Recovering Lost Virtual Hard Disk Space

R

rtsclement

Bit poster
I had been having an issue for some time whereby I was "missing" multiple gigs of HDD in Windows XP. I had allocated 25Gb and it was being reported as moving towards full - which didnt seem to jig with reading the Windows/Program Files etc Properties.

I tried various bits of add on software thinking it was a reporting error. Along the way I discovered a nice little program called RegCure which found A LOT of registry errors and fixed them. This made the system run better - but did not fix my initial issue.

I searched this forum from top to bottom and tried every suggestion to no avail.

Eventually I was so fed up I decided to take some chances. I examined the Virtual HDD with Parallels Explorer and found a folder called System Volume Information. This folder DOES NOT appear in the running Windows even with Show Hidden Folders. Inside I found another folder entitled something along the lines of ._restore[blah blah]. Feeling brave (more like completely frustrated!!) I deleted it and bang - problem solved. My free 5Gb went straight to 16Gb of the 25Gb allocated. As I write this I am running Parallels Compressor. As usual it is taking ages - but it seems to be doing the job and compressing the free space at last.

So for the many who have had this problem and seem to have been unable to find a satisfactory answer - I hope that this helps. So far - touch wood - it seems to have only had a positive result for my VM. That said - take care and make sure you have a backup copy of your VM before attempting this.

Regards, Richard Clement
 
If the restore partition (System Restore) is your concern then you can just turn it off within XP. This is turned ON by default from Microsoft and not a problem caused by Parallels. Parallels is doing exactly it is it is supposed to do.

Everyone needs to understand that Parallels virtualizes your Guest OS. Once installed, most of the concerns are either issues with the Guest OS's creator or that the Guest OS does work well within virtualization. This happens. Use your primary OS first and virtual OS for apps that cannot run in Host OSX.

Just something to remember.
 
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Not A Criticism Of Parallels

Sorry if I have been misunderstood. This was not written as a criticism of Parallels, It was simply a problem that several people seem to have had and not found a solution to. This was just one more thing to try - it worked for me.
 
I was running into the very same problem. When I attempted to disable system restore, I found that it was already disabled by group policy. That being said, the System Volume Information folder does house the system restore files. Even though system restore has been switched off, that folder is getting filled with a TON of garbage. I just went into the services MMC in XP, and disabled System Restore just to make sure the service doesn't start. Hopefully that will prevent this problem from happening again.

Kudos to Richard for the find. I didn't even think to check the system volume folder, as I knew system restore was not on. I'm still befuddled as to why the folder was so large.

Cheers,
Jason
 
VM Now Fits On One DL DVD

As a followup, Parallels Compressor finally finished a smidge under FIFTEEN HOURS from the start of its run.

From taking the best part of 20Gb of the Mac HDD, it is now down to a slim 7.45Gb and I am at last able to back it up onto 1 DL DVD. My last effort at making an offsite backup spanned six disks and about three meals!!

Like tsunami I had been into the System Restore settings and seen they were switched off by Group Policy. Aren't they normally turned on by default? Is this setting change something to do with Parallels? If so why is the folder gradually filling? Perhaps this is something warranting more investigation by the Parallels team (please). At least there is now a workaround for it...
 
They are normally enabled by default. I can only assume it is a function of the Parallels Tools installation that disabled SR. That being said, on every XP system I've used, the System Volume Information folder has been limited to a percentage of the hard disk, in my case the SVI folder was consuming over 28% of my drive. I don't recall ever running into a system where it grew at anywhere near the same rate as I've experienced in my PD VM. I've run XP on numerous PCs and in several other VM packages including VMWare, and Virtual PC and this is the first I've seen this particular problem.

As Richard suggested, I think it would be beneficial for the Parallels team to look further into this issue. And before I get flamed for not understanding that SR is a function of the Guest OS and not parallels, please understand, I currently manage a network with over 200 XP clients and 10 Windows servers. That being said, I've dealt with more than my fair share of Windows idiosyncrasies, and this does not appear to be a windows problem. As Richard said, at least we have a work around, but opening the virtual hard disk with Parallels Explorer and manually deleting the SVI folder is not exactly a clean solution.

I really think Parallels is an excellent product, and recognize the efforts put in by the Parallels team, but this is definitely a glitch that deserves some attention. It may simply be a bug in the parallels tools installer script that disables SR.

Cheers,
Jason
 
Same here (and a question)

I had put off upgrading to 3.0 until this problem was resolved. I have a 14Gb Virtual disk and 13Gb is "in use" yet in all of my attempts to determine how much disk space was *actually* being used, I came up with a figure roughly half of that size. I asked on the forum here how to fix, but was never able to get a good answer.

Now, for those of us who haven't upgraded to 3.0, is there any way to get the Parallels Explorer? (Or is there some shareware tool out there that would let me remove all this VIRTUAL disk hogging crap?) If I can free up VIRTUAL disk space I'd consider 3.0.

Thanks
 
I don't know what other image tools out there work with the PD hard disk image files. I'd assume you could do the same with an emergency boot CD, and boot the VM to disc. I'd give it a try with a BartPE emergency boot CD. If I recall correctly, they have some good file management tools that should do the trick for you.
 
Windows XP VM Now FLYING...

