When to use SmartGuard

I want to back up my WinXP, but I don't want to fill up my backup drive too quickly. When I was using Parallels 8 the "Optimize for Time Machine" feature did NOT work. Now I am using Parallels 10.

When a Parallels tech helped me with a problem recently, I asked him about using SmartGuard and told him what I just typed in the first sentence of this post. Here's what he wrote in the chat window. " no don't enable samrtguard it will create snapshot often and increase the hard drive of windows ".

So now I am really confused. The info from the Parallels web site says using SmartGuard will reduce the amount of space used in backups. The technician who works for Parallels and works with it all the time says is increases the space used in backups.

What is correct? At present, in Security "Do not backup Virtual Machine" is unchecked. "Smartguard" is also unchecked.

 

Hi PeterL1,
We understand that you would like to backup the Virtual Machine and at the same time you do not want the drive to fill up quickly. In order to do that you will have to disable the Smartguard option. The reason to disable Smartguard is to avoid creating automatic snapshots. And the snapshot will consume lots of space in the Mac drive.

To backup you Virtual Machine, please refer to these articles, http://kb.parallels.com/8827 and http://kb.parallels.com/4859