Here's what I've learned the hard way. I've had backups on TimeMachine for years and have been able to view the files backed up on the Mac side but I have never had the need to restore the .PVM for the XP vm. When I got this error a week ago I knew I had a backup on TimeMachine so I wasn't too concerned. I mounted the PVM with Parallels Mounter and copied most of the files on my XP vm over to my other machine for safety. Some could not be copied which meant that I had a PVM error of unknown source. First time in 5+ years.
I then went into TM, verified the backup and began to restore the PVM. The space on my MAC was only 68gb free and the PVM was 138GB. So, I deleted the corrupted PVM on the XPvm to make room. The PVM could not be copied anyway--I tried. I hit restore on TM and it went back into the MAC within seconds and I knew that was too short for 138GB.
Short summary is the PVM on the TM is gone. The corrupted PVM on the MAC is deleted and gone. I have most of the files from the XP on backup but not all of them as a result of the Parallels error. I will have to create a new win machine and reload all the programs--not exactly the backup protection I was expecting from either TM or Parallels.
I have no explanation for the TM failure to restore the PVM but if you have critical data on the win vm I recommend looking at other ways to maintain a backup of the Parallels vm. I can still see the PVM on TM but it shows as zero bytes. The TM verifies OK. Uggg, what a waste of a week during the holidays.
Last edited: Dec 23, 2013