Has anyone resized a Parallels 3 hdd?

Hi

I can't follow the "standard" procedure detailed on these forums, since parallels 3 no longer has image tools. I copy/create larger, then using gparted, but it gparted just seems to see 2 disks, and won't let me extend the first partition over the second.

I'm using Vista as the OS - if that makes any difference.

Anyone from the parallels team care to offer me an official resize guide, now image tools have been removed?

Regards

Shaun

 

Seems not possible at the time being...

 

I thought the image tool was going to be integrated into the Parallels explorer??

Andrew? What happend to the image resize ability?

 

This was kinda bizarre for me, too. I resized mine by another means.

 

Surely you're not going to simply leave it at this! Details?

 

I ended up having to re-install v2.5 and resize a backup of the hdd (as it couldn't read the v3.0 format) - did the gParted trick as described here: http://lifehacker.com/software/parallels/how-to-resize-a-windows-partition-in-parallels-232558.php then I then went back to v3.0 - it shouldn't have to be this involved.

 

Hi

Please tell me that uninstalling 3.0 and going back to 2.5 isn't my only option here? :-(

Is there really no other way?

Shaun

 

Well, you could always make a new disk and use somthing like 'dd' under a linux live CD to copy one disk to another, then resize the new disk's partition.

It works with real hardware, why not a VM....

(Yeah its a PITA. Where did the disk resizer go?)

 

Is there any official response from Parallels regarding this issue?

 

Hi

The dd thing doesn't seem to work with the Parallels VM... I created a larger partition, set it to BOOT flag with gparted, and dd'd the old partition over the new larger one. Changed Parallels to boot from the new partition, but it just says no OS found.

So, I'm not really left with *any* way of increasing my VM without downgrading.

Hmm.

Shaun

 

Mmmkay, sorry to hang you dry so long. This is how I did it. It's not a resize in the sense that you stretch the original file, but the end result is basically the same. I've done this with WinXP installs.

1. Duplicate the .hdd file of the VM (I'll call the original #1 and the duplicate #2).
2. Create a new empty .hdd file (#3) of the desired size.
3. Map #3 as 0:0 (Primary Master).
4. Install the OS.
5. Map the #1 to 0:0, #2 to 1:0, and #3 to 1:1.
6. Once booted, remove everything except for boot-related files on #3, and copy over everything from #2 to #3.
7. Map #3 as 0:0 again and if the booting is successful, discard #1 and #2.

Now, XP and Vista have significantly different boot-related files. This Wikipedia article might be of some help in identifying what to preserve/remove in case of Vista:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winload.exe

In case of XP, I preserved NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI.

When in doubt, you could make a backup of #3 after stage 4 and play around with the boot-related files to see what happens.

 

Hello folks

We are going to deliver VM HDD resizing solution with the next updates, please excuse us for any inconvenience caused. You can still make more free hard drive space available for the Guest OS by adding one more HDD to the VM configuration (Edit - Virtual Machine - Add - Hard Disk), then just partition and format you new HDD in the VM. For example, in Windows XP it can be done from Start - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Storage - Disk Management.

 

Some weird programs insist on installing right smack on C:, with no option of installing anywhere else. I personally had to 'expand' the drive with that ghetto method I just posted above because this game I now wanted to try out inside the VM had that sort of nasty tendency.

That 'next update' with updated Image Tool can't come fast enough for lots of people. I wish you well, Parallels dev team.

 

Ankou,
I would be one those people who urgently needs that new VM HDD resizing tool. My current setup has my "Windows" VM HDD almost full, and without the Image Tools utility... No real viable or useful way of changing/growing/stretching the size.

The sooner the better....

 

We are working on it very hard. It will be included into one of the nearest updates.

 

Can't you make a second hard drive, as suggested, and then ghost the installation to the new drive?

 

Well, if you have Ghost, I don't see why not. But I don't have Ghost.

 

Ghost doesn't work - I created a new image and ghosted my windows install to it, but Parallels won't boot from it.

I even tried cloning the partition with the linux tool GPartEd but it just refuses to boot.

 

Resizing a Parallels 3 HDD (Desktop for Mac)

I too have tried several methods to resize (expand) my current parallels 3 HDD (running Windows XP) without viable success.

Although I'm a big fan of Parallels Desktop for Mac, and the features / functions are terrific... had I known that version 3 was going to cause me this problem I would have either..
(1) resized the HDD while still running v2.5, prior to upgrading to v3
(2) avoided installing the upgrade until the "HDD resizing utility" was in place for v3

It sure would have been good if Parallels had included a short statement about resizing the HDD in the pre-upgrade installation process. Simply finding out after the fact (that a key feature/function has been removed) should not be how software suppliers operate.

That said, I certainly hope that the new "HDD resizing" utility is released very soon.

 

wesley,

in step #2
how do you make a new empty .hdd