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lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
Have not used BootCamp. Just wondering if TimeMachine in Leopard backs up BootCamp entries also.
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Bootcamp is simply a BIOS emulator for EFI installed in the firmware (so not backed up), away of partitioning the drive and a set of drivers for Windows. BootCamp does not backup the drive partition status and will do nothing at all with Windows partitions.

So the short answer is: no, it does absolutely nothing with BootCamp.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
Bootcamp is simply a BIOS emulator for EFI installed in the firmware (so not backed up), away of partitioning the drive and a set of drivers for Windows.

Right on two points but Bootcamp is not a BIOS emulator. The BIOS was added in with a firmware update the same day that bootcamp was released. You don't need bootcamp to install windows on an Intel Mac. Just the firmware.

However back to the OP's question, no timemachine can't backup your bootcamp partition because it only runs while OSX is running.

However timemachine will back up VM's used with Parallels or Fusion.
 

lugesm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 7, 2007
572
9
Thank you for your rapid responses to my inquiry. This helps.

I love this Forum. Thanks again ! ! !
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
However timemachine will back up VM's used with Parallels or Fusion.

I thought it was a bad idea to let it do that as the VM disk file is pretty huge (a few Gb at least) and any time anything changes in that file TimeMachine has to copy the whole thing as it's one big file (not only taking quite a while to copy, but filling up your backup disk very quickly)?
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
I thought it was a bad idea to let it do that as the VM disk file is pretty huge (a few Gb at least) and any time anything changes in that file TimeMachine has to copy the whole thing as it's one big file (not only taking quite a while to copy, but filling up your backup disk very quickly)?

You're right, it is a bad idea but it is possible.

That reminds me to exclude those folders from my timemachine back up :D Thanks!
 

admiraldennis

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2002
239
0
Boston, MA
However back to the OP's question, no timemachine can't backup your bootcamp partition because it only runs while OSX is running.

It's true that Time Machine does not back up Windows partitions, but this isn't the reason why (if it were, why couldn't it just be backed up under Mac OS X?).

Time Machine completely ignores NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
 

ingenious

macrumors 68000
Jan 13, 2004
1,509
4
Washington, D.C.
It's true that Time Machine does not back up Windows partitions, but this isn't the reason why (if it were, why couldn't it just be backed up under Mac OS X?).

Time Machine completely ignores NTFS and FAT32 partitions.

Hmm... mine backs up my external FAT32 drive (the drive that holds my iTunes and iPhoto)...
 

princehippo

macrumors newbie
Mar 31, 2009
1
0
You're right, it is a bad idea but it is possible.

That reminds me to exclude those folders from my timemachine back up :D Thanks!

Hi ,I'm new here..
May I know how to do the configure to exclude the folders from Time Machine backup ?

Thanks a lot :)
 

jck1946

macrumors newbie
Jul 13, 2009
1
0
TimeMachine, BootCamp and Parallels

I have BootCamp installed and also use it as my Parallels VM disk. Will TimeMachine back it up as Parallels or ignore it like BootCamp? Thanks very much for the help.
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,504
"Between the Hedges"
Hi ,I'm new here..
May I know how to do the configure to exclude the folders from Time Machine backup ?

Thanks a lot :)

Open Time Machine Preferences
Click on Options

Use the + and - to add or remove folders

timemachine.png


For more control over Time Machine, check out TimeMachineEditor


I have BootCamp installed and also use it as my Parallels VM disk. Will TimeMachine back it up as Parallels or ignore it like BootCamp? Thanks very much for the help.

No, it will not back up your Parallels VM because it uses the Boot Camp Partition

However, if you want to back up your Boot Camp Partition you can use WinClone and it is free.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
However timemachine will back up VM's used with Parallels or Fusion.

This might be a dead thread, but this sentence is FALSE for certain versions of OS X 10.5 and Fusion. And it may be false MOST of the time. Manually verify that your Virtual Machines are being backed up before relying on it.

They are usually automatically EXCLUDED because they are extremely large, and Time Machine has to re-backup the entire file if even one bit changes.
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,504
"Between the Hedges"
This might be a dead thread, but this sentence is FALSE for certain versions of OS X 10.5 and Fusion. And it may be false MOST of the time. Manually verify that your Virtual Machines are being backed up before relying on it.

They are usually automatically EXCLUDED because they are extremely large, and Time Machine has to re-backup the entire file if even one bit changes.

I use Fusion
I have OS X 10.5.7

My Virtual Machines are in my Time Machine Backup unless I exclude them

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
No, it will not back up your Parallels VM because it uses the Boot Camp Partition

Actually, no it doesn't, unless you installed Boot Camp and then told Parallels to use that partition. Parallels is perfectly happy setting up it's own virtual machine and storing it's files in a disk image. That will be backed up.

This might be a dead thread, but this sentence is FALSE for certain versions of OS X 10.5 and Fusion. And it may be false MOST of the time. Manually verify that your Virtual Machines are being backed up before relying on it.

They are usually automatically EXCLUDED because they are extremely large, and Time Machine has to re-backup the entire file if even one bit changes.

