Yes, Maria, I have read and re-read those pages to exhaustion. I do appreciate your trying to help, but I know how to do everything that is explained in those links you have sent me (and their sublinks).. What has never been clear on Parallels documentation though is how to restore only the VM that has been backed up by TimeMachine when SmartGuard is enabled.
Let me explain in details. There are 2 possible situations situations:
1- SmartGuard is disabled and TimeMachine is configured to backup the VM. With this option, every time TimeMachine runs a backup (every hour), it has to also backup the entire VM. In my case that means 300GB, every single hour, being backed up. It's insanely wasteful in terms of time, resources, etc. The advantage of this option is that if I want to recover my VM to a certain date in the past, all I need to do is enter TimeMachine mode, navigate to the folder containing the .PVM file, and restore it. And DONE. It works perfectly. But again, there is this HUGE backup being created every hour..!
2- SmartGuard is enabled and TimeMachine is configured to backup the VM. With this option, the first time that TimeMachine processes the first backup it does need to do the backup of the entire .PVM, 300GB, but now, subsequently, every time TimeMachine runs a backup (every hour), it only backs up the latest snapshot that has been created automatically by the SmartGuard process. It is really neat, but there is no documentation on how to proceed with a VM restore from a backup like this!! Again, with option 1 I can simply restore the entire .PVM file. But with SmartGuard enabled, how do I proceed to restore the VM?? Can I simply do the same thing as in option 1? Will that work? Remember: Under SmartGuard the backups are segmented into one first full backup of the VM and several subsequent snapshots. How do I proceed so I can guarantee to restore the VM to the specific snapshot for the date and time that I choose? Again, there is NO documentation on how to do that. Myself and several others have had this same question for YEARS now! Just peruse your Forums and you will find the confusion in several forum threads.
I sincerely hope you can provide a serious, detailed, step by step explanation of what the process should be to restore a VM in option 2, with SmartGuard enabled, instead of simply directing me to KBs that have been out there forever and that do not cover what the original question asked!
Thank you for any help you can provide. Best, Raphael.
P.S. And no, restoring the entire Mac is not an option (which is in the second link you sent). I only need to restore the VM.
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