Parallels Backup ?

[Washac]

Best way to backup Parallels virtual machine ?

 

[flynz4]

Mine is totally stateless. The key folders (ex: documents et al) are just pointers to the corresponding folders (ex: documents) in OSX. Hence there is zero data inside of parallels.

Any work I do in parallels/windows actually has its data in OSX... and is backed up with my very robust, multi-destination, multi-program, multi-technology, fully automated backup strategy.

/Jim

 

[jdelgado]

Mine is totally stateless. The key folders (ex: documents et al) are just pointers to the corresponding folders (ex: documents) in OSX. Hence there is zero data inside of parallels.

Any work I do in parallels/windows actually has its data in OSX... and is backed up with my very robust, multi-destination, multi-program, multi-technology, fully automated backup strategy.

/Jim

I use Fusion, but I do the same thing: keep everything in OSX and do the backups from the Mac side. I also have a "base" VM archived as backup in case my working VM goes bad.

 

[firedept]

I do same. Keep all files on OS side. Backup on external drive to Time Machine. I also have a clone of my system using Carbon Copy Cloner on a separate external drive.

This way any failure of my internal drive protected. Files and apps can be run externally with no loss.

 

[Washac]

Thanks all, think I will just a CCC of the whole drive, seems the easiest way to me.

 

[Julien]

Thanks all, think I will just a CCC of the whole drive, seems the easiest way to me.

Parallels files are just regular OS X files. So they are treated and backed up the same as iPhoto or iTunes files. I'm with firedept and use TM supplemented with CCC 2x a week. Storage is CHEAP and you can never have too much backup.

TM and CCC are both the same on how easy (TM is even easer to setup). TM offers a unique way of retrieving any version of any deleted or altered file/App (even an hour ago). I consider TM as my goto backup and CCC as my safety backup.


EDIT: I have had my .PVM (Parallels data file) corrupted before and easily used TM to retrieve an older copy. This can't be done with CCC and if your latest backup is overwritten with the corrupt file then....

 

[maflynn]

Thanks all, think I will just a CCC of the whole drive, seems the easiest way to me.

That's what I do. I also use Time Machine, but I exclude the VM folder since it will back up my entire VM (40-50GB) every backup because it notices changes to the container file and backs everything up. That would fill my TM backup in no time.