I have virtualPC installed on a partition on my hard drive. Everything works
fine, however my c drive (60gb) is almost full. When I explore the c drive I
find a file called New Virtual Machine that is 27 gb. Is this file just for
adding another virtualPC? Can I remove it to free up space? I am also
thinking about compressing it and storing it on an external drive. Thanks
for any help!! Host system is vista home.

Tom

"Tom" <tnonta> wrote in message
news:5496

> I have VirtualPC installed on a partition on my hard drive. Everything
> works fine, however my C drive (60GB) is almost full. When I explore the C
> drive I find a file called New Virtual Machine that is 27GB. Is this file
> just for adding another virtual machine? Can I remove it to free up space?

It sounds like it might be the remnants of another virtual machine that
you're no longer using...

Do this:

1) Close down all virtual machines.

2) In the VPC console, inspect each virtual machine's configuration and see
which one is pointing to this hard disk.

3) If none of your virtual machines is using this hard disk, rename it and
then start up each of your virtual machines one by one. If they all start up
and run OK, you can safely delete the file.

4) If one of your virtual machines is using this hard disk, then you will
need to decide whether you still need that virtual machine or not...

> Host system is vista home.

Just a reminder that VPC 2007 isn't officially supported by Microsoft on
Vista Home editions, though it does work...

I checked and this is the hard drive for the virtual machine that I am
using. If I installed virtual machine on a separate partition, how did the
virtual machine hard drive get on my c drive with my vista os. My virtual
machine is running xp Pro. It seems like 27 gb is a lot of space for the
o.s. and a few programs to do medical transcription. I installed virtual
machine and purchased xp pro because the transcription programs were not
compatible with vista.

Tom
"Mark Rae [MVP]" <mark> wrote in message
news:1116
[..]

"Tom" <tnonta> wrote in message
news:4928

>
> I checked and this is the hard drive for the virtual machine that I am
> using.

OK.

> If I installed virtual machine on a separate partition, how did the
> virtual machine hard drive get on my C drive with my vista os.

Because that's the default location for virtual machines:
http://www.mattberther.com/2005/03/2...default-paths/

> My virtual machine is running XP Pro. It seems like 27GB is a lot of space
> for the OS and a few programs to do medical transcription. I installed
> virtual machine and purchased XP Pro because the transcription programs
> were not compatible with Vista.

1) Dun Disk Cleanup on the virtual hard disk:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...+cleanup&meta=

2) Defrag the virtual hard disk:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...98&q=XP+defrag

3) Precompact the virtual hard disk:
http://vpc.essjae.com/precompact.zip

4) Compact the virtual hard disk:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...ual+PC+compact

5) Optionally move the compacted hard disk onto another hard disk to boost
performance a bit - N.B. moving it onto a different partition on the same
physical hard disk as your system partition won't help...

Thank You for your reply's, I have already done disk cleanup and defrag on
the virtual PC. I will also do the compacting that you recommended. I do
understand that vista home is not a supported o.s. for virtualPC. What I do
not understand is this. When I check properties on the c drive on virtual PC
it takes up less than 3 gb. When I check virtual machine's hard disk space
in the console it reports 27 gb. Aside from the o.s. what can be taking up
all that extra space??

Tom

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <mark> wrote in message
news:5160
[..]

"Tom" <tnonta> wrote in message
news:3908
> Thank You for your reply's, I have already done disk cleanup and defrag on
> the virtual PC. I will also do the compacting that you recommended. I do
> understand that vista home is not a supported o.s. for virtualPC. What I
> do not understand is this. When I check properties on the c drive on
> virtual PC it takes up less than 3 gb. When I check virtual machine's hard
> disk space in the console it reports 27 gb. Aside from the o.s. what can
> be taking up all that extra space??
>
> Tom
>

The only reason I can think of for that would be that you created a fixed
size vhd. If you create a 27G fixed size VHD it immediately allocates 27G of
the physical disk for the vhd.

If you created a dynamically expanding 27G vhd it should only grow as
more space is required by the vm (ie as you add applications or data to the
vm).

OK I did the precompact utility, then tried to compact the virtual hard disk
with console wizard, then got the error, the virtual hard disk is unable to
be compacted because there is not enough space on the physical hard disk.
Help!! I knew that already, that is what started me on this quest???

Tom
"Bill Grant" <not.available@online> wrote in message
news:4376
[..]

"Tom" <tnonta> wrote in message
news:6116

>
> OK I did the precompact utility, then tried to compact the virtual hard
> disk with console wizard, then got the error, the virtual hard disk is
> unable to be compacted because there is not enough space on the physical
> hard disk. Help!! I knew that already, that is what started me on this
> quest???

Then, regrettably, I think you're out of luck as your current hardware is no
longer sufficient for your needs...

I would respectfully suggest that you consider acquiring a larger hard disk.
60GB is miniscule these days - the smallest available from my usual supplier
is 160GB, and even then only as an end-of-line product clearance...

Alternatively, an external hard disk would help, as you could simply copy
the virtual hard disk onto it and compact it from there - you could even
leave it there permanently in order to free up some badly needed space on
your already straining physical drive...

Mark, thanks again for all your reply's. I was able to fix my problem using
vista's disk manager. I removed the files I needed from the partition then
formatted it, After that I expanded the c drive to use the unallocated
space. That increased my c drive enough to compact the hard disk. The
virtual hd file size is way smaller now, and I have a c drive with 50 gb of
room for expansion.

Tom

"Mark Rae [MVP]" <mark> wrote in message
news:4384
[..]

"Tom M." <tmuntz> wrote in message
news:3920

>
> Mark, thanks again for all your [reply's] replies.

Welcome.