Recommended Backup Solutions

I searched on here and did not see a thread about backup solutions. If I missed it, my apologies and would appreciate the link.

I installed the latest release 3186 and unfortunately it aborted with a BSOD when it was installing the Parallel tools section. I'm running Bootcamp with my windows partition. But then, i tried to boot the Bootcamp partition direct and the partition was hosed. It wouldnt mount, etc.... So ok, i said some nasty words but this is what backups are for and we should always do our backups. I dutifully did backups of my system each night using CCC, and before that SuperDuper. (and yes, i had sent in a support ticket two days ago but no response from technical support yet)

After the last 1 1/2 days of trying all different ways and combinations to access my windows partition (CCC, Disk Utility, Net-Restore), I gave up.

I'm not the most technical person, but i think it has to do with the kind of partition it is. I couldnt gain access to it from OSX to do a backup. I just would get errors or told it could not be accessed. Then I followed one of the posts about making the format FAT and then copying the loader files and then the rest, but files were still missing, it would not reboot and did not work for me. My original WINDOWS disk was NTFS format.

So two questions to post to the group (and maybe this should go in a FAQ or a sticky when we are finished):

What is a tried (and verified) backup procedure recommended for those using Parallels under OSX and Bootcamp in a separate Windows partition? I suspect it is going to have to be a combination of two backup programs, one for OSX and another under Windows? Do we have to be careful of the file system (FAT or NTFS) used by Windows?

Second question, I have a fully intact .dmg that is a backup of my WINDOWS system. Does anyone know how I can recover my applications without doing a re-install?

Note: Be wary of release 3186. Do a backup first but be sure you can restore from your backup.

Thanks for your help,

Tim Rease
Amsterdam

 

I assume the dmg you have was created from the Boot Camp partition using Disk Utility. If so, you can restore the whole partition by using the Disk Utility. Also, you can just mount the dmg in OS/X by double clicking on it. OS/X can read NTFS, you should be able to copy any file out of it. If a Windows application is self contained, you can just copy the whole application directory out. For other more complicated applications, which include files in both the application directories and the Windows directories as well as registry values, reinstall will be much easier.

 

The dmg was created using Carbon Copy Cloner. Yes, I can mount it and read the files but when I try to write to the original disk partition, it gives an access error. Disk Utility does the same with that specific dmg file. Carbon Copy Cloner will not restore it to the partition either.

To your suggestion, I just made a copy of the Windows partition with disk utility and then tried to restore. I get error messages 2 (no such file/directory) and 16 (resource busy)when i try to restore. It will not even allow me to format the partition individually. I thought the same initially of what you wrote but it has not worked for me. Were you able to successfully copy a windows partition the way you suggested? For that matter, has anyone successfuly restored to a bootcamp partition using disk utility from a previously duplicate?

I did not make a specific backup using disk utility before i applied 3186 because i thought my backups would be good that ran the night before. And they are readable - i just cant restore them to the partition. The applications are complicated: Franklin Day Planner, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Norton AntiVirus... so because of the registry, it sounds like the reinstall is the only way to go.

Thanks for the suggestion so far.

 

Salvaging your backed up Disk Image of an NTFS partition

As you have found, Disk Utility will make a backup image of your NTFS drive. Unfortunately, OS X does not have rights to write to an NTFS partition. I have successfully backed up and restored FAT32 partitions with Disk Images from Disk Utility, and I have also created a successful NTFS partition, like you apparently have. But now, if you want to restore those files, you will need to put them to a partition that OS X can write to.

My suggestion, if your information is important enough to keep and restore, is to save the files individually from the Disk Image of your NTFS partition, to a FAT32 drive. Then boot the computer with a bootable, NTFS enabled CD, like BartPE or WinPE, and use the included File Management plug-in to format your Bootcamp partition to NTFS, and copy the files from the FAT32 partition to your new Bootcamp partition.

