If you need to compress the disk even further, try removing unnecessary files from it before using the “Reclaim” option in Parallels.

Clean up Parallels Desktop cache files: Parallels stores some cache files on your Mac, and you can click “Clean up” to delete the cache files associated with this particular virtual machine.

If it’s grayed out, you’ll need to click the “Resume” button and then shut down your virtual machine to continue. To shrink the virtual machine’s files on your Mac, click the “Reclaim” disk space button here. (You can also use a little-known shortcut to open one from anywhere. Open a new Finder window by pressing Command+N or selecting File > New Finder Window in the menu bar.

Reclaim Disk Space: Virtual machines tend to expand over time as you add and delete files inside them. How to Quickly Check Free Disk Space Using Finder The most basic way to check free disk space on a Mac is by using Finder.

But these files will be erased whenever you shut down the virtual machine. This is just a temporary fix, however-if you restart the virtual machine in the future and then put it back to sleep instead of shutting down, those resume files will be recreated. If you resume the virtual machine by clicking the “Resume” button and then select “Shut Down”, these files will be deleted. Additionally, you can even get cheap DVDs and store many vides, songs, and documents. If you own an external hard disk, you can use it to store some of the videos, pictures, or documents from your Mac.

Resume & Shutdown: If you put the virtual machine to sleep instead of shutting it down, the contents of the virtual machine’s memory are saved to your Mac’s hard drive. Move Files to a Cloud or External Disk Another way to free up disk storage on your Mac is to move files to a Cloud or External disk.

Click the “Snapshot Manager” button and you can choose to delete some snapshots to free up space. Snapshots: If you’ve taken snapshots to save the state of the virtual machine, those snapshots will use space.

How to free up disk space on my mac