You may access them using the context menu -> Show package contents.Īfter configuring the SmartGuard feature, Parallels will save an initial snapshot of some files (in the dark blue box. hdd file are in fact folders similar to apps. There is not much to add to bmike's answer except some aspects of what's happening under the hood: You should be able to look at your Time Machine backups with a tool like BackupLoupe after running for a week and confirm that you are only getting backup snapshots and that they are happening every 48 hours. It looks like Smart Guard marks all the files excluded from Time Machine except the backup snapshots and the optimize scheduled snapshots automatically every 48 hours. Once you have that set up, you can exclude the running VM files from Time Machine backup and save time/space on the backup media of incremental backups that might not actually be workable. Most people I know skip backing up virtual machines and implement an alternative method of saving user files off image (or syncing them) and/or setting a reminder to periodically make a snapshot backup of the state of the VM by scripting a shut down and then scripting a copy of the data files to a place where Time Machine will back up that periodic snapshot. The problem with timing issues is you might get a sane backup 9 times out of 10 or 99,999 out of 100,000 - but it's really about how much data you can afford to lose. Try restoring the Parallels VM to a new location and booting it. Run a backup and then run tmutil compare to see what files are different than the ones saved in a snapshot. It also gets complicated based on which other storage settings you use for the virtual disk technology - and I'll leave that for Parallels support to answer in a knowledge base article - but how Time Machine works is easily tested. It looks like the vendor is changing the default behavior to accommodate Time Machine according to: Ideally, you would quit Parallels (or at least shut down the storage / finalize all the writes) and then make a backup to avoid missing files or having a file being saved in an "unusable" state. Blue Feather by Alexander Calder Kunsthal Rotterdam 3D Fish-eye by wim hoppenbrouwers. ART in Depot Museum Boijmans Rotterdam 3D by wim hoppenbrouwers. Fiets Delftsevaart Rotterdam 3D by wim hoppenbrouwers. If the second pass fails, you miss that file. Treksprinkhaan Grasshopper (Locusta) Blijdorp Zoo 3D by wim hoppenbrouwers. Basically, it collects a list of all files needing backup and when it gets to the file - it might skip it and save it to try again once the first pass is complete. Browse to the Applications - Parallels folder and start Parallels Image Tool. If your file is open/locked/changing, then Time Machine will skip that file for that interval.
Optional: You may also want to check and delete snapshots of your virtual machine. Run First Aid from Recovery to find and repair possible errors within the disk file system by following the instructions from the article. Time Machine makes two passes on each file. Go to your virtual machine's Configuration > Hardware > CPU & Memory to check.