Paralles disk takes way too much space

[nateyj40]

Hi everyone,

To start, let me state that I am technologically challenged. I love my mac and installed Paralles 4.0. Recently my computer disk has warned me that it is low (4 GB left of 120). So I looked into it and Parallels is using 28 GB's. Can that be right?

So I went to the compressor tool, but that did not do anything. Now I really have no idea of what to do. I only use Office 07 and @Risk. Really nothing else.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and if you can kinda spell it out a little that would be great (refer to first sentence).

Thanks in advance,
Nate

 

[wrldwzrd89]

If I were you I'd move the entire Parallels virtual machine to an external drive. That's what I do with my virtual machines, and they run just fine off the external, plus you save space on your internal drive. Make sure Parallels is NOT running when you do this.

 

[plinden]

There are a couple of reasons Compressor might not have worked. First, check if defragmenting the Windows VM helps Compressor to reduce the disk size. A badly fragmented Windows drive might have sectors in use near the end of the disk.

On the other hand, if you chose the fixed disk size rather than expanding during the VM install, the whole disk was assigned immediately. I think (I don't have Parallels installed on this Mac) you can use Image Tool to change from fixed to expanding.

 

[nateyj40]

Can you just drag and drop?

If I were you I'd move the entire Parallels virtual machine to an external drive. That's what I do with my virtual machines, and they run just fine off the external, plus you save space on your internal drive. Make sure Parallels is NOT running when you do this.

Thanks for the tip. Can I just drag and drop?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Thanks for the tip. Can I just drag and drop?

Yep, a simple drag and drop is all that's needed.

 

[nateyj40]

This worked great

There are a couple of reasons Compressor might not have worked. First, check if defragmenting the Windows VM helps Compressor to reduce the disk size. A badly fragmented Windows drive might have sectors in use near the end of the disk.

On the other hand, if you chose the fixed disk size rather than expanding during the VM install, the whole disk was assigned immediately. I think (I don't have Parallels installed on this Mac) you can use Image Tool to change from fixed to expanding.

Wow! I appreciate the tip. This worked fantastically.

 

[Vanarak19]

Vista = 15GB at least
XP= 10GB roughly.