I dont know whether it was cleaning out the System Restore files, running RegCure or a mix of both - but my Windows VM is now running nearly as fast as BootCamp. If it wasnt for a couple of Windows video apps I like (namely muvee - check it out - I could get rid of BootCamp altogether. In the middle of all of this fun there has also been an upgrade to Parallels 3, so perhaps that had an impact.

All up - I think the upgrade is well worth it. The SmartSelect feature with Coherence makes the process of working with Windows apps almost transparent - and with the newly found space and speed I can start a suspended VM AND start Windows Excel FASTER than Mac Excel will cold start in Rosetta!! Seriously - no exaggeration... With SmartSelect enabled that happens just by clicking on an Excel file on the Mac side.

I might also add that for some reason I have found that for Windows XP VM's there is a RAM sweet spot around 512Mb. I have found little benefit in adding in more - in fact subjectively it feels slower? Also I have found little benefit in giving best performance to the guest OS - it just seems to slow down the Mac side and adds little to Windows.

FYI - I am running on a 2Ghz MacBook with 2Gb (matched pair) RAM from OWC.

Regards, Richard Clement
 
Bart PE is the thing indeed...

Unbelievable... I recovered 8Gb... yes, 8gigabytes of invisible files in the System Volume info (System Recovery files)... Thanks for the help!

There is definitely something odd with parallels, but at least it's fixed. Really really appreciate the help.

Thanks, thanks thanks
 
rtsclement said:
Eventually I was so fed up I decided to take some chances. I examined the Virtual HDD with Parallels Explorer and found a folder called System Volume Information. This folder DOES NOT appear in the running Windows even with Show Hidden Folders. Inside I found another folder entitled something along the lines of ._restore[blah blah]. Feeling brave (more like completely frustrated!!) I deleted it and bang - problem solved. My free 5Gb went straight to 16Gb of the 25Gb allocated. As I write this I am running Parallels Compressor. As usual it is taking ages - but it seems to be doing the job and compressing the free space at last.

So for the many who have had this problem and seem to have been unable to find a satisfactory answer - I hope that this helps. So far - touch wood - it seems to have only had a positive result for my VM. That said - take care and make sure you have a backup copy of your VM before attempting this.

Regards, Richard Clement
Click to expand...

Richard,

You sir, are awesome!!!! Free space went from 3.74Gb on a 20Gb expanding drive to 13.8Gb. And Parallels Support kept telling me that it was a Windows problem... Riiggghhtt. None of my other windows VMS running on a Windows desktop using VMWare have ever exhibited this behavior, none of the windows machines I work on exhibit this behavior, and none of the VM machines I run under Fusion do this. just XP under Parallels. And believe me, I've looked into every one of these....

Based on my research, everybody can make their own decision.

Thanks again for finally solving this problem. I hope development looks into this quickly.

Now to let the compressor run for 15 hours to shrink the image. I tried upgrading to the latest build, because I heard that was faster, but that version crashes every virtual machine on startup. Do I downgraded back to 4128, and will run the compression utility overnight.

Steve
 
An update to good news

Eventually I was so fed up I decided to take some chances. I examined the Virtual HDD with Parallels Explorer and found a folder called System Volume Information. This folder DOES NOT appear in the running Windows even with Show Hidden Folders. Inside I found another folder entitled something along the lines of ._restore[blah blah]. Feeling brave (more like completely frustrated!!) I deleted it and bang - problem solved. My free 5Gb went straight to 16Gb of the 25Gb allocated. As I write this I am running Parallels Compressor. As usual it is taking ages - but it seems to be doing the job and compressing the free space at last.
Click to expand...

I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out where my disk space was vanishing! How is it that a drive with no more than 3gb of OS and files can consume a remaining 5gb, in my case a mere 8gb VM, was beyond me. Nothing, absolutely nothing showed me where it was going. And Compressor was useless. Using the Parallels Explorer as above solved the space issue in no time. Just to be safe I used Acronis to image off to a bigger drive as per other suggestions here on the board. That at least bought me time until I could delete those pesky files. Thank God for people helping each other here.

Update

Well, after the above joy in shrinking the virtual machine by removing those hidden files I finally let compressor run its lengthy course and it compacted an 8gb virtual machine into a 3gb after about three hours. I'm quite pleased in the reduced file sizes and an uptick in performance.
 
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THANK YOU!!! I've been trying to figure this one out for months -- my VMs all swear up and down that very little of my virtual disk is filled, but nevertheless my free space has been continually shrinking.

Believe it or not, I just recovered 33GB on my main work VM.

I feel absolutely confident that this is a Parallels issue. I have never had Windows behave this way on its own, and this has been a consistent problem within all of my VMs. You can't play the "But Parallels just enables the guest OS to run, so it's got to be Windows' fault!" card, either -- Parallels Tools digs its claws so deep into the OS that there is simply no way you can assume a problem to be purely Windows' fault.
 
Thank you for RegCure

Thank you for the Regcure information, as well was the 512Mb memory tip.

WinXP is significantly quicker.

I'm running compressor at the moment, I hope to get under 2Gb. :)
 
If you run Compressor in Manual Mode then Express mode it will disable System Restore and delete all files associated giving you a ton of space back. If you use Advanced mode you can do there as well.

Another better registry fix is RegistryFix. It works wonders.
 
Lost Space...

Great stuff folks! this fixed my problem too. I never turned off System Restore, and a standard install has it running. It has to be Parallels. I hope they figure this one out.
 
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