How to reduce the space Parallels uses on your Mac

If you’re using Parallels to run Windows on your Mac, you may have realized that the program takes up more space on your hard drive the longer you use it. More specifically, the file titled “winxp.hdd” balloons over time whether you’re storing files within Windows or not.*

Good news. Parallels has a built-in tool that allows you to compact the winxp file and free up lots of hard drive space. I ran the tool last week and regained 4 GB.

Here’s what you do**:

1. From within Parallels Desktop, open “Parallels Tools” from the Start menu (it’s in the Programs folder).
2. Click on “Disk Compacting” in the left column.
3. Select the volume to compact and check the box to execute all states at once.
4. Click Start.

That’s all there is to it, but the procedure takes several hours, so I recommend running it over night.

* Maybe it’s called winvista or some variant if you installed Vista – not sure about that.
** I’ve only used Parallels 3.0. I imagine it’s similar in other versions.