Reduce size of Windows VM hard disk ?

Trim was not enabled. I have now enabled it. Restarted parallels. There is no change.
Hard Disk is 154.1 GB. (See Picture)
Used space on my 70.6 GB in windows 10 C drive. (See Picture)
Disk Capacity is set to 128 and cannot be changed.
Parallels is eating up my disk space when all I have on my Windows 10 is 70.6 GB.
Same problem. No change. Do better parallels.

 

Hi MatthewB15, please monitor for few days and let us know if there is any difference.

 

Well I no longer have this issue, as I deleted the whole pvm and started fresh. No answer to this issue but to burn it down and start again. Good luck.

 

Enabling Trim Option might have helped else we were going to check it with the next level team. If you face the issue again, report it to us.

 

Oh sorry, I had actually meant to report that here. After enabling Trim the PVM file ballooned from 154 GB to 210GB at which point I started running into constant trouble only having 10 -20 GB of free space left on my 500 GB drive. So I had to choose between waiting for help for Parallels (which my experience has shown that they do respond but at a monthly trickle) or take matters into my own hands. As my situation was getting urgent I decided to just start fresh. Would have loved to speak to the next level team. Have a great day.

 

This is, indeed, very disappointing. I also have a VM that won't let me reduce its size. I have tried everything. Now, I appear to be stuck with a VM that won't restart. I am really, really hoping I don't need to do like Matthew did and rebuild the whole VM.

 

We really understand your situation. If you face any similar issues with a new VM, please report it to us.

 

Let us know the size of the of the PVM file and free space you have on Mac.

 

* I FOUND THE CAUSE AND SOLUTION! *

Short answer: Parallels can only remove unallocated space from the end of the drive. Shrink the volume in Windows first, make sure the free space is at the end of the drive (no extra partitions are at the end), then you can reduce the VM disk size. Below is my original reply, adding information as I tested:

I have the same issue as Matthew, and I'm sad that 3 pages later, there was no answer, not even a "We know it's broken, sorry." VM setting's General tab says Total size 40.1 GB; .PVM file is 43.1 GB. In the Hardware tab, Hard Disk shows Disk capacity 256 GB; clicking Properties also shows Size: 256 GB, Expanding disk is checked, Split the disk image into 2GB files is unchecked. Attempting to reduce the size (say 64 GB or 128 GB) and clicking Apply gives a warning that resizing is bad if you lose power. I click Continue, a progress bar shows 100% immediately, then the slider jumps from 64/128 GB back up to 256 GB.

I tried shrinking the Windows volume inside Windows 10 (I reduced it from 261144 MB to 64536 MB in 32768 MB chunks, (larger shrink values returned an error that there wasn't enough disk space available to complete the request), then shutting down and shrinking the VM disk capacity, and it STILL didn't reduce (possibly because Windows somehow has 4 partitions on the VM: 100 MB OEM, 100 MB EFI, the main NTFS one that I just shrank, the free space I just created, and then a 468 MB OEM partition. If that didn't exist or could be moved, and the Unallocated space was at the end, then perhaps Parallels could reduce the reported size.

(Note to others, this might be a possible workaround - at least now Windows won't think there's 256 GB of free space (which is more than I even have free on the host Mac machine), and it therefore won't use up all the Mac's space with an expanding PVM file.)

I then installed AOMEI Partition Assistant (freeware) in the Windows VM, and moved the 2nd OEM partition (changed free space before/after from 192/0 GB to 0/192 GB) to move the free space to the end of the drive. I then shut down and try reducing VM disk size again; this time it took a couple seconds to complete, and kept the smaller size! (If you can't install extra software, the other option would be to delete the trailing OEM partition if you're sure it's not needed.)

 

Hi George S,
We appreciate you for sharing these steps which will help many users. You can use Partition Wizard to resize Windows Partition then reduce the size in VM configuration.

 

Thanks George! I wish I could try it to confirm but as previously mentioned I opted to reinstall and start fresh. Hoping this helps others!

 

@Ajith@Parallels - I came here with the exact same problem as MathewB15, and I'm completely dumbfounded at how badly you handled his support ticket. Your effort was a total failure, because you offered no help whatsoever. Is this the best Parallels can do? Reading through this has ruined my morning.

 

Thanks. It really helps. Appreciated

 

Thanks, George this helped me a lot id been stumped for ages about how to do this! Much appreciated.
Mike

 

I'm a bit stuck here. I had 256GB for my parallels partition. I downloaded AOMEI Partition Assistant and had reduced the size of the partition down to 180GB. How do I give that space back to my OSX partition now? I don't see any of that extra space that i freed up listed anywhere.

 

Shut down the Windows VM, then go to the VM's Settings in the first tab; it should show space at the end in yellow, and a button to Reclaim free space. THAT is what gives you the space back in macOS; everything I described is just so you can go into the setting's Hard drive setting and shrink the maximum from 256 GB down to something smaller. (This whole procedure I described isn't to give space back to macOS, it's to prevent the VM from using it back up again in the future.)

 

It's showing only 22 MB Reclaimable, which definitely is not correct. I shrunk the partition down almost 80 GB.

 

Open up Windows's regular Disk Management, and make sure the disk says Free Space at the end - if it does, shut down, go into th VM's settings, Hardware, Hard Disk, click Properties, and shrink it in there.

 

It's showing my partition as 180 GB, which is what I resized to, but where is the other 76 GB from the original 256 GB on that partition?

 

Here's what it shows that I can reclaim: