Hard drive isn't big enough

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by engrProf, Apr 27, 2006.

  1. engrProf

    engrProf Member

    Messages:
    28
    I have very little space left on my C: drive. It is an expandable drive, but the limit is only 4096 MB, which was swallowed up pretty quickly when I installed a few applications. I guess I created it with that limit, although I don't recall setting such a low limit (maybe I just accepted a default without realizing it). I *really* need more space on my C: drive. The documentation says I can do this using the Imaging Tool, but that's not implemented yet. It would be a huge time sink to have to create a new virtual machine and re-install all the software I've installed on this one. When will I be able to expand the size of my C: drive?
     
  2. markup

    markup Junior Member

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    Ditto ... I'm in the same situation.

    The Parallels team has been amazing with all the response so far. I am hoping this will get implemented as well.

    I know everyone has been saying "if it just does X then I'll pre-order." Well, being able to increase the disk size is my X.

    Thanks for all your help, Parallels ... you guys are great!
     
  3. mlandel

    mlandel Member

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    I solved this as follows for FAT32 partitions (dynamic sized):

    1) download the following freeware (google to find):
    g4u - this is ghost for unix and will copy a FAT32 drive
    presizer - this will will resize the copied drive/partition to use the added space
    2) create a new drive/image that is the size that you want
    3) add the new drive/image to your VM or create a new VM that has both drives/images
    4) boot the g4u cd image to copy the small drive/image to the large drive/image.
    This takes a while.
    5) boot from the presizer floppy image and run presizer on the larger drive/image. This adds the unused space to the parition, making it a copy of the smaller drive, only bigger.
    6) arvhive the small .hdd file for safety and transition to the new larger .hdd. I change the names to transisition as I like my primary drive image file to have the same name as the VM.

    That's it!. It's actually reasonably straight-forward and makes use of freely avaialbe tools. This is the same process that can be used on real PC's to transition from a smaller to a larger hard drive.

    Matt
     
  4. engrProf

    engrProf Member

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    I *did* pre-order

    Even with the non-expandable hard drive, which is a very big problem for me, I pre-ordered today. I've been using Parallels since the first Beta, back when it used to reboot if I put it to sleep with the VM running. The improvements since that time are amazing. I really like in b5 that I can just move in and out of the VM window without having to do the ctrl-alt thing. That was very annoying.

    Things VPC had that would be *really* nice are:
    - Drag & drop files between host and guest
    - Clipboard shared between host and guest

    Those would be truly wonderful.

    But I must say, this is a very nice product. Excellent value for $40.
     
  5. engrProf

    engrProf Member

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    I'm NTFS. This won't work for NTFS?
     
  6. markup

    markup Junior Member

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    Thanks, mlandel. Your solution looks very promising. I wish I had time to try it this evening. I'll give it a shot in the morning.

    I'm going to purchase regardless ... but I'll feel better about it once I'm running with more than a 4GB drive. : )
     
  7. alkalifly

    alkalifly Hunter

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    139
    Beta 5 has this (beta 4 did as well) you just need to make sure and install the Parallels tools. Unless you are using an OS other than windows, in which case you can't
     
  8. engrProf

    engrProf Member

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    I didn't see shared clipboard on the list of new features in either Beta 4 or Beta 5. But yes, you're right it's there. Except I can't make it work! I have clipboard synchronization enabled, and if I copy text in an XP application and open Parallels Tools Center and click on clipboard synchronization, the text is there in the clipboard. But if I go over to the Mac side and paste, nothing happens. Then if I copy something on the Mac side and go back to XP, the clipboard hasn't changed. What am I doing wrong?
     
  9. tacit_one

    tacit_one Pro

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    Clipboard sharing is not implemented for primary OSX yet. This feature will surely be available as it is very useful.
     
  10. markup

    markup Junior Member

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    engrProf ... it took me a while to remember that windows copy/paste uses CTRL-c/v but OS X uses CMD-c/v .

    That's not your issue, is it? It still trips me occasionally. : )
     
  11. babazoid

    babazoid Bit poster

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    4
    So let me get this straight... I've been having the same problem. The drive won't dynamically increase in size...

    But Parallels reports that it is a dynamically resizing drive. Is this a limitation of the current beta?

    Is there going to be a way to fix this without using 3rd party tools?

    thanks

    Mark
     
  12. Andrew @ Parallels

    Andrew @ Parallels Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,507
    1. Expanding disk image dynamically increase its size from zero up to maximum size choosen in VM configuration. Once disk is created you could change it maximum size only by Image Tool utility which will be introduced in next beta. Even then you'll need some guest tool like Partion Magic or Acronis Partition Expert to resize you partitions.
    2. The other solution could be adding 2-nd virtual disk to VM configuration.
     
  13. engrProf

    engrProf Member

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    It's a dynamically resizing drive UP TO THE LIMIT. In earlier betas, the default limit was 4G. If you're not paying attention when creating a VM (apparently I'm not the only one who wasn't), you got a drive with a limit of 4G. That's way too small for a default. They've increased the default in later betas, but if you created your drive in an earlier beta, you're stuck. :( :(
     
  14. engrProf

    engrProf Member

    Messages:
    28

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