By default, does Time Machine backup VMs?

Hi all,

I've just finished reinstalling Leopard on my iMac (long story), and I decided to use this opportunity to clean up my computer, so instead of letting the Migration Assistant copy everything over from my TM backup, I've decided to copy my important files manually.

Thing is though, I can't find my Parallels Virtual Machine image on the backup drive. I believe it's supposed to be in username/Documents/Parallels, but this folder is empty on my latest Time Machine backup. I was running a fresh copy of Parallels 4.0.

Any ideas?

Best,
Daniel

 

Yes.
Look in user_name/library/parallels instead.

 

No luck. Under username/Library/Parallels, there's just a folder called "Explorer", which is empty. Under Macintosh HD/Library/Parallels, there are the following: "Parallels Mounter", "Parallels Service" and a folder named "Tools", which contains a few files, but no VMs. Any other ideas?

Thanks for the input

 

Default locations are

<username>/Documents/Paralles

<username>/Library/Parallels

/Users/Shared/Paralles

 

not there

hi john - the places you mention -- all of them are empty. any other places to look?

 

Yes Time Machine will back them up as .pvm files...

If you have difficulty to locate your VM files (.pvm files) you can either search them with Spotlight or you can open your Parallels Virtual Machine configuration and locate HardDisk 1 and read file name from the "File" field.

Check out the following path, you may find them there
/Users/<user name>/Documents/Parallels/

 

On the "General" tab of the VM configuration menu there is a "Do not back up with Time Machine" checkbox. I don't think that the box is checked by default. If the box is checked, then Time Machine won't back up the VM.