Backup / Restore Procedure

Damien Buckley · Feb 12, 2008

Is need to do a full erase & install of my OS (Leopard). I've cloned the winXP and win98 virtual machines but how do I put them back when I've reinstalled my machine? If I drag them back into the Parallels folder from my backup drive will they work or will I have to start the whole windows install procedure again?

Stacey M · Feb 13, 2008

Hello,

do you have the .hdd files? If so, when creating a new VM you can select 'Custom' setup and 'use existing hard disk image'. Then you should browse your .hdd file.
If everything was done correctly, you will be able to run your VM without any problems.

Best regards,
Stacey

Damien Buckley · Feb 13, 2008

Hi Stacey, yes I have a cloned copy of my entire drive (OSX) on an external HD. Should I copy the full (original) parallels folder (with the virtual machine in it) to my mac pro and then run custom setup or should I just browse the .hdd file on the cloned drive?

The reason I ask is that there are the following files in the 'Windows XP' folder:-

BaseDrive.hdd
Windows Applications (folder)
Windows Disks (folder)
Windows XP.mem
Windows XP.pvs
Windows XP.sav

Should I copy them all across first or just import the .hdd file?

I also made a clone of the windows XP installation so have another folder (in the parallels folder) with the following;

BaseDrive.hdd
Clone of Windows XP.pvs
Snapshots
Snapshots.xml

(I'm not concerned about losing the snapshot - there's only one and I was just trying it out)

Just not sure which copy to use here and the best procedure?
Thanks in advance.

hdlbq · Feb 13, 2008

Stacey M said:
Hello,

do you have the .hdd files? If so, when creating a new VM you can select 'Custom' setup and 'use existing hard disk image'. Then you should browse your .hdd file.
If everything was done correctly, you will be able to run your VM without any problems.

Best regards,
Stacey

Hello,

Sorry to ask for something that can be trivial, but I'm currently trying to make a clone of my Parallels Desktop (or Boot Camp) Partition. I have cloned my VM, as described in the manual, but it seems to clone only the state of the machine, not its hard disk. I don't have any .hdd file, nor any idea on how to have one. I have tried either the ntfs-3g way (but it leads to a less stable system (I encounter some kernel panic)), and the netrestore way (from bombich software) (but i never find a way to clone the Boot camp partition as described). Please, could you help me to fully backup my windows hard disk, being able to restore it if it becomes corrupted.

Thanks a lot
Best regards
Henri Delebecque

Damien Buckley · Feb 14, 2008

I couldnt wait for the reply (Australian Eastern Standard Time) so I installed Parallels and dragged the whole virtual machine folder across, then copied across the parallels preferences to my library folder. All seems well at this point.

Stacey M · Feb 14, 2008

Damien Buckley,
the most important file is .hdd file. All the other files store the information about configuration of the VM. If you have .hdd file, you will be able to create a new VM that will be the similar to your previous VM.

hdlbq,
do you have a bootcamped VM? If so, there is no .hdd file, because .hdd file is a hard disk image and in case of Boot Camp the hard disk image is your bootcamp partition, where all the information on your Windows OS is stored.
To back up your Boot Camp partition you can use some third-parties applications, like Acronis True Image.

Best regards,
Stacey