What Is the Disk Compacting Tool?
Expanding virtual disks grow in size as you work with them. Besides applications and their data, every disk accumulates temporary files. The Disk Compacting Tool, included in Parallels Workstation, cleans up the unused disk space occupied by temporary files, thus reducing the size of expanding virtual hard disks. We recommend that you use Disk Compacting Tool from time to time to save space on the host hard disk.
The Disk Compacting Tool processes the following partitions:
Note. The Disk Compacting Tool does NOT process: 1) volumes located on expanding virtual hard disks but formatted to file systems other than Windows, 2) plain virtual disks.
Compacting Procedure
In general the compacting procedure consists of two stages that can be performed separately:
This step can be performed only in those guest OSes where the Parallels Tools Center can be installed, i.e. in Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP/2003 guest OSes. See Installing Parallels Tools for guidelines on installing Parallels Tools package.
This step can be performed in two ways:
All of the selected expanding virtual disks are compacted in one operation.
This option is available in those guest OSes where the preparation step can be performed, i.e. in Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP/2003 guest OSes.
Compacting is launched for each expanding virtual disk one-by-one.
This way is available in all guest OSes.
How to Compact Expanding Virtual Disks
To compact disks in Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP/2003 guest OSes:
If you want to proceed to compacting immediately after the preparation step is completed, select the Execute all stages at once check box.
Click the Start button to begin preparing disks.
Preparing for compacting. Please wait...
" message is displayed. When the disks are ready for compacting, the Disk Compacting Tool pauses virtual machine execution and starts compacting. The Compacting virtual hard disk box is displayed.
When the process is finished, you are informed that the "Process of compacting of virtual hard disk(s) has been successfully completed
". Click OK to continue working with the virtual machine.
When the disks are ready for compacting, you are informed that "You are able either start compacting right now or do it when the virtual machine is powered off
".
If you select to start compacting, the Disk Compacting Tool performs compacting as described in step 5.
If you select to put compacting off, you may continue working with the virtual machine. See the subtopic below to learn how to start compacting later.
To compact expanding virtual disks in any guest OS:
Process of compacting of virtual hard disk(s) has been successfully completed
".