Backing Up Images

[eamoran]

I am having a problem backing up images. This should be an easy, drag-n-drop solution, but...

I have a Win XP Pro virtual machine with a standard software baseline (Office, Visio, Project, Symantec, etc). I want to backup this baseline, but I am having problems. Obviously, I do not want to store it locally on my MBP as that defeats the purpose of a backup. Note that this baseline image is compressed using the Parallels Compressor.

First, I tried 1) copying and 2) cloning the image to an external hard drive. Both failed saying the file was too large.

Next, I tried burning to a DVD, but that also failed saying there was not enough space on the DVD. The DVDs are standard Apple x8, 4.7GB DVD-R and the image (according to OS X) is 4.58 GB. This is not including the .pvs file and a small text file detailing the baseline. Ideally, I want both a DVD backup and a copy on the external HDD.

Caveat: Backing up locally by copying and/or cloning works fine. But I cannot get it off of the MBP and onto another media.

I cannot be the only one having problems backing up, am I? Thanks.

[IMNiles]

How was the external drive formatted? Not all disk formats (e.g. FAT) can accept files that big. The formatted size of the DVD is also an issue - you can probably get about 4500mb out of a formatted DVD, give or take. I'm afraid I don't know anything about compressor, but if you just zip the image does it get any smaller? Alternatively, you could use Toast or some other burning app to burn the image spanning multiple discs.

[eamoran]

Good point. I believe it is FAT as I use it on Win and Mac. I didn't realize the DVD would be an issue though. I was trying to preserve the files, so didn't want to zip or perform any third-party compression until it was a last resort. I may try a Zip. Thanks for the advice.

[joem]

The latest version of Toast will burn files larger than one DVD/ CD by spanning across several DVDs or CDs. The resulting disks are Mac only, but it works just fine for me.

[eamoran]

Thanks. I ended up zipping the files and it cut the required space in half. Then I could just burn to a DVD. It was not preferred, but what are you going to do? *shrug* As long as I can get images onto a single DVD (even if dual-layer) then I'm good. If I have to start spanning DVDs, then the situation becomes less than ideal. Agreed regarding Mac-only discs. The material on the DVD would be strictly for Parallels on my Mac, so I don't care if Win or anyone else can run it. Thanks for the advice.

[majortom]

First note that DVDs are not 4,7 GBytes but 4,7 billions of bytes (same measure unit used with HDs... a cheat!!!) and means that they are effectively a little less than 4,34 GBytes.

Back to the topic: I was thinkinh a solution myself too. What about creating a second HD (an image, of course) with the VM on another HD (maybe external as mine) and use an utility to back-up on it the main HD (C)? Could Win XP's Backup Utility be enough? Will the 2nd HD be bootable? Help!

Sorry: I forgot 1 thing: the purpose of my question is to avoid backing up 10Gbyte HD Image every time it is changed a little. I was wondering if with my suggested solution only the changed files could be updated. Sorry, I'm not english and I hope my question is clear.

[MarkHolbrook]

The problem is in fact that FAT won't do anything that big. I had the same problem. I had an external USB drive and I could not copy my image files to it. Reformat to OS X and it was fine.