Reducing (not increasing) the size of a backup Windows 7 VM

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by MickMac, Mar 16, 2017.

  1. MickMac

    MickMac Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    I have a backup VM I created of a fully virgin Windows 7 installation to be used in case I ever wanted to start over completely from scratch. I foolishly created this as a 30GB disk when it could easily just be something like 5GB (maybe even less). My MacBook Pro SSD is getting too full and there's simply no point to having this back up VM backup be this huge size. I know it's a piece of cake to increase the size of a VM, but I just can't figure out how to dramatically reduce the size of this file. Any ideas? Is it possible to export the VM from within itself to a much smaller disk size? I've already defragmented the VM from within Windows 7 itself so you'd think you could also just resize the file from the outside afterwards...
     
  2. Arun@Parallels

    Arun@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    1,356
    Hi Mick, you can try compressing the back up pvm file by right clicking on it and select "Compress" and let us know if that works.

    Thanks,
    Arun
     
  3. MickMac

    MickMac Junior Member

    Messages:
    16
    So I hate when somebody offers up such a damn obvious solution like that, and I didn't think of it beforehand :-/.
    It knocked my 30GB file down to 11GB. I'll take it, and thank you very much for the suggestion!
     
  4. Arun@Parallels

    Arun@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    1,356
    You are welcome Mick. Please reach us out for further assistance.
    Thanks ,
    Arun.
     

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