Unable to compact Windows 2003 VM (compressed NTFS)

When I try to compact my Windows 2003 VM (compressed NTFS FS) from inside the guest OS, Parallels Tools starts creating what look like temporary files in C:\. It keeps doing this for hours on end and never finishes the task.

What's going on? How can I successfully compact this VM? I'm running out of HD space

 

I'm desperate ! Please Help!

 

It's not just Windows 2003. I've been attempting to compact the compressed NTFS volume in Windows 2000, with exactly the same results you've gotten. Since beta1. It was never fixed! I've posted this problem here a while ago, but I never heard a response. Truly a sad thing.

 

If this has been a known problem for a while, I would have hoped they would've advertised it as such somewhere in the documentation. That way people are not stuck with a VM that is growing out of control like I am.

Maybe someone from Parallels will give us some guidance in this thread (?)

 

Yes, it's kind of frustrating that they seemed to have dropped the ball on compacting NTFS virtual disks. My disk doesn't compact either and I'm running Win XP Pro.

 

As is, the compactor is not only completely useless, but it messes up the VM, and the extra $30 that was added to the current retail price is essentially a complete waste.

 

FWIW, compressor works fine for me. I run it from within my guest, and it takes a long time, but it compresses the .hdd file. I run it whenever it seems that the .hdd file is about twice as big as it shold be, and usually get a 50% reduction. I'd like it to be fully automatic compressing something other than just C, but if I'm willing to babysit it, it works.

 

joem, are you using compressed NTFS? If so, then I'd like to know what exact configuration you have for your VM so I can test out. If not, well, it's not much of a help. Obviously it's apparent that Compressor works fine in other type of file system, and Parallels thought it worked well enough to include it in PDM and jack up the price as such. That they overlooked this problem despite the fact that I reported this problem quite earlier in the beta stage tells me they're only very selective in addressing issues. Perhaps it's a manpower shortage.

See, maybe if said SOMETHING about it I'd feel a bit relieved. But I don't think I read anywhere in the manual or the brochure that this feature is broken in compressed NTFS, nor has Parallels ever acknowledged this problem. I almost feel like asking for a refund. The only thing preventing this so far is probably that I paid the pre-order pricing, so the 'compressor price overhead' didn't apply to me. Still, they have yet to fix the 'keystroke logging prevention ActiveX crashes the VM' problem (effectively prevents me from doing any Korean bank transactions) nor the 'USB connection to my phone doesn't work' problem (chalk this one up in that whole USB compatibility flux). Oh well.