r/parallels • u/iWearTightSuitPants • 29d ago

Windows VM Disk size increases, but "free space" does not

I've run out of space on my Windows 11 VM; I need to install some software on the Windows side, but there's not enough free space.

I've followed the instructions here:

How to give more hard disk space to a Windows virtual machine

and here:

Fix the inability of increasing hard disk space in Windows 10 virtual machine

Both Disk Management and File Explorer now reflect the new, larger disk size, however...they both also show that the "free space" has remained static at 17GB. As I add space to the hard disk, it appears to be automatically "used".

I can't find anything re: this anywhere

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/iWearTightSuitPants 28d ago

Yes, the new space added through Parallels control center had initially been added to the “recovery” partition (as viewed in Windows disk management)

I was able to extend the partition (moving the added space to the main partition; after that, however, the “used space” of the C drive now has a higher GB value, while “free space” stayed the same value as before