Locate the virtual machine on your old Mac hard drive. Note: in order to transfer a Boot Camp partition, see KB 113658 By default, virtual machine files are located either in Documents/Parallels folder inside your user folder, or in /Users/Shared/Parallels. However, I considered that it might be a good idea to keep the old Mac in case something happens to the new Mac, but for that to be useful I would need to be able to restore the new Mac's Time Machine backup to the old Mac temporarily.
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- Time Machine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac
- Time Machine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac
You can use Time Machine, the built-in backup feature of your Mac, to automatically back up all of your files, including apps, music, photos, email, documents, and system files. When you have a backup, you can restore files from your backup if the original files are ever deleted from your Mac, or the hard disk (or SSD) in your Mac is erased or replaced.
Create a Time Machine backup
To create backups with Time Machine, all you need is an external storage device. After you connect the device and select it as your backup disk, Time Machine automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
Connect an external storage device
Connect one of the following external storage devices, sold separately. Learn more about backup disks that you can use with Time Machine.
- External drive connected to your Mac, such as a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire drive
- External drive connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11ac model) or AirPort Time Capsule
- AirPort Time Capsule
- Mac shared as a Time Machine backup destination
- Network-attached storage (NAS) device that supports Time Machine over SMB
Select your storage device as the backup disk
When you connect an external drive directly to your Mac, you might be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Select Encrypt Backup Disk (recommended), then click Use as Backup Disk.
An encrypted backup is accessible only to users with the password. Learn more about keeping your backup disk secure.
If Time Machine doesn't ask to use your drive, follow these steps to add it manually:
- Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Or choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
- Click Select Backup Disk (or Select Disk, or Add or Remove Backup Disk):
- Select your external drive from the list of available disks. Then select ”Encrypt backups” (recommended) and click Use Disk:
If the disk you selected isn't formatted as required by Time Machine, you're prompted to erase the disk first. Click Erase to proceed. This erases all information on the backup disk.
Enjoy the convenience of automatic backups
After you select a backup disk, Time Machine immediately begins making periodic backups—automatically and without further action by you. The first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have, but you can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.
To start a backup manually, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu in the menu bar. Use the same menu to check the status of a backup or skip a backup in progress.
Learn more
- If you back up to multiple disks, you can switch disks before entering Time Machine. Press and hold the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks from the Time Machine menu.
- To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences, click Options, then click the Add (+) button to add an item to be excluded. To stop excluding an item, such as an external hard drive, select the item and click the Remove (–) button.
- If using Time Machine to back up to a network disk, you can verify those backups to make sure they're in good condition. Press and hold Option, then choose Verify Backups from the Time Machine menu.
- In OS X Lion v10.7.3 or later, you can start up from your Time Machine disk, if necessary. Press and hold Option as your Mac starts up. When you see the Startup Manager screen, choose “EFI Boot” as the startup disk.
Beginner
Comments: 1
Acronis does not appear useful for backing up Parallels VMs on a Mac. They won’t run if restored. Acronis admits this:
49198: Acronis True Image on Mac: Parallels Desktop Virtual Machines Do Not Boot if Recovered as Files (https://kb.acronis.com/content/49198)
Once you do restore a VM, you’re supposed to run the script above to “fix” it so it will boot. After you do, the VM still won’t boot. You might be tempted to grab an earlier backup of the VM (yet more hours to restore). Maybe there was a problem with a particular version? Forget it. It won't boot either. And if you run the script again on it? Nope. Despite the fact that both VMs were running fine when backed up.
You’ll then be advised to insert the original Windows media (or a repair disc), and rebuild your master boot record (etc.). Great. Unless you do, all your applications, everything on your C: drive? Gone. If you do perform this surgery, will it work? Who knows. I deleted my VM in frustration and started over with a new VM and fresh install of a new OS. Sure glad I had that Acronis backup! ?
I’d been happy with Acronis otherwise. However this is a fatal flaw for Parallels users. The restore is NOT USABLE. Odd, since Parallels and Acronis partner. Yet Acronis doesn’t work to back up Parallels. Which is the whole point. I’m moving to Time Machine for backups. I'm told it actually allows you to restore a working VM.
Parallels 12
Windows 7 64-bit (now trashed and upgraded to Windows 10 64-bit)
Acronis 2015 (same problem with later versions, see link above)
2011 Macbook Pro 17' 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD Vmware tpm support.
Windows 7 64-bit (now trashed and upgraded to Windows 10 64-bit)
Acronis 2015 (same problem with later versions, see link above)
2011 Macbook Pro 17' 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD Vmware tpm support.
Beginner
Comments: 2
Tim - I'm having the same exact problem. Super frustrated..
