I have several applications that require formal setup procedures each time I re-install, and with data that is important. Recognizing that I may lose these apps and settings through a kernel crash, is there a way to back up everything from my virtual c:\ drive to another source (osx drive or external HDD)? I tried connecting my Maxtor One-Touch III but the Parallels workstation does not recognize it. Al so, folder sharing does not work.
If you wish to simply back up the VM itself, then go to ~/Library/Parallels and locate the folder that contains your VM, which should have the .pvs and .hdd files in there. Make a duplicate of the said folder of copy it to another location. If, by some actions the VM has been damaged you can copy back from the duplicate to restore back to that point when you made the backup. Simply attempting to copy the contents of the C: drive (as in, the boot volume) to another drive won't work as a 'back up' that would retain your apps & settings - this doesn't work in neither Windows world or the OS X world. That's why with Windows world there's Ghost and with OS X world there's Super Duper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Of course, with VMs you don't need Ghost... just making a copy of the VM itself is sufficient enough.
Wesley, Thanks for the response. Backing up the VM makes sense, but if I am prompted to re-install it because of either (a) some kind of "failure" or (b) an upgrade to Parallels Workstation, then how can I "restore" the "old" VM? Or are the VM files that you mentioned in the Library just the virtual disk? Regards
I just back up the .hdd file(s). If I have a crash, often, copying the .hdd file(s) back restores operation. If that isn't enough, I delete the .pvs file (and the .sav file if it exists), create a new VM in the same directory, and attach the old .hdd file(s) that I've copied back into the VM's directory.
Are the .hdd files the virtual hard disk? Will the applications function if only the .hdd files are copied back? Also, how to copy back if the file sharing does not work? (thanks again...)
Yes, the .hdd file(s) are the hard disk(s). You don't need file sharing to copy them. Shut down Parallels (to release the files) and copy them using the finder in OSX. They are ordinary OSX files. This really is as simple as it looks.
