Time machine "Not enough disk space" to restore eariler version of parallels VM

Hi guys --

I went to try to restore an earlier version of my parallels VM, but keep getting a message that the VM can't be copied because there isn't enough free space. I don't know what's going on.

I have 29.7 gigs free on the SSD, and the VM is around 57-58 gigs or so, but should that matter? It's only going to replace the already existing VM (which is a bit larger than the restored version) so what's going on?

Okay, I have found a possible solution you can try. It may sound strange but this is what I found. Turn off Time Machine in the preferences pane by unchecking "Backup Automatically." Now try to restore. If that works - when it is done turn Time Machine back on by rechecking "Backup Automatically."

Let me know if that works. If not, my next guess is that you lack enough free disk space.

Lisa

There is no choice to uncheck "Backup Automatically" Just to turn Time machine off or on, which is off. I backup manually.

How can I be out of disk space? I simply want to replace the existing VM with an earlier, which should take up the space occupied by the current version (And the earlier version, as I just said, is a little smaller than the current one) How can I be out out of disk space?

Well if toggling Time Machine on and off does not do any thing then I am guessing that it needs additional space for the transfer???

Lisa

Maybe one of our other forum gurus can confirm this but here is what I think is happening.

The file that you want to copy will tape up half of the available space that you currently have on your hard drive. The computer says you do not have enough space for the copy operation even though your eyes tell you that you do. I think there are three possible causes for this:

1. There is a period of time where both the old file and the new one have to be on the drive. In other words the space which would be freed up by clearing out the old file isn't cleared as far as the OS is concerned until the copy procedure has finished. (I'm not sure about this but think it is true because there have been times I have cancelled copying a file and not lost the original. ).
2. 58 GB is not a lot of space copying that large a file into that space is going to cause the OS to create a rather large invisible file when will take up some space.

What everyone is trying to tell you is that your computer needs "working space" in order to replace the file. You don't have enough working space. Also... I thought Parallels kept snapshots of a previous VM and that you could restore that way? Or did you turn that option off?

Sly, the file he wants to restore is TWICE as big as his free space. The way I understand it works is that the restore is done first, then the file to be replaced is erased. So he needs at least as much space available as the file he wants to restore, but in practicality, he should have even more, as he will need "scratch" space for the other applications that may be running at the same time. The "high-wire" way to do this is to delete what he has now, empty the trash and then do the restore, but that's risky because if the restore fails, he's got nothing. Or he can make space available (I'd recommend about 70 GB) by moving other files somewhere off the drive, do the restore and then copy back the files he moved. But frankly he's pushing the space on the drive with that little available (on facebook it appears that the drive is 230-or-so GB, with 29.7GB free (about 12%). So it's time for cleaning up some of the junk on the SSD.

Thanks for pointing that out Jake. I originally misread those numbers and reversed them. Your observation that the restore is done first then the file being replaced is deleted. This is what I meant by number one in my previous post. As usual you said it a bit better than I did. You gotta teach me how to do that.

I figured it was a free space on the drive issue but I wasn't sure how TM worked when it restored. Thanks for clearing that up for me guys.

Lisa