Restoring last yrs Turbo Tax return after erase--Windows bootcamp backup or Time Mach

I hope someone can steer me in the right direction.

Running Win7 64 bit in bootcamp as VM in Parallels 5 on MacBookPro.

The mac was crashing a lot for still unknown reasons & after other things were tried that only temporarily helped an erase was in order. While I had backed up the Mac side in Time Machine right before, I had tried to back up bootcamp about a week or so before using the Win7 backup software. Got an error message something about missing library something. A microsoft person said it was looking for podcasts but said it should have been backed up anyway. Not sure about that. I went ahead & did a mirror back up.

So now I'm running late trying to get this year's taxes done but want to import from last year so I don't have to do all the data entry.

I don't totally understand how this all works or where I might find the tax return. I had originally started it on my Dell & then with it on extension moved it to this machine in Windows. I worked on it in Parallels.

Saw a review on Amazon where they said they didn't support virtual machines (so he had to re-enter all his data but they belatedly admitted they had a problem) so I don't expect help from them, but likely the usual runaround about not supporting dual boot/virtual machines or whatever.

Would Time Machine have backed up the VM if it was running at the time of the backup? I think some of the back ups it was running & others it wasn't. Of course it would have to be before the erase.

If anyone could tell me if it might have backed up in Time Machine & if so where to look to get the return back or alternatively how to find it in the windows back up, that would be appreciated. In addition I likely is still on my Dell in the early stages so some of the info would be there & that may be on my NTFS back up drive which has Dell back ups as well as the Windows backups.

I'm not real up on the whole back up process. Its one thing to back up--its another thing to know what to do with the backup if needed to restore from. I was able to locate my Parallels key from the instructions on where it is stored so followed that path on the TimeMachine backup & found it. But not real clear on just where program data is stored & how to retrieve it, either in Time Machine or in Windows.

Thanks for any help. Of course I'm running into the filing deadline as well. all the repeated crashes & repair attempts & then the erase which kind of suprised me so I hadn't just backed up windows or saved the tax file (I'll know better this year) has put me way behind. It has been going on now for almost 2 mo & looking at hardware replacement next, although it hasn't crashed the last few days so maybe it won't need that. I just got Parallels reinstalled yesterday & Windows & Outlook want to be activated but I'm afraid that will wipe out the bootcamp activation & that I'll just have to do it all over again after HD replacement.

 

update-found in Time machine dragged to C dr read only can't save

OK, I decided to try the TurboTax website & on the side they had a sidebar about finding your 2009 return. They told the search term to use which was what I needed & said it would be in the documents folder.

OK, so I did the search in bootcamp my computer. Then decided to attach the Seagate Time Machine backup drive & point to it. It found it. Tried to open it. Got an error, unrecognizeable.

Thought a moment I realized it probably needed to be on the ntfs drive. So I dragged it to the C drive. Ok, clicked on it & it opened in TurboTax 2009 which I had reinstalled. & the tax due looked right as well as the date saved (I had found the earlier partially done returns on the NTFS backup drive but they were very early.

OK, I tried to save it, but it is showing read only a 113 error in TT. It said try save as. tried that with same result.

This was done in Windows, starting on Dell in Win xp & then moved to mac in bootcamp & via Parallels VM.

So Time Machine did back up the VM & I dragged it to the C drive. I'm in bootcamp now. I wonder if I tried opening it from within the VM if I would be able to save it?

Possibly I could still be able to import it to 2010 and/or be able to save the return as a pdf which I haven't tried yet & which can be imported.

So, any suggestions on how to save it & use it to import to 2010 so I can get on with getting that done would be greatly appreciated. Also had forgotten that I need last years AGI to efile this year. At the very least I should be able to read that off, but sure want to be able to import from last year to save the data entry.

 

Saved 09 as pdf 2010 recognized & imported it

OK, got 2009 imported into 2010 which was the goals of all this so I didn't have to do all the data entry. Plus for efile the IRS requires last years AGI or a PIN to authenticate it so that should now be taken care of automatically when I get there.

Since I had earlier been unable to save or save as because it said it was read only (although I imagine there might be a way around this if I only knew how) I tried the save as pdf option & that worked. The 2010 program found the 2009 return & asked if I wanted to import it. I said yes & it went through & said it imported it at which time I saved it to continue tomorrow.

I was doing this in bootcamp since I usually install Windows software directly in bootcamp. I'll probably try working on it in Parallels although I didn't activate Windows there since I'm still facing hardware replacement to fix the crashing problems--although it hasn't crashed in a few days so maybe it won't need that. So I got a warning yesterday that it would stop functioning in 3 days & Outlook wasn't even full function--read only. Afraid to activate in Parallels as they might not run in bootcamp then--that's the way it was with Outlook previously.

So I stumbled my way to the answer. Time machine saved the day since, after I found out what to search for on the Turbo Tax website, it only found the old partially completed returns before I moved over to the mac & then continued & finished it on the NTFS Windows back up drive.

Guess I'll have to learn more about Windows backup. Its one thing to back up, another thing to be able to easily retrieve what was backed up

 

Just an update. Apparently Windows backup just backs up the whole thing so it has to be restored to use it--not like Time Machine. Will have to figure out a better way, but I guess I'd better do drag & drop back up if I want specific files.

Also they did replace HD, RAM & logic board as well as I guess stuff connecting it all. Since we still really don't know what caused the problems, head Genius asked me to gradually install things. Mac side is working fine. Last weekend set up bootcamp & installed Win7 but decided to go with 32 bit as some suggested greater compatibility possibly. Maybe tomorrow will install Outlook (although doing Mail on Mac side now) and/or Parallels 5. Really want to get back to using Parallels so I don't have to boot into one or the other.