virtual machine/mac back up help

[Mr Rogerss]

I need a quick clarification.

I have a external Hard drive that I use to back up my laptop every couple of weeks or so with Time Machine. I use Parallels to do all my college papers and stuff, so all my documents and papers are all being saved on to the virtual machine. The rest of my computer needs is done with the mac OS.

Lets say i loose all my data on the computer and I have to restore my stuff with my hard drive. When i do that, will I be able to get all my documents in Windows? Like if I lost everything, probably means I would have to re-install parallels and windows again right? So are my documents saved in Windows in my Time Machine back up?

I need some advice on how to keep my virtual machine and mac all backed up.

 

[blodwyn]

If you have a drive failure you could restore your system from your TM backup. This should put everything back to where you were when the TM backup happened, with no need to reinstall Parallels or Windows - the virtual machine containing Windows and all your files should be restored along with everything else.

To go one better, you could maintain a bootable clone of your system disk using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. That way if your hard drive fails you just boot from your cloned backup and carry on working while you get a new disk organized

 

[Mr Rogerss]

Thank you,

I just needed a clarify that my windows documents were backed up inside of Time Machine.

 

[blodwyn]

Thank you,

I just needed a clarify that my windows documents were backed up inside of Time Machine.

They will be, as long as you don't have the virtual machine file(s) excluded from the Time Machine backup (worth checking in the Time Machine preferences)

 

[durija]

If you include your VM in your Time Machine backups, you will probably run out of space very quickly, since the VMs change every time you touch them. I think most people back up their VMs separately for this reason. It's easy enough to carve out another partition on your TM drive for this purpose.

Also, if your VM is running out of Boot Camp, you will need another solution entirely, like winclone for a Windows Boot Camp install.

 

[blodwyn]

If you include your VM in your Time Machine backups, you will probably run out of space very quickly, since the VMs change every time you touch them. I think most people back up their VMs separately for this reason. It's easy enough to carve out another partition on your TM drive for this purpose.

Also, if your VM is running out of Boot Camp, you will need another solution entirely, like winclone for a Windows Boot Camp install.

True, however the OP said he only backs up to TM every couple of weeks or so, and uses Parallels for the VM.

 

[Mr Rogerss]

How do I get parallels on a different back up?

 

[blodwyn]

The Parallels virtual machines are in ~/Documents/Parallels.

Each Parallels VM that you set up will have a folder in there. Just copy the entire vm folder to your backup location