Expand a Vista or XP Partition in Parallels

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From the computer of: davak (396 recipes)
Created: Mar 16, 2007     Updated: Mar 18, 2007

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So you are running out of room in your vista installation under Parallels, huh? Here are the steps you need to expand the virtual hard drive that parallels assigns to vista.

Parallels allows the user to expand the virtual hard drives that contain the installations. However, reminding the installed OS to use that hard drive space is the step that most people forget.

I'll walk though the steps for a vista installation; however, the steps for XP would be the same.

In Parallels:

1. Close your vista installation
2. Run the Image Tool found in your Parallels directory
3. Choose Hard Disk as your device type
4. Choose Increase the size...
5. Browse for your vista disk image (winvista.hdd) and increase the size

When the disk is expanded, close the image tool and boot vista through parallels.

In the Vista parallels installation:

1. Open a run box (in default parallels the shortcut will be CMD-R)
2. Type in diskmgmt.msc and click OK
3. Right-click (ctrl-shift-click) on the main vista partition
4. Select Expand Volume
5. The volume will default to the maximum size.

Your parallels installation of vista now has a bigger hard drive.