Invisible VMs devouring hard drive

[ciamurra]

I've spent the better part of two days struggling, with your help, to create a vdi and replicating the data from another computer.
I'm working on a brand-new Macbook Pro, OS X 10.8.4 and VirtualBox 4.2.16 and WindowsXP SP2. The old computer
I've had the computer for one week. I have not transferred everything from the old computer.

Old computer: 500 gb
used: <140 gb.
New computer: 512 gb (SSD)
used: according to info in Finder, etc. on computer, 248 gb! The total space used by Users, Apps, Library, System is 160 gb. Yet, the drive info reports that 260 gb are used. Where are the missing 110 GB? They do not show up anywhere in the system.

I suspect that as I kept creating virtual drives, they were not deleted, despite my "removing" with VirtualBox and deleting their traces in Library and elsewhere.

Please tell me how to get rid of the junk that is devouring my new drive.

[ciamurra]

More info: Activity Monitor reports that the VM size is 316 GB. The used space on my drive is now up to 350. Since it should be 150 gb, that means that 200 gb are now missing. And I haven't done anything to use up space.

I spoke with a very senior Apple tech. All he was able to do was to give me the tools to calculate the sizes. There was no way to see where the missing GB are.

I'm now having to shut down programs because there is no more space available for application memory. What has VirtualBox done???

[Perryg]

Did your "very senior Apple tech" mention time machine?

What size did you specify for the guest HDD when you set it up?

[ciamurra]

Time Machine! That's a very good point. Do you know how to find it?

I specified 10 gb. That's what the old one is, but it's always running out of memory. I installed it initially, but then ran into trouble trying to extend it to 20 gb. In a previous post, I asked if I have to extend the original vm by 10 gb or specify 20 gb. (For the extension)

[Perryg]

I think the first thing to do is get familiar with your host operating system and how it works. I don't do Mac so I can't help you there, but Mac has a forum you can always use to seek assistance. As far as VirtualBox is concerned the guest can not grow past the size you have established and you would need to make it bigger which I see you have been getting assistance with in other topics for it to grow past the original 10Gb size.

[ciamurra]

The problem is that every time a VM didn't work, I (thought I) deleted it. If they weren't fully deleted, there could be 11 VMs lurking in those 110 missing GBs. How do you delete a VM completely?

[Perryg]

In an ordinary Linux or Windows PC you select to remove and then to delete the files. Mac however does not adhere to this and keeps backups and ghost files in case you change your mind. That is the part you need to investigate.

[loukingjr]

The problem is that every time a VM didn't work, I (thought I) deleted it. If they weren't fully deleted, there could be 11 VMs lurking in those 110 missing GBs. How do you delete a VM completely?

You need to disable/turn off Time Machine then reboot your Mac. Your missing space should be back.

[ciamurra]

You're right again! Thank you.

I'll speak to Apple about Time Machine.

In the meantime, do I want a dynamically allocated or a fixed size disk? I think "fixed size" used to be the default, but now it's "dynamic."

[Perryg]

Use the default by all means (dynamic). With the problems you are having resizing the dynamic drives you can't imagine the problems if it were fixed or has snapshots.

[loukingjr]

You're right again! Thank you.

okay, last time

follow what I told you to do in this thread... viewtopic.php?f=8&t=56408
then to resize it do this...

The easy way... Drag the new WindowsXP.vdi file to a terminal window, type VBoxManage modifyhd at the front of the path and --resize 20000 at the end of the path and hit return.

then to expand the partition to the new size do this...

after resizing it again, you should really try and use GParted. It's pretty simple. You just attach the GParted .iso to the Windows guest as the CD. Boot the guest and GParted will start. Once it's open you will see the main partition taking up about half the drive. You just have select resize/move from the Partitions menu, drag the arrow to fill up the space and click apply. When it's done you can shut it down, remove it from Storage in the guest and start the guest.