Merging issues

G

Genyus

Bit poster
In preparation for attempting to compress my Windows image (30GB, 90GB!!! on disk), I ran the "Merge snapshots" operation in the Image tool. This was launched yesterday afternoon and I left it to it's own devices. Returning home several hours later, the progress bar was complete, yet it was still running with high CPU utilization, so I again went out and left it running overnight. 34 hours later, it is STILL going and I do not even have the option to cancel, although I'm not sure I want to at this stage, for fear of rendering the image unusable.

All the same, I feel I may have to force quit the process at some point as I'll be back to work tomorrow - obviously there's a lot of data in that image and I saw an article from a user with a 47.5GB image reporting a 12-hour duration for the process, but I've gone way beyond twice that period now! Why does this take so ridiculously long to complete? And furthermore, why does the image need to expand to _triple_ the size of the available VM disk?

Additional info: running build 5582, 16GB free out of 186GB on drive (hence my attempts to compact the Parallels image).
 
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Image Tool hangs During Merge

Attempted to "Merge Snapshots" as prep for a Compression run. Runs for several hours , then hangs before a normal completion. No HDD activity when hung. Completion bar stuck at end.

Image is 64Gb. Virtual disk size is 76Gb. Running on external FW drive with plenty of free space. Build is 5608.
 
Try to run Snapshot Manager and delete past snapshots, in this case they will be merged in subsequent snapshots.
Please backup VM before proceeding
 
Deleted Snapshots. Undo Disks is dis-abled. Launched Guest OS (Win XP). Start Compressor. Compressor terminates with message: '... unable to compress because the virtual machine has snapshots, or it disks are either plain disks or undo disks."

Quit virtual machine. Configuration editor > Hard Disk > Compact. Will not run. Complains as above.

Start Image Tool. Check that Disk is indeed expanding. "Convert to Plain" appears. Manual suggest this is what is expected for expanding disk.

.HDD file and virtual machine function fine in normal use. Cannot Merge images or Compress using these Parallel's tools.

Further suggestions ?
 
Finally got back to this.

Deleted snapshot section from DiskDescriptor.xml
Launch Guest OS. Run Compressor. Runs normally. No error message.

~ 30% complete on completion bar after 12 hours. Is this normal ?
 
babbitt said:
~ 30% complete on completion bar after 12 hours. Is this normal ?
Click to expand...

For 76 Gigs disk... Might be. Especially if it is still placed on external drive.
Is there any progress, or the bar has stopped at 30 % and does not move any more?
 
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Bar moves. At 50% completion after 14hrs 21 min.

Run top command in terminal. Parallels running with ~ 50% of CPU.

Normal ?
 
Runs to completion in 36 hrs. Reduced virtual disk from 74 Gb to 54 Gb. Nice, but actual disk space used in Win XP is < 10 Gb.

How can I compress this further ?
 
Merge snapshots - is it doing anything or frozen, how long does it take

How do i know if the merge snapshots tool is still doing something? It has been running for more than three days now, and the progress bar is up to 100% and has been for 30 hours... CPU running at 150% and fans at maximum. Cancel - option not available. i would not want to force quit the process if not necessary, but would just want to know if this is all futile or not... the mac went to sleep at some point, but process still seems to be going on. VM size 37gb

Is there any way to estimate how long this takes? 4GB RAM, 30GB free space on 160gb hard-drive, parallels desktop 3.0
Parallels, i would be very grateful for advice on this!
 
Emma,

I feel your pain. I have been working on Merging/Compression issues on my Mac for weeks, on and off, with limited success.

If you haven't already, kill the Snapshot Manager. It is hung and never coming back. Mouse over the Parallels icon in the Dock , right-click, Force Quit. Or Command+Option+Escape and Force Quit Parallels.

Are you starting down the path to compress your virtual disk ? Be advised, one possible out come (mine) is that it you finally are able to run Compressor, it runs for 12 - 36 hours and it only shaves 10% off of your disk size.

If you are still game, read through the post in this thread of what I did. If you get stuck, post. Back up first - it could go all ugly.

babbitt
 
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