Caught in a Parallels Desktop Catch-22! (Virtual Disk size)

D

dzornow

Junior Member
Hi! I seem to be caught in a loop, of sorts with my Windows XP install under Parallels 3.0.

My parallels install has a larger disk size than it needs -- and it keeps on growing everytime I run the VM (and no, I'm not adding any new programs. It just seems to suck up all of the available disk space on my mac like a sponge!)

As a result, I'm running out of disk space -- on both my VM and my Host OS (Leopard). Parallels isn't really functioning b/c a few minutes after booting, it runs out of disk space, and gives me a msg that I need to clear up some files. But I have removed just about everything that I can.

I've tried to copy my Parallels files to an external hard drive, but get an error message that says (Error Code 0). Which isn't clearly documented in Apple's documentation.

When I try to run the Parallel Image Tool, it fails b/c I don't have enough disk space on my current drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help!

-dz
 
Go to Macintosh HD -> Users -> "Your user name (The house" icon) ->Documents (Library) -> Parallels and open the Virtual Machine Name folder. There you will find .hdd file. Please tell me the size of this file.
If possible, also please tell me the size of disk in Windows.

Then try to start Parallels Compressor:
1. Start VM.
2. Click 'Actions' -> 'Run Parallels Compressor'.

If it is not possible, open 'Configuration Editor' of your VM ('Edit' -> 'Virtual Machine') -> 'Hard Disk' tab -> 'Advanced' -> 'Compact'.

Will it help?

Best regards,
Stacey
 
Stacey M said:
Go to Macintosh HD -> Users -> "Your user name (The house" icon) ->Documents (Library) -> Parallels and open the Virtual Machine Name folder. There you will find .hdd file. Please tell me the size of this file.
If possible, also please tell me the size of disk in Windows.
Click to expand...
Stacey M said:
The size of my .hdd file is 42.7 gb -- it's MUCH larger than I need it to be. And every time I start parallels desktop, it seems to get bigger. I wasn't able to start the VM b/c I got the "not enough disk space minimum of 512mb needed" msg.

Which ruled out running Parallels Compressor, too. However, I *have* tried to run Compressor in the past -- unsuccessfully. I get a message about snapshots or undo disks. Even though I have deleted all of my snapshots and I don't have the Undo feature unabled, it won't let me run Compressor.

If it is not possible, open 'Configuration Editor' of your VM ('Edit' -> 'Virtual Machine') -> 'Hard Disk' tab -> 'Advanced' -> 'Compact'.

Just tried that. Still get the message, "The virtual hard disk drive /users/..../winxp.hdd cannot be compacted. To compact the disk make sure the virtual machine has the Undo disks option disabled and the disk is not connect to a virtual machine with snapshots."
Click to expand...
 
Please try to start Parallels Image Tool and via 'Manage disk properties' merge snapshots. Is it possible?
Also please try to do the following:
1. In the Finder, browse to the virtual machine folder (the default path is: Documents-Parallels-Virtual Machine).
2. Do you have ".sav" and ".mem" files there?

Best regards,
Stacey
 
I'll be watching this thread since I've got a similar problem (since I created a snapshot). It's like once you create one, you can never truly get rid of it, as far as the Compressor is concerned. My file is running 14GB to represent an 8GB partition, so I'm not in as desparate straits as you. I'm thinking of just rebuilding from my initial install (I created an initial image with just Windows, and then copy that to have several specialized VMs so I can keep each install small and efficient).
 
Stacey:

My snapshots folder is empty. And there are no .sav or .mem files in the documents/Parallels folder.

One odd thing about my system: I have two Windows Folders. One is called
"Microsoft Windows XP" and the second is called
"Microsoft Windows XP 1"

However, there is only one winxp.hdd instance and that is in the original install. The second install has an alias/shortcut called "C" which points to a private temp file.
 
Stacey M said:
talmy,
did you try to remove snapshots via Parallels Image Tool?

Best regards,
Stacey
Click to expand...

I used the Snapshot Manager from Parallels' menu. But it would hang. So I deleted the snapshot folder and XML file. Then I could add and delete with the Snapshot manager. Compressor works with other images, just not this one that I made a snapshot of early on. Somehow I didn't realize the Image Tool was still around. I'll look for that and try it.
 
I went to the Parallels Image Tool and converted the image to a plain image. The size halved! Since they are more efficient, I decided not to switch it back to expanding. So I'm now happy. I wonder if this solution would work for the OP?
 
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