You'll need a Firewire or USB2 drive, formatted in FAT32, to save the Disk Image to. Saving the files in the Disk Image will have to be done through the Finder of OS X. Double-click the Disk Image to mount it, then open it, select ALL by pressing Apple-A, and drag the contents over to the FAT32 drive.

Since the files are copied individually, there isn't a 4gb file size limitation issue with the Disk Image itself. However, if you have any files in the Disk Image that exceed 4gb, you will not be able to save them to the FAT32 partition.

Another thing you can do, if you have a secondary NTFS-enable VM, is save the contents of the Disk Image to a blank folder on a Mac's drive (like above), and using a seperate Parallels Virtual Machine of XP or Windows 2000, transfer the files over to an NTFS drive, using the Parallels Shared Folders feature. Still, you're gonna need to get them to your Bootcamp partition, and I don't think you can see the Bootcamp partition from a standard Virtual Machine using the Parallels Shared Folders.

What I don't understand is why somebody doesn't come up with a way to use whatever Parallels uses to be able to write to NTFS. Must one install an entire NTFS enabled operating system in order to write NTFS? BartPE/WinPE does it without installing a robust operating system.

There is also a project (MacFuse) located on Google's website pertaining to a solution for OS X to write to NTFS. But from what I've read about it, it's all GREEK to me. Until it is more accessible and understandable I won't be able to try it out.

Maybe somebody can give me a class on it or something, because it would sure be nice to incorporate NTFS on my Mac right now.

 

Bootcamp partition backup summary

Thanks mate... this confirmed what i had thought and thanks for the advice to get this working. So to summarize -

For a straight-forward, non-technical backup of your Bootcamp partition:

if you use an NTFS partition for Windows (which i think is the default and know it is necessary for some application functions to work properly like Microsoft Shared Folders), then you will not have an operational backup solution using OSX . You must do a backup and/or restore from within Windows XP using a Windows OS backup program. Even though you can backup/copy a NTFS partition using OSX disk Copy, you will not be able to restore to it.

If you use a FAT32 partition for Windows, you have the 4gb file size limitation, but can successfully do backups of the partition using Disk Utility or other OSX applications.

Final question: has anyone used Disk Utility to restore a Bootcamp FAT32 partition for Windows and then was able to boot directly from it? (the theory is sound but just to be certain it works okay)

Is this thread worth a sticky? I vote for it to be one because it was not obvious until it was too late. Anything more that people think should be added to the thread?

- Tim

 

Disk Utility, Disk Image, FAT32, Bootcamp backups

Tim, I have backed up my FAT32 Bootcamp partition with Disk Utility, and successfully restored it a number of times, before moving to an NTFS partition. Now I use a BartPE bootable CD with the DriveImageXML plug-in to make back ups of the Bootcamp partition.

 

Perfect!!!! Thanks Atomic - I really appreciate knowing this.

Any other working solutions for restoring to a OSX Bootcamp partition?

 

Trying to back up Quicken 2005....

I am new to this forum and haven't used a forum format before, so forgive me if I am on the wrong thread, etc. What I have been trying off and on for the last few weeks to do is the following: I have installed Palallels on my IMac without problem, and then installed Quicken Premier for Home and Business 2005. I installed it using a disk from my pc and then placed it in my drive for the IMac. This went fine. But...I am unable to backup Quicken. When I click the backup command in the file menu of quicken, the attempt gets blocked, whether I am trying to back up to an exterma USB mounted hard drive or the IMac D DVD drive. I have this bad feeling there is a very simple solution, but I just can't find it. I would appreciate some help. Thanks.... Bernard Lemke

 

I think this is a question pertaining to the software, and you will probably find more help on it by going to Intuit's website. Now, if you have a feeling this is somehow related to Parallels' software, then if you will share with us why you feel that way, we might be able to shed some light on it. Emphasizing the word might.

 

I use Super Duper and it does a complete mountable backup of my Mac which includeds the parallels information. I have tested it several times, and been successful in restoring the windows data each time.

