How Does SD Work With Virtualization?

[nucleotide]

Hi, new to mac. I'm planning to hook an external HD (Samsung F3) onto an iMac (SnowLeopard) and trying to decide on my backup options. Thinking of installing Parallels 5, and have read on here that SD does indeed backup Parallels.

What I don't quite get is if Parallels contains Windows files (presumably NTFS), how is SD (which runs on HFS+) able to save Parallels? Does Parallels somehow convert Windows files to FAT32 ?

Also, I understand there are problems with Time Machine treating virtual machines as one large file. How does SD handle saving virtualization folders differently?

Thanks.

[dnanian]

Most standard installations create a 'disk image' hosted on your HFS+ volume. Inside that image is a virtual Windows disk, and that's what's backed up.

Parallels/VMWare/etc should not be running when you back up.

TM is a problem because these images tend to be very large, and backing them up each time would result in a lot of disk space being used. Since SD! doesn't keep multiple versions, it's not a problem.

[nucleotide]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Most standard installations create a 'disk image' hosted on your HFS+ volume. Inside that image is a virtual Windows disk, and that's what's backed up.

Parallels/VMWare/etc should not be running when you back up.

TM is a problem because these images tend to be very large, and backing them up each time would result in a lot of disk space being used. Since SD! doesn't keep multiple versions, it's not a problem.

Thanks. So the disk 'image' does not affect the file system itself then?
And SD still backs up the entire image, it just doesn't keep each new version and simply overwrites the previous version?

[dnanian]

I don't know what you mean by "the disk 'image' does not affect the file system itself then"...

And, yes - SD! backs up the segments of the image that have changed (if it's a sparse bundle-like image), or the entire image file (if it's one big file).

[nucleotide]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I don't know what you mean by "the disk 'image' does not affect the file system itself then"...

I asked how SD manages to save the virutalization folder if SD is on a different file format/system (e.g. HFS+) than the virtual Windows disk (presumably NTFS ?). I thought this would be incompatible...?

[dnanian]

You're not saving a 'virtualization folder'... you're saving the disk image file along with the other files on your HFS+ volume.