Compression Stats

MrWrighty · Nov 12, 2010

I have upgraded to version 6 hoping that this issue will be fixed, but it appears not to be the case.

When I go to Virtual Machine>Compress the usual message appears saying When compression is over my Virtual Machine will resize from 405.2GB to 405.2GB. Now I know my Virtual Machine is only 42GB in size and compressed down from 85GB originally which is great, but I don't know where it gets the idea that it is 405.2GB to start with.

I have Parallels 6 on an iMac where the issue occurs and on a MacBook Pro which reports the Virtual Machine size correctly.

joevt · Nov 13, 2010

What size is your virtual hard disk set to? How big is your virtual hard disk file in the Finder? Does your virtual machine contain snapshots?

MrWrighty · Nov 13, 2010

I'm not in front of my Mac right now but my virtual disk size is 90gb
The vital machine file size is 45gb and I do not use snap shots

joevt · Nov 14, 2010

Post the output of the command lines below (assuming your virtual machine is located in ~/Documents/Parallels). Change *.pvm to the exact name of your .pvm if you don't want to include your other virtual machines.

Code:

cd ~/Documents/Parallels
ls -ldA *.pvm/*.hdd/DiskDescriptor.xml ; ls -lRA *.pvm/*.hdd
cat *.pvm/*.hdd/DiskDescriptor.xml

MrWrighty · Nov 15, 2010

<Parallels_disk_image Version="1.0">
<Disk_Parameters>
<Disk_size>976773168</Disk_size>
<Cylinders>969021</Cylinders>
<Heads>16</Heads>
<Sectors>63</Sectors>
<Miscellaneous>
<ChangeState>0</ChangeState>
<SuspendState>0</SuspendState>
<CompatLevel>level2</CompatLevel>
<GuestToolsVersion>6.0.11828</GuestToolsVersion>
<Bootable>1</Bootable>
</Miscellaneous>
<Encryption>
<Engine>{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}</Engine>
<Data></Data>
</Encryption>
</Disk_Parameters>
<StorageData>
<Storage>
<Start>0</Start>
<End>976773168</End>
<Blocksize>63</Blocksize>
<Image>
<GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID>
<Type>Compressed</Type>
<Flags/>
<File>winxp.hdd.0.{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}.hds</File>
</Image>
</Storage>
</StorageData>
<Snapshots>
<Shot>
<GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID>
<ParentGUID>{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}</ParentGUID>
</Shot>
</Snapshots>
</Parallels_disk_image>

MrWrighty · Nov 15, 2010

For your information, below is a screen grab of the compression dialog.

My MAC HDD size is 320GB

joevt · Nov 16, 2010

The DiskDescriptor says the disk is 976773168 blocks = 969021 cylinders * 16 heads * 63 sectors. Each block is 512 bytes = 465.8 GiB = 500 GB.

You didn't post the results of the ls command which will show the actual file size on your Mac drive.

I don't understand why the StorageData/Storage part of your DiskDescriptor says Blocksize 63. Then again, I don't know exactly how compressed disks work. My compressed disks have block sizes of 504 or 512 but I've never used the Compress option.

What does Disk Management in Windows say about the disk size and it's partition sizes? My Computer -> Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management -> Disk 0.

MrWrighty · Nov 17, 2010

Sorry about the missing data, cut and paste error.

I have just done a Storage check and you suspisions were correct. There is an unused partition on my computer under windows, which must have been a result of importing a previous XP installation from a PC.

Deleting this partition will resolve the problem.

Thanks for your help.

joevt · Nov 18, 2010

Parallels Desktop does have the option to resize the existing partition on the virtual hard disk when you edit the size of the disk in the Hard Disk settings as long as the partition is the last on the virtual hard disk.