 

I guess one thing that should be pointed out when contributing to this thread would be to indicate whether the solution if free or not. Obviously, Disk Utility and making backups of the Bootcamp partition is free. But, you can't just restore the .dmg file from OS X to restore the FAT32 partition. You have to format the FAT32 partition, open the .dmg file in Finder, and drag and drop the contents from teh .dmg file to the FAT32 partition, so it copies one file at a time to it. That is, if the .dmg file is larger than 4 gb.

 

Bernard:
Not sure why your DVD drive is not working (assuming it is connected via the Parallels menu option and you are using release 3186).

Here is another method you might try as a work around. I use Quicken 2007 Premier Edition and instead of backing up directly to my IMAC's DVD I prefer to write the Quicken files back to a shared Parallels / OSX) directory. I then under OSX burn a back-up DVD from that shared directory.

Regards,
Orrin

 

Same problem with Home & Business 2006

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem - installed Parallels Desktop for Mac download/demo version about a week ago, so presumably have the latest build. Installed Win XP/SP2 and all patches. Installed Quicken Home and Business 2006 and latest update (R5). Set up a shared volume for my quicken data files.

Quicken opens the data files and works OK, but when I go to File/Backup, *nothing happens*. In native windows, it pops up a window with the location to save the backup. But under Parallels, backup just fails silently.

Also, when I close Quicken, the program pops up a window that prompts me to back up. I click OK, but the same window just pops up again. I click OK, and this time Quicken just exits - no backup!

Has anyone found a resolution for this? Obviously i can back up the shared data volume separately, but this whole thing makes me really nervous, and there are times (after entering a bunch of transactions) when I'd like to be able to back up the Quicken data to a USB thumbdrive or external drive.

As with any serious Quicken user switching to Mac, the native Mac versions of Quicken/Quickbooks are useless to me for various reasons, so this is my only option and the only reason I'm considering Parallels. Next step may be to look at the new VMWare product.

thanks for any pointers/ideas.

 

Anyone tried Winclone?

http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/

Rail

 

Just curious--if you are using QuickBooks, why are you also using Quicken? I use QuickBooks for Windows for my business but have no problem with Quicken for Mac for personal use, although I don't use it for online banking or portfolio management.

David

 

We weren't using Quickbooks for PC. We have 10 years of financial transactions in Quicken Home & Business (windows), my wife runs her business on this software (invoicing, receivables, etc.) and we need to communicate with 6 different financial institutions to get transactions. Options were:

a) switch to Quicken for Mac
problem 1: uses different data file format, which not all our banks support
problem 2: no support for invoicing, receivables, etc
problem 3: data loss importing transactions from windows version

b) switch to Quickbooks Pro for Mac
problem 1: see above
problem 2: no support for "direct download" aka "one step update".
would have to log in to 6 different financial websites daily to manually
download and import transactions. not acceptable!
problem 3: see above

hope this clarifies our situation

thx
- Don

 

I've tried the backup with winclone and it works well. But i didn't tried the restore option. Does someone did it with NTFS bootcamp partition.
My purpurse was to be able to have a larger NTFS bootcamp partition than the initial one.Do you think we can securely delate NTFS bootcamp partition, create a new larger NTFS bootcamp partition, and restore with Winclone without having to register again.

 

Thanks David... I guess Quickbooks and Quicken Home & Business are slightly different.
It occurred to me that perhaps this isssue was because my original backup settings on my old Windows machine pointed to an "F:" drive that doesn't exist so i copied the quicken files over to the old machine and changed the backup folder settings to point to "C:\temp", then created this folder in the Parallels WinXP vm. Great theory, but it didn't work!

I called Parallels tech support and they were not much help - told me to call Intuit (right ).

- Don

 

I am out of my technical field of expertise but I notice in your original post you mention that you set up a shared volume for your Quicken data files. That is the first thing I would suspect as a possible cause of the problem. Also, have you tried reinstalling Quicken?

David