Parallels and SuperDuper!

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by hansderycke, Jun 24, 2006.

  1. hansderycke

    hansderycke Member

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    Twice in a row now, I've been unable to back up my Mac because SuperDuper! is choking on Parallels' hard disk image file. I've sent a message to the people at Shirt Pocket, the makers of SuperDuper!

    In the mean time, if anyone else experiences any issues between Parallels and SuperDuper!, I'd like to know, and any work-arounds would be helpful too.

    Thanks.
     
  2. peterwor

    peterwor Hunter

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    That's strange, I have 4 VMs on my machine, Windows XP and 3 flavors of Linux and SD works flawlessly. How big are your VMs? My largest VM is the Window XP and its 6.8G but it still backs up with no problem.

    Cheers,
    peter
     
  3. majortom

    majortom Member

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    No problems here with Parallels' cirtual HDs and SuperDuper!
     
  4. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    Silly question: Did you shut Parallels down before you tried the backup? If not, that may be your problem. Super Duper works fine for me.
     
  5. tychodyne

    tychodyne Bit poster

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    3
    works fine here as well

    As a matter of course, I usually quit all apps prior to running a backup or smart update.

    tycho

    MBP 2.16
     
  6. pcolag8r

    pcolag8r Member

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    I have a 16gb vm and use SuperDuper to image my entire hd onto an external fw hd. It works fine. Just a note...I too at least pause my vm. Also, I log out of my osx login and re-login holding down the shift key. This prevents all startup items from loading on startup. Then, I run SuperDuper. When done, I login again normally.

    Hopefully, this helps me avoid some problems and this is the recommended procedure by SuperDuper.
     
  7. hansderycke

    hansderycke Member

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    My procedure for backing up with SuperDuper! is to log out of my user account, log in as admin, and run SuperDuper! So yes, I'm pretty sure I wasn't running Parallels at the time.

    Funny thing is, I tried adding the .hdd file to the exclude list, but I couldn't, because it's in my user account's Library, which the administrator can't see.

    I worked around the issue by running SuperDuper! from my user account, adding the .hdd file to the exclude list, and backing up that way. After the backup completed, I manually copied the .hdd file to the appropriate directory on the backup volume.

    By the way, the .hdd file is 3.36 GB in size.
     
  8. dmgwork

    dmgwork Member

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    works fine for me. I was having a problem using superduper and doing update newer. but they said to reformat the drive and use smart update. since then no problems
     
  9. dmgwork

    dmgwork Member

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    I started to have a similar problem with super duper. It seems that while its running, it gets to hot because of all the disk access on the MacBook. I just went in to the apple store in Jax and they said they would replace the board. I tried to show them the problem and it actually took several backups to cause the problem to happen. It seems that they keep the ac in the low around 70 F and that makes the machines take longer to heat up. It took about 2 hours, but once it started, it would reproduce every 5 mintues or so. MacBook Pro 17 2.16 2gb ram
     
  10. ajay

    ajay Hunter

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    153
    I just blew off SuperDuper (trash) because of backup problems. I have a Mac mini with 100 GB hd and I never attempt backup with Parallels on. This morning when I woke up I checked my miniStack (backup) which had a fatal error. No disk space. This on a 160 GB HD with nothing on it but a complete backup from my mini. That was the 3rd day in a row for major backup problems. I am in the process now of doing another disk restore from my mini to miniStack at which point I will use Synk because it works and SD does not.:(
     
  11. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    1,247
    I found that SuperDuper had problems with my MBP, so I updated to the latest version of SD and it's been running fine ever since. I shut down all apps while running backups to avoid open file problems, and have no trouble copying .hdd files -- they're just files. I think SD is the best of breed for Mac backup. You do need to keep up with versions, though, and once (just once) I found that the latest version didn't work for me and had to revert, but that was fixed in a couple of weeks.

    My upgrade procedure:
    Download but do not install the upgrade. Backup the machine. Install the upgrade and test it (without overwriting the latest backup). Recover the original from the backup if necessary.
     
  12. dmgwork

    dmgwork Member

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    Good method of doing a backup, I only recently purchased SuperDuper, so I havent had to upgrade yet as I purchased the latest version. How hot does your cup temp get when you are doing a backup?
     
  13. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    1,247
    Haven't measured it yet, but I set the MBP on a laptop cooler with a couple of built in fans that blow room air across the bottom of the machine ($24 at CompUSA a couple of years ago, highly recommended). SD isn't a CPU hog -- it spends most of its time waiting for disks.

    I have found that PPC only versions of things tend to run but get hot. Toast V6 won't burn a DVD because it gets the machine hot enough that the built in writer is too hot to write. V7.1 is native and works. (Toast 6 worked with an external writer though).
     
  14. dmgwork

    dmgwork Member

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    I am able to do a backup if the machine is on a cooler, but not if the cooler is not present.
     
  15. sloosley

    sloosley Member

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  16. dmgwork

    dmgwork Member

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    he has been very responsive, but unfortunatly, he thinks its a problem with the machine, I am bringing in my MacBook Pro to apple to fix / test
     
  17. hansderycke

    hansderycke Member

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    I did another backup this weekend, skipping the .hdd file as described above. Funnily enough, SuperDuper! had no problem with the ubuntu.hdd file. But when I tried to manually copy the windows.hdd file, the finder encountered an error...
     
  18. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    1,247
    As long as the VM isn't running, the .hdd files are in no way special. Your problem sounds like hardware, possibly temperature.
     
  19. mcg

    mcg Hunter

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    Now, what if the VM were simply *paused*; would that be sufficient to insure the integrity of the .hdd file? If so, it seems like SuperDuper could be scripted to automatically pause the VM before starting the backup and unpaused afterwards. (Ideally, it would be before and after touching the .hdd file, but that's likely asking too much.)
     
  20. joem

    joem Forum Maven

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    1,247
    Yes, pausing the VM would insure the integrity of the .hdd, but if you restore it and boot Windows (or other guest) it will think it has not been properly shut down. Disk state while running and disk state after clean shutdown will be different and may cause problems, especially if you manage to pause it during a disk operation.

    I shut it down.
     

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