Windows VM Missing after Upgrade

[RossW]

I've been using Parallels Desktop for Mac for years and have not had any major problems with it, until now. I recently got a new iMac and I set it up using a Time Machine backup of my old iMac and now when I launch Parallels it shows a "?" where normally I see my Windows XP VM listed. I tried searching my whole HD for "*.pvm" but no luck - I can't even find a file name with that extension in my backups, going back over a month which is when I last opened Parallels.

My new iMac has Yosemite and unfortunately I didn't try Parallels until after the latest Mac OS X update was installed. When I tried to launch Parallels, it said there's a new version available and asked if I wanted to install that - I said no but then a further popup implied I really should, so I said yes. The install was unusually quick and it was after that I saw that it didn't know where my VM was located.

Could my VM have a different file extension? Is there anyway I can recover my VM? I use XP specifically because I use some older Windows programs.

 

[HonzaIl]

Hello,
Time Machine and Parallels VMs did not used to play well together and, at least on any system I setup, I had the Time Machine backups disabled. Supposedly this is better now, did not try it...
There is configuration item :"Do not backup to Time Machine" or something similar. If you had this checked, you do not have pvm file in the Time Machine and you need to get access to your original disk from the old Mac. And copy the pvm file from there.
This was discussed here many times before, that people do not realize their complete virtual systems and data are often not backed up since they rely on Time Machine as total and reliable backup of everything. TM is pretty good for OSX - even though not fool proof - but its functionality with VM systems is relatively limited. It is critical to have independent backup of the VM disks (pvm).

 

[Parallels User]

Do you still have access to your old Mac? Just copy the .pvm over.