Unable to Compress / Compact virtual hard disk

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by fiopa, Jun 27, 2007.

  1. jethiele

    jethiele Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    All good until I start compressor

    CelticTech.

    Thanks for your post. I got through to starting Parallels Compressor from the Action menu. I do not receive a countdown, and there is no indication that compressor is running other than the Action menu item changes to Cancell Parallels Compressor. Is this normal? Does any one else experience a similar problem with compressor?
     
  2. fiopa

    fiopa Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Thank you, CelticTech.

    I followed your instruction, step by step, and all work OK (about 2.5 processing hours
    on MBP C2D).
    My winxp virtual machine drop from more than 16 GB to less than 9 GB.
     
  3. aclaver

    aclaver Member

    Messages:
    27
    Works now

    Thanks. This process has resolved the issue and my image is now able to be compressed. Figured it was some sort of flag incorrectly sent wrt snapshots.

    I also want to comment about folks issues with Parallels. I have found that between the forum regulars and the Parallels support folks most problems I've had have been answered to my satisfaction. I've been very pleased with Parallels and the amount of work put into it and it is well worth the price.

    In terms of features, I think Parallels is ahead of Fusion. And, IMHO, it's Parallels that is driving the virtual landscape and not VMWare.
     
  4. tharpold

    tharpold Junior Member

    Messages:
    11
    Still unable to compress my HDD file

    This did *not* solve the problem for me. Compression still halted "due to an unrecoverable error", during the second phase of the compression - after the restart.

    Something is badly amiss, and I would gladly like to recover some of the disk space that Parallels keeps eating up as I use it.

    Please advise

    TH
     
  5. Ahmedbm

    Ahmedbm Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    Same here!

    I have tried it many times and it does the defrag and all but as soon as it shuts down the VM and OSX starts to compress, i instantly get the error.

    I tried the VM Compressor and from the "Compress" button available in the HD's advanced options.

    Any suggestions?
     
  6. Hugh Watkins

    Hugh Watkins Forum Maven

    Messages:
    943
    so as a Mac GUI freak

    please make a button / menu item / utility to do all of the above;-)

    regards

    Hugh W
     
  7. astromac

    astromac Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Moved the images to an external firewire drive. Told XP to check the disk before logging in. Then ran defrag.exe. Then, from the Mac side, I defragged the external firewire drive so there would be plenty of nice wide open free space for Parallels to play around in. Then I ran Parallels Tools disk compacting (build 5160) and it always gets about 90% done before the stupid "unrecoverable error" rears it's ugly head. I've never used snapshots or otherwise messed with the disk images.

    Honestly, it's been since April when someone first posted this issue and all we've heard was the fix is coming "real soon now." That was July. I rely on my laptop to make a living - I cannot afford to have Parallels render it useless because it's incapable of shrinking images that are gorging on my Mac's hard drive.

    With dual core support and the assumption that it doesn't eat hard drive like a frat boy at a hot dog eating contest VMWare's Fusion is starting to look attractive despite the inevitable pain of converting over.
     
  8. CelticTech

    CelticTech Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    I am not sure that your VM fits the same criteria that this fix addresses. I would need further more specific info about your Vm in order to determine the problem or the fix for it.
     
  9. tharpold

    tharpold Junior Member

    Messages:
    11
    I'm not aware of criteria that were specified in relation to the "fix" proposed here. The only common thread seems to be that several -- perhaps many -- of us continue to be unable to compress the files used by our VMs, despite our following every instruction from Parallels tech support. "An unrecoverable error occurred" is not the clearest or most complete diagnosis of the underlying problem, nor a good guide to help us help you.

    That there *is* a problem is clear, as too many users of Parallels have run into it -- and, I suspect, others are waiting to discover the problem on their machines, as soon as they try to compress their VMs. If you post to this list:

    -- without explaining first what other "criteria" might apply to users for whom this solution does not work, then they can hardly be blamed for finding the solution faulty.

    I very ook forward to learning how I might get my VM to work as advertised.
     
  10. superpea

    superpea Bit poster

    Messages:
    9
    No kidding. There have been a whole bunch of threads on this same topic--all with nothing I would consider "support" from Parallels. I am still having the issue and am STILL waiting for a useful response from the Parallels team.

    The problem is not going away. Just my disk space is.

    PLEASE LOOK INTO THIS.
     
  11. Daniel Lysk

    Daniel Lysk Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    I just installed Build 5540 today, Still no go on Disc Compressor.
     
  12. Michael UK

    Michael UK Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I have also had the 'unrecoverable error' problem. The fix that has worked for me (using version 5582) is to open the virtual drive in Parallels image tool, convert it to a fixed size disk....then convert it back again to a variable size disk.

    I ran the first stage of the compactor within windows (XP), then ran the second stage while windows was still running. I didn't time it, but it took something like 1-2hr to reduce the disk size from 13GB to 6GB.

    This fix is similar to others in the forums (e.g. using the disk image tool to add 1 GB to the size of the disk), but this may be the simplest way of doing it - at least it worked for me.
     
  13. Daniel Lysk

    Daniel Lysk Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Michael, Thank you So much, that worked perfect.

    Be well
    Dan
     
  14. tharpold

    tharpold Junior Member

    Messages:
    11
    Wow. That did the trick -- thanks: I was able to reduce my Parallels image files by, on average, about 40%.

    Now, ahem, why didn't SWSoft suggest something of the kind...?

    TH
     
  15. PurpleHaze

    PurpleHaze Junior Member

    Messages:
    15
    Compressor 'unrecoverable error' fix

    Me too, v3 b5582, XP Sp2.

    Thanks Michael, you 'da Man!

    In my case switching formats didn't work but switching to fixed size and back did. I was only doing it for performance improvement (Mac Mini 1.66Ghz / 1GB RAM kinda weak).

    VM hd was only 4.3 GB to start (in Mac Finder).
    7.3 GB after switching to fixed size.
    2.3 after switching back.
    2.4 (?) after running compressor.
    "7.8 GB with 4.5 GB free" in XP Explorer stayed the same the whole time.

    Performance improvement noticeable, it's not too bad now.
     
  16. JBBeaubeaux

    JBBeaubeaux Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    29 hours and not half way done compressing?

    I followed the Tech support instructions and was able to get compressor to work, but I do not understand why it is taking so long.

    It has been running 29 hours on a 75 GB parallels image drive and it is not yet quite to half way.

    How long is this going to take?

    At the current rate it will take 60 hours to compress my drive!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

    I have a MacBook Pro with 2 Gigs Ram and plenty of disk space with a 2.4 Ghz processor running 10.4.11.

    What gives?
     
  17. JBBeaubeaux

    JBBeaubeaux Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    It wound up taking about 50 hours, but my disk went from 75 GB down to 16 GB.
     
  18. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,954
    50 Hours?!? Holy crap. Parallels, could you look into this?
     
  19. tonycarreon

    tonycarreon Member

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    70
    50! I gave up after 10 and I could barely see the progress bar...50...
     
  20. Eru Ithildur

    Eru Ithildur Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,954
    Heh, tony, I would be in the same camp...

    Parallels?
     

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