Windows 7 VM Host Disk Space.

P

PaulF9

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Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac Version 11.2.3 (32663), Mac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 (15G1611)

Having searched the knowledge base without finding a successful solution can someone help with a problem that I'm having with my Windows 7 VM taking up too much space on my Mac host? Although I'm not creating or adding any files under the Windows OS covered by the VM the space it absorbs has continued to grow to a point that this is now a problem. An issue that I haven't experienced with either a Windows XP or Windows 10 VM also hosted on the same drive.

Whilst Windows Explorer within Windows 7 shows the total for the VM's C:\ drive as 148 GB From the command prompt (with the exception of two directories that I cannot navigate to 'Documents and Settings [C:\Users]' & 'System Volume Information') the total of the C:\ drive directories equates to 53.5 GB which from my experience with the Windows OS feels about right for the operating system, installed programs and user files and documents that have been installed or created under the VM.

Within the Parallels configuration pane the total size of the VM is 145.2 GB split between Hard Disks 144.8 GB, Snapshots 0.0KB, Miscellaneous 24.9 MB Reclaimable 426.0 MB.

Is it common for a VM to consume additional space on the host machine without files or documents are being added to the VM? Any idea how I reclaim the additional disc space that the Windows 7 VM has currently consumed? Its it possible to make the Windows 7 VM behave in a similar way to the Windows XP and Windows 10 VMs i.e the space taken up on the host machine only increases when files or documents are added to the VM?
 
Thanks for the response Arun@Parallels although I have not been using snapshots (I take backups using the Windows feature from within the VM) following your suggestion I've checked and regrettably there are no snapshots associated with the Windows 7 VM. The suggested check however is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Arun thanks for the additional assistance and apologies for the delay in getting back to you. As suggested I've checked that the file system is fully extended from the command prompt and have received positive confirmation via the command prompt with the following message "DiskPart successfully extended the file system on the volume".

Unfortunately having rebooted the VM I still have a mismatch in utilised disc space between what is being displayed in Windows Explorer and the summation of the associated sub directories.

As an aside in case the space was being occupied by temporary Windows files I've created and run a batch file to capture and delete files with *.tmp *.dmp *.bak *.err *.old *.ac$ and ~*.* extensions. Although this has recovered some of the missing space (approximately 0.5 GB) it hasn't made much of a dent in the 96 GB I'm currently unable to access.
 
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