Reduce original VM size

same problems to reduce disk size

Hi, hope someone may help me with this:

Had the same problem as the original poster, I created a virtual disk with too much hard drive. My macbook air has 120 gb and my VM has 43, of which I may never use more than 20 gb. In other words, I need to recover at least 25 gb into my Mac.
I have already followed all the steps running Paralles Image Tools first on the Mac side, and then running Parallels Compressor with the VM turned on. Also deleted the .xml file, merged the snapshots (although I didn´t have them activated and that option in Par. Image Tools was grayed out) and followed the whole procedure without a single problem nor error message.
Then, when I check the free space on my mac, I find the it has DECREASED in approx. 2 GB each time I´ve done the procedure (I have tried it 3 times) and my PC hard drive remains the same. So my available space on the mac side hasn´t increased at all and has even decreased!!

I have tha latest build of Parallels 4.0 (3844) and I really don´t understand what might I be doing wrong.


Thanks in advance!!!
 
Ok, so there's an option to recreate the HD in the Configuration Editor. Haven't tried it yet, but I guess it's the best call to bring my XP HD down to acceptable 8GB or so, and FIXED SIZE, as all my files are stored on the Mac side. Apparently all data is lost when doing this, and I don't know what happens next yet. I'll check back here later and tell you guys what I have found during this process.

Hope this helps.
 
Success, Parallels shrinked my 60GB .hdd file with about 16GB of used space to about 17GB. The Windows XP side still thinks it has 70 thou, but at least Mac side freed up a lot of space.

I must explain probably, I did 3 things that turned my 100GB VM .hdd file on my MacBook Pro Hard Drive to 17GB. Windows side is setup to 75GB though, so how it grew to 100GB, beats me, maybe snapshots.

1) Anyway, in my first attempt I turned on VM, loaded Windows XP. Then I opened the Parallels top menu (on Mac side) Virtual Machine > Run Parallels Compressor... It said, you have Snapshots, so you can't continue. Somehow I got to the Snapshot menu where I was able to delete 1 extra snapshot. It took some time, not so much thou.

2) It deleted/merged the Snapshots. I went back to Parallels top menu (on Mac side) Virtual Machine > Run Parallels Compressor... This time it gave me options Manual or Automatic, sorry, don't remember what it was called exactly, but something within these lines. I chose Automatic. It started doing something, took some time, maybe more than an hour. When it finished the task, it announced it, and I checked my .hdd file size on Mac. Well, it was 60GB. Still not bad, freeing up 40+ GBs. But still, I was like what the heck, why am I wasting all this space VM is not even using. Thought about switching to Mac totally, eliminating Parallels, but due to the software I use that would be too expensive. Windows has a lot more of FREE software.

3) Then I went another way. On Mac, I went into Applications > Parallels. Went into Image Tool. It said close the VM. I shut down Windows, closed the VM. Tried again, it opened a screen panel where on the bottom it offered to 'Reduce disk size.' I got all excited! I did whatever it told me to do, again I chose AUTOMATIC. Waited a while again. Gladly, I didnt have to sit and wait, I was busy with other things. OK, it finished it. I checked space on Mac - 60 GB still... Turn on Windows - it shows 70GB of space total. Dang, I started digging the internet and found this post, and many many more, but they were not helpful. I got all upset cuz I didn't wanna get into this Linux CD uploading thing. Mostly didn't wanna mess with the .hdd file. I messed it up once before already so that Parallels didnt even recognize what it was. Gladly I had a backup. But now, I didn't wanna back up 60GB... I have a Time Machine set up, but still, didn't wanna load/upload anything.

4) Ok, I thought, well, lets go through the Windows side and see if I can maybe reduce the XP's size. Maybe Windows will sense it and so will the Parallels; therefore, the file size will reduce. Well, that went to nowhere, so I somehow got to the Parallels folder in Program Files and found this: C:\Program Files\Parallels\Parallels Tools\Applications\Compressor.exe - well, I thought, what the heck, lemme try this. It started asking questions and asked if I want manual or AUTO, this time I said MANUAL. NOTE: when I first installed Parallels, I partitioned my VM hard drive to 2 disks to C: and N:. C - 30GB and N - 40GB. I ended up using only 15GB on C and 3GB on N. I thought I was going to use Parallels a lot, but it didn't work out. So I thought, OK, I am more or less fine with these 30GB on C:, but I want to free those 37GB on the N: drive that are BLANK. So I set to only Compress N: drive. It started doing its thing again. But this time, it started to De-fragmenting the disk and this time it was taking a lot longer than the previous 2. By the way, you can use the Mac side while you are doing this, its the Windows VM that does the job so it almost not affecting your work on Mac, only in the end when it takes physical space from Mac to clean up the VM space. Anyway, finally it ended, I rush to check the .hdd file size... .... ... 17GB!!!!!! So cool!!! Not 100GB, not 60GB, not even 30 -- 17GB!!! Awesome! Windows - still shows 70GB, but hey, right now I am not worried about it. If later it starts bugging me, I probably will look into this Linux Gpart suggestion.

Well, anyway, glad it worked in the end for me. Hope this may help some of you who are not as technical and are nervous about losing your VM Hard Drive, like me. Backing up 100GB VM is annoying I think, especially if 80% of it is blank space!

Good luck!

Arkadi (nookeen)
http://nookeen.com
 
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