Cannot update backup options in Parallels 8

Greetings.
I know this has been mentioned before, but I cannot seem to find exactly what I am looking for in the support forum.
I am now using PD 8 on my iMac running Mountain Lion.
I have all the latest updates for both.
In the 'configure' section, there is a check box "Do not back up with Time Machine".
If I check it, exit, then go back, the check is gone.
Every time I look in there, I see the Mac spinner next to it for just a second, as if it's checking something.
I even clicked the lock to prevent changes, and the check still goes away.
I do not want to use Snapshots.
All I want to do is maybe once per week, uncheck "Do not back up..." then run Time Machine manually.
As of now, I have the .pvm file excluded in Time Machine settings, and when I want to back it up, I just stop the VM, then copy/paste the .pvm file to the external drive.
Is there a workaround?
I'm a bit nervous about Snapshots.
How does one restore from snapshots if the .pvm is corrupted?
Thank you.

 

My advice:

1. Don't use Snapshots as a backup solution, they aren't meant for that, they are meant to be used a a safeguard when you want to try something on Windows that you might want to revert back, but it isn't a very robust system if you chain too many snapshots.
2. The idea of tuning off and on 'Do not backup with time machine' once a week for allowing to be backed up with time machine is a very bad idea, for various reasons, first of all it will re backup all the .pvm every time instead of incremental updates, ending up taking a lot of space.

My suggestion:

Set it to Do Not Backup with Time Machine If you want to do this once a week, just copy the .pvm manually to a folder in your back up disk (outside the Time Machine backup folder, Backups.backupd) once a week, create separate folders for different dates, or two folders, one named 'Last' the other 'Previous', keep the copies you want, this way if you need to get back to a backup copy you just need to replace the current .pvm with one of the backups.

 

re: time machine

Thank you for your reply.
Your suggestion is exactly what I've been doing since PD7.
That feature has stopped working for some time now and it seems Parallels does not want to fix it.

I appreciate your feedback.

 

Just to say, if you have been turning off and 'Do not backup..' then that's not my suggestion, afaik, turning this option on and off changes a system file that has a list of all files and locations not to back up maybe the file got corrupted.

 

I think that you should use the SmartGuard feature. It's a really nice concept, and Parallels manages the snapshop creation for you.

The only problem is that they didn't implement it fully. I've started a thread about this issue here: http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=261878, but unfortunately the Parallels supporters are ignoring it. So I can't really say if there is a way to make it work.

 

I'll say it again, snapshots are not a form of backup and they do not replace backups.