I installed Parallels 4.0 on my Mac in early summer, it has run Windows flawlessly since. However, I'm now setting up my Time Machine to back-up my Windows files on Parallels (and, also, to back up my Mac files separately), and I have discovered that there are 3 different .pvm files: Windows XP.pvm (June 7, 676 MB), Windows XP (1).pvm (June 7, 610 MB), and Windows XP 1.pvm (today, July 30, 12.7 GB). Obviously, I somehow duplicated some portion of the installation, and also obviously the last (Windows XP 1.pvm, with 12.7 GB), is the one that is being used, because its the largest and the most recently accessed. My question: can I delete the other 2 files/icons be deleted without affecting my Parallels system? Thanks.
You need to do the following: 1. Go to Parallels menu -> Configure -> "Hardware" section. 2. Check how many Hard disks are currently used. (Most probably - only one). 3. If you click on a Hard Disk option you can see in the box a full path to the virtual machine that is currently in use. (a virtual machine has to be stopped, otherwise it would be greyed out). Once you confirm which .pvm file is currently in use, move the other two to trash. Judging from the size, Windows XP.pvm (June 7, 676 MB) is just an empty virtual machine and Windows XP (1).pvm (June 7, 610 MB) must have, at most, only Windows XP installed. In any case, if you are concerned, just move the two files above to the trash, start virtual machine and see that all the information is there. You can always put these files back, that would not crash anything.
