New to Parallels and have some questions

R

rgracia

Junior Member
I have successfully installed Windows XP Pro SP2 on my MacBook Pro using the latest version of PD. Now during installation of WXP I was shown a preselected partition size for the installation. I wanted a smaller amount of HD for my WXP as 30GB (which is what I think was preselected) was too big for my purposes, so I changed it to about 20. The problem was that PD did not allow me to delete the remaining 10GB of unpartitioned space so now under Windows XP Virtual Machine I see the NTFS 20gb partition and a 10 gb of unformatted space.

1. Can I get rid of that somehow through the PD tools? Or does it really not affect the HD space on Mac OS X?

2. That brings me to my next issue. The size of the hd file under my MacBook Pro for this VM on XP is way too small for an installation of 20GB? How does PD allocate space and why doesn't my mac reflect 20GB less space when I look at the info on my HD? Where did it all go? I know it's virtual, but its not magic, it has to add up. Any thoughts?

3. What exactly is the process involved in removing an OS on Virtual Machine, just trashing that VM name from the Parallels folder in Documents?
 
0. If you change the HD size while in the new-VM-wizard then it will be exactly that size (virtually). If you change the partition size inside the Windows Installer you will end up with unuses space like you described which may be a good thing if you have software which needs a second hard drive (D:\) which you can place there...
1+2. You can instruct PD to make a fixed-size HD. A fixed-size HD of 20GB will consume at least 20GB of real disk space like what you expect.
Of course, by default PD makes small, expanding HDs which do not consume a significant amount of real HD space as long as they are empty. The real space consumed will grow as you start to fill up the drive...
3. Use the delete VM command in the menu bar of PD.

I can't prevent myself from asking, do you ever read the text in those dialog boxes? All the answers to your questions are written there...
 
0. If you change the HD size while in the new-VM-wizard then it will be exactly that size (virtually). If you change the partition size inside the Windows Installer you will end up with unuses space like you described which may be a good thing if you have software which needs a second hard drive (D:\) which you can place there...
1+2. You can instruct PD to make a fixed-size HD. A fixed-size HD of 20GB will consume at least 20GB of real disk space like what you expect.
Of course, by default PD makes small, expanding HDs which do not consume a significant amount of real HD space as long as they are empty. The real space consumed will grow as you start to fill up the drive...
3. Use the delete VM command in the menu bar of PD.

Thanks for your responses rm53.

I can't prevent myself from asking, do you ever read the text in those dialog boxes? All the answers to your questions are written there...

There were no dialog boxes on the No-express install I followed. All I got was Windows blue screens with stuff that only applies when you have a real hard drive installation. I knew PD works differently, which is the part that I find confusing. But anyway, I will be more "careful" reading the dialog boxes when installing it again, which is what I will do anyway.
 
sorry

My last paragraph was bad style, I apologize. Really sorry.

I have installed many Linux and Windows systems on several Macs in Parallels Desktop, always using "fully costomized" version of the wizard, so I forgot about that "Express"-way of doing things.
 
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