Why does Parallels take up so much disk space?

[JohnH66]

Thank you

Ah OK so the .hds file is a package too - I assumed it was a file. It does indeed contain .hds files which I have now found out is the snapshot suffix. The oldest of these is 77.21Gb (11 May 2020) and there are 4 others which take up about 55 Gb between them. I think I now understand why my VM is so huge. My next questions are why the Snapshot Manager shows the first snapshot as 18/3/2020 and not 11 May as per File Manager, and are they incremental or can I delete the monster one (37 Gb) and still have the security of knowing I have a snapshot that works?

Having said all that it seems that Parallels agrees with me that I only have just < 4Gb of snapshots and not the 55Gb of .hds files

I wonder if Maria or somebody else from Parallels Support can explain why the snapshots folder in the PVM package is < 4Gb, the General Tab in Parallels Desktop shows < 4Gb of snapshots but I have more than 10 times that much (55Gb) of .hds files which Mr Google tells me are in fact snapshot files.

 

[mmika]

I wonder if Maria or somebody else from Parallels Support can explain why the snapshots folder in the PVM package is < 4Gb, the General Tab in Parallels Desktop shows < 4Gb of snapshots but I have more than 10 times that much (55Gb) of .hds files which Mr Google tells me are in fact snapshot files.

What do you mean under "General Tab in Parallels Desktop shows < 4Gb". Could you share a screenshot, please.
Those files in the snapshots folder in the PVM package are memory snapshots for VM.
It contains only VM RAM state at the moment of snapshot. If you create snapshot for stopped VM, these files contain no RAM data and will be very small.
But along with VM RAM state, snapshot of virtual HDD has also been taken. And those snapshots are in .hdd bundle, because it belongs to virtual disk.

 

[JohnH66]

In Parallels Desktop if you go to Actions Configure it shows you a bar chart with space usage under the General Tab.
In the end I followed these instructions from another thread


1.) Free up disk space in Windows (use this article as a reference), shut Windows down and then reclaim disk space.
2.) Disable 'SmartGuard'.
3.) Launch Terminal (from the Finder menu, navigate to Go -> Utilities -> Terminal.app).
4.) Copy the following command and paste it in Terminal as it is (do not hit 'Enter' yet): prl_disk_tool merge --hdd
5.) Find your virtual machine on your Mac and ensure that there is a backup of this file available.
6.) Drag the .hdd file and drop it inside the Terminal window (do not close the screen in which you see the .hdd file yet; keep it open).
7.) In Terminal, you will now see an outcome similar to the following example (please note there should be a space between --hdd and /Users/Username...): prl_disk_tool merge --hdd /Users/Username/Documents/Parallels/Windows\ 7.pvm/Windows\ 7-0.hdd
8.) Press 'Return' to start merging Snapshots (this process removes all snapshots, including hidden ones). (Important: Please wait till the operation completes; do NOT close the Terminal window before then.)
9.) Once the operation finishes, close Terminal.
10.) Now, go back to the window in which you saw the .hdd file. Move the folder 'Snapshots' and the file 'Snapshots.xml' to the Trash. Then close this window.

It took about an hour but I ended up with a pvm file that is 88Gb instead of the previous 130+ Gb.
Alarmingly the available space on my hard drive shrunk from about 70Gb to about 20 Gb. After a momentary panic I remembered about local TM snapshots (I have two time machines, one off and one on site). I deleted these and I now have 140Gb free space and am much relieved.

 

[FrancisB2]

I encounter the same issue. My .pvm file is 45 gig while I have almost no programmed installed on Windows. I don't have any Snapshots and SMartGuard is disabled. I followed JohnH66 steps but nothing happens in the terminal when I do the step #4. Thanks for your help...

 

[JohnH66]

Did you go past step 4 and add the path to the HDD in steps 5-8?

 

[TinaA]

Did you go past step 4 and add the path to the HDD in steps 5-8?

1. Steps 5 - 8 are about removing snapshots. Do these steps have an effect when one has no snapshots?
2. I searched the Mac for "name matches hdd" and found two files:
harddisk.hdd.drh (24 kb) and
harddisk.hdd (4 bytes) (see screenshot - this file is "inside" one of the same name, that I can't open - not a folder)
If I have a backup copy of the .pvm file, then I have these, right?

 

[TinaA]

Hello, could you open your virtual machine- > right click on computer icon -> choose properties and check the disk size.
Please share the results with us.

Hi, I am now running Windows 10 on Parallels 17, and having the same problem. I think the following screenshot has the information you asked about:
Can you help me free up space?
I have no snapshots.
"Reclaim disk space" freed up 0.7 GB.

 

[AlexandraA1]

Use Finder and locate how many virtual machines (.pvm files) are saved on your Mac then check the size of each virtual machines. If you have multiple virtual machines, move the unused to an external drive or trash.

 

[TinaA]

Thank you. I only have one .pvm file.

