. Then, mount the new optimized clone as a second hdd in your Parallels VM, temporarily disable your hdd #1 (uncheck the enable box in the Configuaration panel for hard drives), which will cause your new, smaller hdd to become the hdd #1, and you're off to the races. Note if you're using Parallels 3.0, when you open this new hdd for the first time, Parallels will tell you that it needs to convert it to be compatible with 3.0. I let it convert, and all is well.....so far! I plan to move my old, larger hdd off to an external storage just in case and preserve disk space on my MacBook Pro. Good luck!

 

Your Problems Solved

Dear All,

You will find the answer to your problems with regards to disk size discrepancy in this thread:

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=14687

Hope this helps, Richard Clement

 

You sir, are awesome!!!! Free space went from 3.74Gb on a 20Gb expanding drive to 13.8Gb. And Parallels Support kept telling me that it was a Windows problem... Riiggghhtt. None of my other windows VMS running on a Windows desktop using VMWare have ever exhibited this behavior, none of the windows machines I work on exhibit this behavior, and none of the VM machines I run under Fusion do this. just XP under Parallels. And believe me, I've looked into every one of these....

Based on my research, everybody can make their own decision.

Thanks again for finally solving this problem. I hope development looks into this quickly.

Now to let the compressor run for 15 hours to shrink the image. I tried upgrading to the latest build, because I heard that was faster, but that version crashes every virtual machine on startup. Do I downgraded back to 4128, and will run the compression utility overnight.

UPDATE: Exactly 15 hours later, I'm back down to what should have been my normal .hdd size. Thanks again for the tip!!!!

Steve