- Manage Hard Drive Space Mac
- Parallels For Mac Resize Hard Drive Space Mac
- How To Resize Hard Drive
- Parallels For Mac Resize Hard Drive Space
- When it is started, select the partition you need to resize and, in the left side menu, click 'Move/Resize'. Choose the size of the result disk and click OK. After that, press ' Apply ' to write changes to the disk and wait for the operation to complete.
- If you want to run Windows without partitioning your hard drive, you can use Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion to create a virtual environment, read our round up of the best virtual machine software for Mac.
- Virtual machines can use a large amount of disk space. If you want to regain some of that disk space, just deleting files inside the virtual machine won’t help. You’ll need to reclaim that disk space, shrinking the virtual hard disk and making it use less space on your Mac. Parallels includes a.
Active2 years, 4 months ago
In Parallels Desktop 12.2.0 on MacOS 10.12.4, a Windows 10 VM is taking up over 170GB of mystery space. Windows only sees a 128GB drive. But Parallels claims to be using 300GB on hard disks.
It's not snapshots-- Parallels reports only 22GB for snapshots. It's not multiple disks-- Parallels reports only one hard disk. It's not unpartitioned space on the Windows side-- Windows reports no significant unpartitioned space. It's not multiple VMs because Parallels reports only one VM, which I've confirmed by seeing only one 346GB VM file in Finder.
But the space is definitely getting chewed up, because my Mac is low on disk space. WTF? Anyone know where that mystery 170GB is being used, and how to free it up?
Oct 26, 2016 No support after depleting hard drive space I’m on the free trial, and after a few attempts to get Windows 10 to install on the virtual machine, the application itself worked fine. The problem came in when the application began taking up almost all of my hard drive space. Parallels comes with an image tool that lets you easily resize your virtual hard disk, but Windows can't add the extra space to your partition without a little help.
Justin Grant
Justin GrantJustin Grant![Drive Drive](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126285274/854465189.png)
Manage Hard Drive Space Mac
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1 Answer
After a long chat with Parallels support followed by my own investigation, it turns out that the mystery disk space is taken up by snapshots. But Parallels apparently has a bug where it's not correctly reporting the full disk space cost of snapshots. By deleting some snapshots I was able to reclaim much of the mystery disk space.
Here's more details. Apparently Parallels stores snapshots in two places: inside your VM's
.pvm
file (go to /Users/YourName/Documents/Parallels
, find the .pvm
file, right click on it, and choose 'Show Package Contents') : - in a
Snapshots
folder, which is what's measured by the green Snapshots area in the General tab of Parallels VM configuration. - inside the
.hdd
file that contains the actual hard disk data. If you right-click on this file and choose Show Package Contents, you'll see one.hds
file for each snapshot that you have stored. These files are not included in the green Snapshots area in the General tab of Parallels VM configuration.
I deleted several old snapshots using the Snapshot manager, and that freed up 100GB in just a few minutes. Removing each snapshot removed one 10GB+
.hds
file from inside the .hdd
file.I did see cases in the Parallels forums where old snapshots didn't show up in Snapshot Manager but were still using up disk space. Apparently there's a Terminal-based way to fix that problem. I'm pasting links here in case others run across that variant of the problem:
both linking to:
I was disappointed in Parallels for not accurately measuring the true disk cost of snapshots. Had Parallels correctly noted that snapshots were taking up 200GB vs. 128GB for real disk space, the solution (delete some snapshots, dummy!) would have been obvious. Instead I wasted hours trying to troubleshoot what could have been a simple problem to resolve.
The support engineer I worked with claimed that this incorrect measurement is not a Parallels bug. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you agree with him. ;-)
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Want to give macOS Mojave a spin, but don’t feel ready to upgrade from High Sierra? You can quickly set Mojave up in a virtual machine, for free.
Parallels For Mac Resize Hard Drive Space Mac
Parallels makes it painless to set up virtual machines, and Parallels Desktop Lite is a free version that can make Linux and macOS virtual machines for free. Even better: this software works with the macOS Mojave Beta as of right now, meaning you can get a Mojave virtual machine set up quickly without having to deal with the command line or other nonsense.
RELATED:Everything New in macOS 10.14 Mojave, Available Now
All you need to do is download Parallels Desktop Lite, download the Mojave beta, and then install Mojave in a virtual machine. Here’s a full guide anyway, so you can see just how it works.
Step One: Download Parallels Lite (Free)
First up you need to download Parallels Desktop Lite from the Mac App Store. It’s not hard: open the page and click the button.
That was easy, wasn’t it? Gold stars all around.
Step Two: Download macOS Movaje (But Don’t Install It)
RELATED:How to Try the macOS Mojave Beta Right Now
Next, you’re going to download the macOS Movaje Beta. Head to beta.apple.com and sign up for the Mojave Public Beta. You’ll be prompted to Enroll your Mac:
After enrolling, you’ll download a DMG file with an installer, which you should run.
Next, you’ll be prompted to download the beta from the Mac App Store. Do so.
Eventually, the Mojave installer will open.
Do not run the installer. Instead, close it by pressing CMD+Q. If you go ahead and run the installer, it will replace High Sierra on your system, and you don’t want that. You just needed to download the installer so Parallels could use it to install Mojave into a virtual machine.
Step Three: Install Mojave in Parallels Desktop Lite
Fire up Parallels Desktop Lite and create a new virtual machine.
Click the option to “Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file” and then click “Continue.” You should eventually see macOS Mojave as an option:
Select Mojave and then click “Continue.” You’ll be told you need to create a bootable disk image file.
Click “Continue,” and Parallels will create that image. Next, you’ll be asked where you’d like to locate your virtual machine. You can also give it a different name if you want.
Next, your new virtual machine will finally start booting up.
Eventually, you will see the installer app. Begin by choosing your language.
Next, select “Install macOS” and then click “Continue.”
This will launch the installer.
Click the arrow to continue through the process.
Select your drive, which should be lableled “Macintosh HD.” Don’t worry: this is a virtual drive, not the physical hard drive on which your regular operating system is installed. Your data is safe.
The installer will now run.
The process will take a while, but when it’s done, you’ll be ready to set up your virtual Mac.
You’ll find all of the usual macOS setup routines here, including creating your account. There’s one new thing to Mojave: choosing between a dark and light theme.
Eventually, you’ll get to the Mac desktop.
Congrats! You’ve got macOS Mojave running in a virtual machine. Enjoy testing out all the great features!
How To Resize Hard Drive
Optional: Install Parellels Tools
Virtual machines work better with Parallels Tools installed. These tools add extra virtual drivers that make your virtual Mac run better, and Parallels Tools actually works with macOS Mojave as of this writing. Click Actions > Install Parallels Tools in the menu bar of your host machine, and the installer will launch inside your virtual machine.
You’ll have to restart your virtual machine when this is done, but when you do, you’ll be able to do things like resize your virtual machine and share folders easily. Enjoy!
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