Parallels Software on Mac - Need some major help!

[Abel]

Im running Parallels 2.5 build 3186 on my Macbook and I have Windows XP installed.

My problem is...

I have been downloading photos to the Windows drive for the past couple of weeks (honeymoon getaway etc) and have apparently ran out of space on the virtual drive.

This is the error I got.

Only 476 MB of free disk space remains in the /Users/abel file system. Guest operating system is unable to run until at least 512 MB free disk is available. Please free some disk space.

Click OK if you cleared enough disk space or click Cancel to shutdown the Virtual Machine.

Bad thing is I get kicked out of Windows and I can not get back in Windows in order to free up space on the virtual drive. go figure.

I don't think I can access the virtual drive on the Mac OS side so I am out of guesses...

Maybe someone here has some experience with this problem and cant lend a guy a hand on how to fix it.

Thanks.

[LoungeLizard]

Come on...real men use real PCs to run XP!

[cwford]

Its been a while since I've done this but as I recall its a 2 step process.

1. Use the Parallels utility (??name) to resize the virtual disk file. This takes seemingly forever. It will expand the physical disk but not the partition.

2. Download the Linux system rescue disk (.iso file) at http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page and create a new Parallels VM booting from the .iso that you just downloaded. When configuring the VM add the XP disk as a second disk for the VM. Boot the new VM and launch an application on the desktop called GParted. This is the equivalent to Partition Magic for linux. You can use this to extend the partition to take up the new drive space that you created in step 1.

After this you should be able to go back and start the XP VM as usual with a newly sized disk.


If you have any questions feel free to ask -- I may be flying a bit blind since I am running Parallels 3.0 and not 2.5

[cwford]

Actually after re-reading your post ... Is sounds like you are out of space on your Mac. /Users/abel is your home directory on your Mac (I'm guessing). So you need to clean off your Mac disk and Parallels will then be able to do its thing. A great utility to see where all your space went on your Mac can be had for free at http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

[Sonny]

Abel, did you get it worked out?

[Abel]

after reading Wade's post I looked at the user directory again and again and i finally found an untitled directory that contained a ton of RAW files from a few months back. I trashed them and then Windows ran fine from that point on.

i immediately went and backed up all of the photos from that Windows drive so that I had at least one copy of them elsewhere... pheeew... I was sweating it!

Thanks guys!

[MarcoFromHouston]

Woo-hoo!

Pics posted soon?!

[Abel]

working on them now...