Backup of data on VMware partitions

spikedesmith · Jan 4, 2008

Hello all.

I've made the jump to Mac and am running OS 10.5 and using VMware to run Vista. I like the Time Machine backup application but am trying to figure a good way of periodically backing-up data sitting inside the Windows virtual machine onto the Macintosh hard drive so that it can then get replicated to the external drive through Time Machine. I would gladly settle for a scripted cp command but I noticed that Mac's implementation of cp doesn't include the update (-u) flag and I have to copy everything on each backup.

Does anybody know of any other commands that I could use so that I can achieve essentially an incremental backup of the virtual machine file data or am I going to have to wrestle with Perl or some other scripted solution?

Thanks!
- Jim

NPuter · Jan 4, 2008

umm.. you can't use time machine with vmware fusion...
the virtual hdd is only one file... so all you would have to do is backup that one file... I don't remember where vmware fusion's default location for saving virtual machines is. I think it may be /Users/<your user name>/Library/application support/vmware fusion/virtual machines

EDIT: Oh... I finally get where you are going. In theory, you virtual machine will automatically be backed up with time machine because it is located on your hard drive with all your other data.

bubba · Jan 4, 2008

spikedesmith said:
Hello all.

Does anybody know of any other commands that I could use so that I can achieve essentially an incremental backup of the virtual machine file data or am I going to have to wrestle with Perl or some other scripted solution?

Thanks!
- Jim

Look for a Windows resource kit utility called Robocopy (http://www.itworld.com/nl/win_this_wk/11202006/), there's a download link near the bottom of the article). It's not as much a scripting utility as it is a way to create a batch file to back-up your data. I've used it for years on Windows and it can not only do incremental backups it can do exact syncs between locations. You can back-up to a network drive with no problem.

If you like that option and need a sample "script" let me know and I'll post something for ya.

If you're looking to back-up your whole VM file and it resides on the HD that is being backed-up by TM -- your data and your Windows install is being backed-up.

ibookmobile007 · Jan 4, 2008

spikedesmith said:
Hello all.

I've made the jump to Mac and am running OS 10.5 and using VMware to run Vista. I like the Time Machine backup application but am trying to figure a good way of periodically backing-up data sitting inside the Windows virtual machine onto the Macintosh hard drive so that it can then get replicated to the external drive through Time Machine. I would gladly settle for a scripted cp command but I noticed that Mac's implementation of cp doesn't include the update (-u) flag and I have to copy everything on each backup.

Does anybody know of any other commands that I could use so that I can achieve essentially an incremental backup of the virtual machine file data or am I going to have to wrestle with Perl or some other scripted solution?

Thanks!
- Jim

Try memeo life agent.Its less of a hog on saving your data and you can actually pick what is backed up and what is not.It is also cross platform compatible for windows as well as OSX

Backup of data on VMware partitions

spikedesmith

NPuter

bubba

ibookmobile007

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