Discrepancy in storage

Hey everyone,

I am new to Parallels and maybe this is just how the memory and disc management works, but as of this moment I have 168 GB of 256 GB available of my Windows VM.
However, on my actual Macintosh HD there is only 62 GB available?
Furthermore, when I install something on the Windows VM, then it lowers the disc space available on the Macintosh HD?
Like I just installed a 50 GB game and it took it from the Macintosh HD, while also taking up space of the 256 GB on the VM?

 

It is Parallels 18 and I tried changing the settings to "Isolate Windows from Mac", because this would stop it?

 

Is it just a virtual allocation of space? Is that how it's supposed to be understood?

So even if install Parallels with only say 50 GB left on my HD, then the VM would still show an allocation of 256 GB?

 

Is it a stupid or a hard question?

 

The VM shares All the resources of your Mac (RAM, HDD, etc), so while Parallels has to lie about how much HDD you have, it Will run into whatever your Actual space limitations are. The reason it (VM HDD space) changes dynamically instead of creating a drive of a set size is that it would then immediately take up that much space (but not change to higher) and the Mac will lose that space (until you changed something or deleted the VM).