 

[AlexandraA1]

Use Finder and locate how many virtual machines (.pvm files) are saved on your Mac then check the size of each virtual machines. If you have multiple virtual machines like temp mail, move the unused to an external drive or trash.

Did you go past step 4 and add the path to the HDD in steps 5-8?

 

[TinaA]

Did you go past step 4 and add the path to the HDD in steps 5-8?

As I have no snapshots, that appeared to be unnecessary.

 

[hungamas]

Same here as well...somehow feel this is related to Parallels 13, the VM I installed was literally growing 4GB from 31GB to 35GB...I had to pause it and tried to reclaim some space (from 35GB to 34GB, no much improvement). This was the 2nd time I had this annoying issue: two weeks ago I installed the same VM and backed it up while it was still quite clean and fresh... then it grew to 66GB-70GB but my C:\ is only less than 30GB. So I had to use the fresh backup I mentioned before, and now it seems the same issue comes back... (Windows 10 Education version, Parallels 13, MacBook 2017). It will be great if Parallels team can identify this issue and patch it up. It also seems more severe if I put my Mac into sleep without putting the VM to the sleep mode...saying this is because I literally found the VM size was growing and eating up all the disk space while I 'waked' my Mac...
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When I check every file in my C:\ disk in windows, I only use 32,6 GB. I'm aware that parallels itself take up disk space. But if I recall when first installing Parallels, It wasn't close to 38GB?

 

[TinaA]

I've replaced my 64-bit Windows 10 with a 32-version, thinking that would take up less space. Currently the .pvm file is over 30 GB. I only use two low-volume programs in Windows, and keep all user data on the Mac.

 

[RobinT4]

Same issue here. 118GB used by Parallels, and only using Quickbooks. I have tried the posted above suggested use of Terminal several times. I copy and paste the first command, and then drop the Windows.hdd into the terminal command. I cannot seem to do part 7 above---" (please note there should be a space between --hdd and /Users/Username...)". There is no way for me to enter in a space between those commands. Perhaps as a result of this, when I hit enter in Terminal I get a very long worded Terminal read out (which I won't bother adding to this post), and, of course, no alleviation of the problem. Please advise

 

[Pramesh Boodadoo]

Same issue here. 118GB used by Parallels, and only using Quickbooks. I have tried the posted above suggested use of Terminal several times. I copy and paste the first command, and then drop the Windows.hdd into the terminal command. I cannot seem to do part 7 above---" (please note there should be a space between --hdd and /Users/Username...)". There is no way for me to enter in a space between those commands. Perhaps as a result of this, when I hit enter in Terminal I get a very long worded Terminal read out (which I won't bother adding to this post), and, of course, no alleviation of the problem. Please advise

Hello,
For us to further investigate this issue, kindly reproduce the issue and collect a technical report (right-click Parallels icon in Dock > Help > Send technical data > check "Attach screenshots..." > press Send Report) and provide us with the report's 9-digit ID in reply to this post.
Thank you.

 

[AQEELA2]

i am having the same issue, VM has taken my 1 TB SSD and in windows, its only 148gb, any help????

 

[Pramesh Boodadoo]

i am having the same issue, VM has taken my 1 TB SSD and in windows, its only 148gb, any help????

Hello,
For us to further investigate this issue, kindly reproduce the issue and collect a technical report (right-click Parallels icon in Dock > Help > Send technical data > check "Attach screenshots..." > press Send Report) and provide us with the report's 9-digit ID in reply to this post.
Thank you.

 

[AQEELA2]

Hello,
For us to further investigate this issue, kindly reproduce the issue and collect a technical report (right-click Parallels icon in Dock > Help > Send technical data > check "Attach screenshots..." > press Send Report) and provide us with the report's 9-digit ID in reply to this post.
Thank you.

this is the ID : 438767933

 

[AQEELA2]

this is the ID : 438767933

Parallel team, it was me who was actually lost in numbers, there is no issue in parallel and the team has pointed me to the correct numbers.

 

[jacka20]

Hi!
So I've been wondering lately, why Parallels is taking up so much space.
When I check the space taken in MAC, it takes up almost 70GB of disk space.
When I check every file in my C:\ disk in windows, I only use 32,6 GB. I'm aware that parallels itself take up disk space. But if I recall when first installing Parallels, It wasn't close to 38GB?
What is taking up so much space, I only have one snapshot, and I have reclaimed all the disk space I can?

See the two uploaded files.

Parallels shows higher disk usage because the virtual machine file (.pvm) includes overhead, allocated but unused space, and possibly leftover data from snapshots. Even if Windows reports 32.6GB used, the .pvm can still be much larger. One snapshot can also increase the file size significantly. Reclaiming space inside Windows doesn't always fully compact the Mac-side storage. To reduce it, shut down the VM, go to Parallels Control Center, right-click the VM > "Free Up Disk Space" > "Reclaim." Also check for any leftover ISOs, cache files, or Time Machine local snapshots that might be inflating the space used.