No, OS X and Fusion do not automatically exclude the VM's from backup. Also, both the latest versions of Parallels and of Fusion are designed to work with Time Machine properly, and thus do not require the entire file to be backed up every time.

jW
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,504
"Between the Hedges"
Actually, no it doesn't, unless you installed Boot Camp and then told Parallels to use that partition. Parallels is perfectly happy setting up it's own virtual machine and storing it's files in a disk image. That will be backed up.

jW

Agreed... but I was answering a specific question where the user had Boot Camp installed and was using Parallels to access the Boot Camp partition. We are both saying the same thing... Boot Camp partitions do not get backed up, Virtual Machines do.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
No, OS X and Fusion do not automatically exclude the VM's from backup. Also, both the latest versions of Parallels and of Fusion are designed to work with Time Machine properly, and thus do not require the entire file to be backed up every time.

jW

Fusion 1.1.1 and below excluded the VMs from being backed up.

By what magic do you think Time Machine can work 'properly' with multi-GB files, such that the entire thing doesn't have to be backed up with every change? Is Steve Jobs' Pancreatic Pixie Dust involved?
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
Fusion 1.1.1 and below excluded the VMs from being backed up.

By what magic do you think Time Machine can work 'properly' with multi-GB files, such that the entire thing doesn't have to be backed up with every change? Is Steve Jobs' Pancreatic Pixie Dust involved?

No need to be a jerk. The VM's are not multi-GB files in reality, they are wrappers around multiple gigabytes of files. Thus, if they properly identify them as such, Time Machine can back up the changes within those VM's without backing up the entire thing again.

jW
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
No need to be a jerk. The VM's are not multi-GB files in reality, they are wrappers around multiple gigabytes of files. Thus, if they properly identify them as such, Time Machine can back up the changes within those VM's without backing up the entire thing again.

jW

That's sort of true, but not really. The VM file is a filesystem in it's own right. It's much more than a wrapper. As TimeMachine can only back-up HFS+ file systems this would prevent it from working at a file-level basis with any Windows VMs anyway...
 

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
Personally, I would want an original, if you will, backup copy of each VM that I have.

That way when the VM that I am using is hosed, I can just delete it and make a new copy from my original backup.

Therefore I would not want TM to incrementally back up my VMs. But that's just me.
 

belvdr

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2005
5,945
1,372
By what magic do you think Time Machine can work 'properly' with multi-GB files, such that the entire thing doesn't have to be backed up with every change? Is Steve Jobs' Pancreatic Pixie Dust involved?

It's not related to TM, but rsync can do this. Check out the '--no-whole-file' option. :cool:
 

Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
No need to be a jerk. The VM's are not multi-GB files in reality, they are wrappers around multiple gigabytes of files. Thus, if they properly identify them as such, Time Machine can back up the changes within those VM's without backing up the entire thing again.

jW

Sorry, it's my standard response when somebody says something which violates the principles of Information/Computer Science in defense of an Apple product.

sushi said:
Personally, I would want an original, if you will, backup copy of each VM that I have.

That way when the VM that I am using is hosed, I can just delete it and make a new copy from my original backup.

Therefore I would not want TM to incrementally back up my VMs. But that's just me.

If Time Machine worked at the block level, it could do something like this. VMWare itself will do snapshots, and it works on the same concept. (Tip: Don't keep snapshots around longer than needed; they grow over time and diminish disk performance.)

belvdr said:
It's not related to TM, but rsync can do this. Check out the '--no-whole-file' option.
Yes, because rsync is willing to examine file contents and evaluate them on a granular basis to find similarities and differences. PocketSoft's .RTPatch product was(and still is) one of the big players in this field for binary patching. Apple should buy them and shrink their updates by 95%.

Microsoft seems to have figured out their own method for doing sub-file updates.
 

Flynnstone

macrumors 65816
Feb 25, 2003
1,438
96
Cold beer land
On a related topic:

I have directories with my Boot Camp partition that I would like to backup.
I like how Time machine backs up.
I'm running Parallels 4.0.
Copying the directories to my OS X partition is fine.
It seems that when Parallels is NOT running, I can access the Boot Camp partition.
But, when Parallels is running, I don't have an easy access to Boot Camp Partition.
I could run something like running Second copy inside of Windows (XP) and copy from Boot Camp to OS X.

Any better way of doing this?
 

Rory Casey

macrumors newbie
Feb 13, 2010
1
0
Time Machine… No, Windows.. maybe...

I love this forum, and use it a lot so. I decided to join in.

I have found that time machine will not back up a windows boot camp partition. However… if you have a time capsule registered in windows, you can use the windows system backup program to do an incremental backup onto the time capsule. But you have to be in windows to do this. I am sure it would work with a USB drive, and parallels/VM Ware. Just exclude the files from the time machine, and back it up in windows on the Capsule (Make sure it is in incremental mode or it will take forever).
I dont think this will work with a USB drive and Boot Camp, unless you have it partitioned to NTFS.

Just a suggestion… Ironically I went looking for if the bootcamp drive can be back up, and remembered XP has a incremental file backup system. I am not sure about Vista, or 7. GL
 

IllustratorMD

macrumors newbie
Apr 2, 2010
1
0
boot camp

Hey everybody.

I have a pretty low level of knowledge about this stuff, so hopefully this question hasn't already been answered.

I am about to install windows 7. I want to partition the new 1 TB drive I got so that I have 250 GB for extra space for my mac stuff, and partition 750 gb to use with all my windows stuff. I was warned that if I do this, and windows crashes, ALL files on the new HD that has windows installed will be lost. Will time machine backup whatever files I had saved while in OSX onto that hard drive?

thank you in advance
 
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