Out of space? Do I have any options?!

My MacBook Pro is about 2 years old. I installed Parallels when I bought it (possibly an earlier version of Parallels?)
At the time, I allocated 35G for the Parallels machine, as I had a lot of space on my Mac HD. I'm now out of space on the Mac HD, but the Windows shows I'm only using about 6G of that 35G. Is there a way to shrink the size of the Parallels VM without having to re-install Windows?

Or, another option, might be to move the Parallels folder to an external USB or FireWire drive, and run from there? Can I do that, or would I have to re-install everything?

Installing Windows was a headache I'd prefer to avoid if at all possible, but I'm totally out of space on my Mac...

Thanks!
Mark

 

You need to free up some disk space from Mac and then compact VM from Configuration Editor-Hard Disk 1-Advanced -Compact

 

Deleting snapshots?

Thanks, John.

I tried to follow your instructions, but was told to delete the snapshots. I had about 9.5G free on my Mac hard drive. I then selected the oldest of 2 snapshots I had, and clicked on "Delete". As of this email, it has been running for over 30 minutes - much longer than I would have expected to delete a snapshot? The blue/white bar keeps rolling...

Mark

 

Oops - I guess I panicked. The "delete snapshot" ended after about 45 min. That freed up another 5G, which was about what I have on my Windows drive. I'm waiting for the next snapshot to delete, then I'll try your instructions.

 

Thanks, John -

I did run the compact disk utility, but the winxp.hdd file is still VERY big - 28G, but when I start it up, only about 6G on the drive is actually being used. I'd like to get that .hdd file smaller, or move it to an external drive?

Can I do either of those things without having to reinstall Windows again?

Thanks!
Mark

 

Backup VM as described in Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on page 243 , and using Parallels image Tools increase winxp.hdd file size on 100 mb, after that compact again

 

Hi, John -

I just want to confirm I understand this, because it seems counter-intuitive. You're telling me to use the Parallel Image Tool to increase the size of the virtual HD by 100MB, and then compress it? And that will make the .hdd file smaller than it is now?

Thanks-
Mark

 

Yes, it is correct
You need to increase disk on 100 MB ,
This will help to run Compact

 

Thanks, John -

OK - hours later, that's all completed, but the 2nd compression doesn't seem to be any smaller - still about 28G, when the windows side shows I'm only using about 6G of space on the HD.

Do I have any other options? I guess its not possible to downsize the HD on the Windows side? To say 10G or so instead of the 28G it uses now?

What about moving the Parallels user folder (containing the .HDD) to an external USB or Firewire drive - will it run from there?

Thanks!
Mark

 

Go to Disc Management in Windows and Check is there unallocated partition, if yes create partition

 

Where is "Disc Management" in Windows?

I'm not sure where to look for an unallocated partition?

I've attached a snapshot of "My Computer", which shows only a C: drive on Windows, if that helps?

Mark

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

 

OK. I did that, but am not sure how to interpret the results. See screenshot attached.

There is 110 mg unallocated disk space, but is that an unallocated partition? If I create a new partition, how big? And how is that going to help me reduce the size of my .hdd?

Thanks!
Mark

 

Picture is correct for now, Shutdown VM, and start Compact operation from Configuration Editor- Hard Disk 1-Advanced

 

I'm confused. I've done that compress twice, now, in this thread? Why will this time be any different than the last 2 times? And I don't think we've done anything at all since the last time I ran it, other than look at the disc allocation? That didn't change anything, did it?

 

Do you hae any kind software which is related to backup
Like Symantec GoBack, Acronis?

 

I use Time Machine. I also have Backup, but supposedly Time Machine backs up everything?

 

Time Machine is backing up VM, but we do not recommend to use itThe main problem with Time Machine is that by default it takes snapshots every hour.
There are third party plugins which allows to change this behavior to once a day.
What is the problem.
Let say Time Machine is backing up Parallels Desktop
and example file order is
Snapshot.xml
VirtualMachine.pvs
--etc
winxp.hdd

There is some seconds between Snapshot.xml or DiskDescriptor.xml has been backed up, and to go to the winxp.hdd file and during those seconds you write some data to disk
After that you turn off your Mac, not waiting to the next hour data will be synchronized
And some how disk failed
If you restore you will not be able to start VM, as there is difference between data in Snapshot.xml and in real snapshot file, the same is correct for DiskDesciptor.xml file in winxp.hdd bundle

Microsoft Windows use Volume Shadow Copy for such situations, but Mac doesn't and this is the main problem we recommend to use our tools for backup purposes.

About Compact , could you check,
Do you have Snapshots.cml and Snapshots folder in VM folder,
if yes, put here DiskDescriptor.xml file from hdd bundle (right click - show content)

 

I think I also have some other backup software on CDs that came with some external HDs I've purchased, if you think that is helpful. Backup 3 can be configured to do very specific backups, I believe? Also, Parallels be directed to run off an external HD? (To look for the Parallels application and user folder on an external drive? Then I could run all of Parallels off the external drive, and make regular backups of the entire external drive?

I have a Snapshots folder, but it is empty. (The compact function required that I get rid of the snapshots way back near the top of this thread.) There is Snapshots.xml, but no Snapshots.cml. I attached the DiskDescriptor.xml file. I had to zip the xml files to get them to upload.

 

Remove Snapshots folder from Virtual Machine folder and also remove
Snapshots.xml file

Set your DiskDescriptor.xml as bellow

<Parallels_disk_image Version="1.0" >
<Disk_Parameters>
<Disk_size>65741760</Disk_size>
<Cylinders>65220</Cylinders>
<Heads>16</Heads>
<Sectors>63</Sectors>
<Miscellaneous>
<ChangeState>0</ChangeState>
<SuspendState>0</SuspendState>
</Miscellaneous>
</Disk_Parameters>
<StorageData>
<Storage>
<Start>0</Start>
<End>65741760</End>
<Blocksize>63</Blocksize>
<Image>
<GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID>
<Type>Compressed</Type>
<Flags/>
<File>winxp.hdd.copy.0.{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}.hds</File>
</Image>
</Storage>
</StorageData>
</Parallels_disk_image>

Backup VM first !