Can't Enlarge Virtual Hard Disk

Discussion in 'macOS Virtual Machine' started by JamesC36, Oct 13, 2019.

  1. JamesC36

    JamesC36 Bit poster

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    I'm attempting to set up a Mac guest, running Catalina on the host and Parallels Desktop 15. I've been able to get a working VM with El Capitan running, but I can't find a way to set or control the disk size.

    I've got nearly 200 GB actually available on my hard disk. I tried setting the Expanding Disk 128 GB. When I ran Migration Assistant, but I got a message that my space was -20 GB short, so the migration couldn't take place. I set the Expanding Disk to 168 GB and got the identical result. It was still -20GB short; and again at 180 GB. On the virtual machine, About This Mac > Storage, always shows 67.49 GB of disk space although a large amount of Flash Storage is shown as available.

    I unchecked Expanding Disk and set the disk space to 160GB. The progress bar showed it get set up and Parallels was shown as using a huge percentage of my hard disk. The virtual machine still shows 67.49 GB.

    I'm back to trying the Expanding option.

    FWIW, whenever I adjust the disk space, I do have the virtual machine shut down.

    How do I get it to actually allow me to use more than the 67.49 GB?
     

    Attached Files:

  2. RogerH6

    RogerH6 Hunter

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    I'm seeing the same issue.
    Just trying to create a new VM from a backup drive. Set the drive size to 1800GB, and yet it shows just 66GB in the drive. Try to restore to it, and it fails
    because of lack of space. I'm wondering if this is new issue with the latest releases, since I don't remember having this as a problem when doing installs before.
     
  3. JamesC36

    JamesC36 Bit poster

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    Are these forums monitored by anyone from Parallels? I'd love to resolve this issue as I evaluate whether or not to license Parallels for myself - and possibly for several clients. I've been stalled for day without an answer. - as I assume RogerH6 is too. If I'm stuck with a small hard drive allocation, the product is useless.
     
  4. RogerH6

    RogerH6 Hunter

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    I've now reported this to parallels, after trying a few more times, and upgrading to 15.1. Still giving the same issue.
    I'm sure it worked OK, last time I did a similar operation. Looks as if something has got broken in the latest 'upgrade'....
     
  5. RogerH6

    RogerH6 Hunter

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    OK. It looks as if the issue was specific to 15.0.0.0. I tried again 'from scratch' with the 15.1 version and this seems to be working.
     
  6. JamesC36

    JamesC36 Bit poster

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    Thanks for sharing that. I was able to install 15.1 and complete the installations that had been held up. You've done more to sell Parallels licenses than they have for sure.
     
  7. RogerH6

    RogerH6 Hunter

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    Don't get me wrong, but that is the 'power' of forums.
    I had been having, a "wall, head, impact technology testing" session with this, thinking I must be doing something wrong, and seeing somebody else having the same issue, helped massively. :)
    I then decided to take the time, clean up the residue of the problem session, and try again, and there was a 'cheer' when it then did work...
    Glad you have managed to get it going as well. :)
     
  8. K.M1

    K.M1 Bit poster

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    Cool. So how exactly did you do it???
     
  9. ToddS6

    ToddS6 Bit poster

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    Same problem in 15.1.2. Managed to fix it by re-wiping/initializing the VM drive while in Disk Utility inside the VM. It showed that it was using most the of VM drive prior to that, even though no system was installed or anything.
     
  10. DrKarl

    DrKarl Member

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    Same experience with a fresh VM in 15.1.1. After Migration Assistant ran out of room even though set to expanding disk, I shut down and changed the disk to fixed 256 GB - and Migration Assistant still ran out of room. Settings and host Finder show the virtual disk file as 256 GB... but Finder within the VM shows only 68 GB. Wondering why this hasn't been fixed yet. :-( I have a ridiculously slow internet connection, but looks like I'll have to wipe and re-install from the host Recovery Partition = download Mojave all over again just to migrate.
     
  11. DrKarl

    DrKarl Member

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    Typo - I'm on 15.1.2. (I thought we used to be able to edit our posts? Haven't posted here in a few years...) Will try booting to recovery partition to erase/reformat virtual disk...
     
  12. DrKarl

    DrKarl Member

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    Not seeing what user ToddS6 above did to access all allocated space. Attached is a screenshot of Disk Utility in Recovery Mode. Info shows that it thinks that the volume is only 68 GB vs the 256 GB allocated... so don't see how reformatting will accomplish anything. It will still be only 68 GB from the point of view of the VM. Starting all over with creating a VM from my Mojave recovery partition will give me the same result, since that process automatically creates an expanding disk that will not expand as far as Migration Assistant is concerned. :-( Will look at manually creating a VM somehow with the desired Virtual disk size and seeing if I can then install the OS from Recovery or Time Machine. This is ridiculously time consuming and hard for a product that is now at version 15.
    Screen Shot 2020-01-23 at 10.03.43 AM.jpg
     
  13. DrKarl

    DrKarl Member

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    Totally stuck here. So, I started to create a new VM as an "Install macOS 10.14.6 Using the Recovery Partition". Stopped the VM as soon as it started to boot and changed the HD size from the default 64GB expanding to 256 GB expanding. Restarted the VM in Recovery and went to Disk Utility before restoring the OS... and the Macintosh HD still reports 67,.83 GB (64 GB)... so no point installing the OS, as once again, Migration Assistant will fail.

    Anyone have a solution?
     
  14. DrKarl

    DrKarl Member

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    Sorry for all of this talking to myself here. Went to file a support case, and this KB solution came up. Easy / fast fix:

    https://kb.parallels.com/112119
     
    MarkL34 likes this.
  15. BasK1

    BasK1 Bit poster

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    @DrKarl Thanks for sharing that KB solution. Was stuck and banging my head on the wall as well. Fixed now
     
  16. MarkL34

    MarkL34 Bit poster

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    thanks DrKarl, worked for me too!
     

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