Forum Moderator
![Timemachine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac Timemachine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133907733/376643710.png)
Comments: 4505
Hello Everyone,
If the script from the above KB article is not helping to restore the bootability of a II virtual machine, I'd recommend contacting Acronis support team as this is something that should be investigated.
Thank you!
Best regards,
Ekaterina Surkova | Forum Moderator
Ekaterina Surkova | Forum Moderator
Information provided AS-IS with no warranty of any kind.
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To contact support, please follow http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support
Beginner
Comments: 4
Hi, I had exactly the same problem. I thought I had valid Parallels backups but when I had a problem I couldn't boot the restored PVM. I tried the solution proposed by Acronis but that led to exactly the same problem reported in the first post and although I tried the 'surgery' I could not get it to work. In the end we had to rebuild a new server from scratch.
Acronis for Parallels users appears to be flawed. https://opwfxti.weebly.com/blog/parallels-desktop-for-mac-12-serial.
https://opwfxti.weebly.com/blog/will-parallels-for-mac-work-on-my-macbook-pro. They are now saying it will only work if the entire Mac is backed up. In our case we backed up the complete PVM files.
It has been a very frustrating experience for us with no useful assistance from Acronis support. We have an active case but they have not provided any useful suggestions. They simply say that if the whole Mac was not backed up it will not be possible to restore a virtual machine that was running on the Mac. To me this sounds ludicrous.
Beginner
Comments: 2
Hi, I had exactly the same problem :-(
We backed up everytime the entire Mac - but unfortunately, when we needed the backup; it was useless
We will never buy software from Acronis again.
Beginner
Comments: 2
Just to avoid any misunderstandings.
![Timemachine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac Timemachine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133907733/803084121.jpg)
We are using Parallels 13
Windows 10 32-bit
Acronis 2017
2013 Macbook Pro 17' 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD
Windows 10 32-bit
Acronis 2017
2013 Macbook Pro 17' 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD
Forum Moderator
Comments: 4505
Hello Dan,
I'm really sorry to know about your disappointing experience.Have you tried to solve the issue with the help of Acronis support team? If not, I'd strongly recommend raising a ticket - we have a very dedicated team here to help. Plz share the ticket ID with me, so that I can keep an eye on the investigation process.
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Thank you,
Beginner
Comments: 1
I've opened a ticket and a Acronis support engineer called me to collect my feedback and pass it along to Acronis Engineers. That's great but as a user I'm still left with software I cannot use or trust until my main issue is resolved - Acronis for Mac does not correctly restore PVM / Parallels Virtual Machine folders as originally expected. Instead it requires either a full system restore or a specialized script to fix the PVM folder which in my attempts does not work.
I hope that Acronis is able to resolve this ability to correctly restore the PVM files without requiring a full system restore or some one-off script which did not work for me.
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In reply to I've opened a ticket and a… by David Levinson
Beginner
Comments: 4
Your experiences match ours. I spoke with the customer support manager who confirmed that the software does not work as advertised. Instead of offering a solution they intend to modify their own documentation to make it clear that it only works if the entire Mac is backed up and then restored. I have lost confidence in Acronis as a supplier and cancelled our subscription. I have also contacted Parallels who are completely unaware of the Acronis limitation.
We spent a year with Acronis and the first time we tried to restore a backup we were unable to.
Also, the added irony is that the Parallels machine died when the Acronis software attempted to create a pre-backup snapshot. Parallels for mac 10.10.
What a waste of time and effort.
Big thumbs down to the Acronis product.
Beginner
Comments: 2
Hey all - I opened multiple tickets with both parallels and acronis trying to get the mac/parallels restore to work, spent hours on the phone with both companies. Ran lots of scripts etc. Finally threw in the towel and gave up on acronis backing up my macs. Note I had issues on multiple macs, and these macs were fresh builds. Moreover - and this really mattered to me - you cannot validate a mac acronis backup. You can validate a windows backup, but not a mac backup. What is the point of having a backup system that cannot be validated?!
Over the last few months I have successfully restored several macs with parallels VMs using Time Machine. One tip for anyone reading this - you need to reinstall both the parallels desktop software AND parallels tools after a tie machine restore. Other than that no issues.
In reply to Hey all - I opened multiple… by Jane DeFlorio
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Time Machine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac
Comments: 4
Time Machine Restore Previous Version Of Parallels For Mac
I don't understand why Parallels is still pushing Acronis backup through their targeted mail offers. Acronis does not work well with Parallels. It's ridiculous and bad long term business for Parallels.