Best way to reduce the size of the VM "Windows 10 Home" (35GB)?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by Saerdna, Aug 3, 2018.

  1. Saerdna

    Saerdna Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    I'm running out of space on my internal SSD on my Mac. My VM with Windows 10 Home uses 35GB.
    I use it for testing. No extra Software like Office is installed.

    What I did so far?
    1. I cleaned the hard disk with the windows function, included the system files.
    2. I disable hiberfile.sys and checked, if it's gone.
    I couldn't change the place, where pagefile.sys is stored. I cannot get into the dialog for entering a new path.

    Is there a good way to reduce the size of the VM?

    Thanks
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2018
  2. Arun@Parallels

    Arun@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    1,356
    Hi @Saerdna , please click on Actions > Manage Snapshots . Please delete the snapshots and check if that helps.
     
  3. Saerdna

    Saerdna Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    Thanks for your answer, Arun :)
    I used the function "free space" in Parallels. The snapshots has "0KB".

    Is there a way to change the place where pagefile.sys is stored to another harddisk? As I said, the dialog does not show an option to change the path. Do I have to allow that somewhere in parallels.
     
  4. Ajith1

    Ajith1 Parallels Support

    Messages:
    2,719
    It is not suggested to move pagefile.sys of a virtual machine. If you wish to try moving the pagefile.sys, refer to this third party blog but you have to connect the external drive permanently to the VM.
     
  5. Saerdna

    Saerdna Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
  6. Ajith1

    Ajith1 Parallels Support

    Messages:
    2,719
    We will not advise moving pagefile.sys because of you are not using a real PC and drives connected to Mac are detected as network drives on the Windows which cannot be used to save the pagefile.sys. You have to assign USB permanently to Windows and then you can move page file. Make sure that USB drive is connected to the Mac when VM is started else Windows might crash stating some page file error.
     
  7. g1l1t1

    g1l1t1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    It's been a few years since this discussion was active. But what about moving the page file to a different "internal" drive on the VM. On my host Mac system I have two .HDD files each on a different internal drive of my Mac Pro.
    I'd also like to get rid of hiberfil.sys, but turning off hibernation with powercfg is ineffective even if I reboot immediately and run a disk cleanup--the hiberfil.sys is still there and still the same size (4.3 GB).
     
  8. Aries@PF

    Aries@PF Hunter

    Messages:
    139
    What about moving the Whole VM to the other drive? If it's internal, then you can do what "I" do and keep all the VMs there (that's what I did on both my Macs, even though the second one is simply a logical drive). You may have to update them in the control center (I think I had to drag/drop them back once) after doing it.
     
  9. g1l1t1

    g1l1t1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    I currently have the VM on an SSD, which is really nice for performance and, since I don't use it very frequently, shouldn't cause much wear to the SSD. But I'm not sure it's really worth having it there in the first place.
     

Share This Page