backing up windows 7 and Parallels

HI
I have an MacBook Pro with Parallels and windows 7 running on it. I have not yet backed up for the simple reason that I can't figure out what kind of an external drive to get. It seems when I look at them that they all need to be reformatted for Mac. Is that the way it is or is there something out there I can use "as is"?

And do I really need to back up Windows 7 separately? All the data files I create in Windows 7 programs are mixed with the files I create on the Mac.

I'm really confused - help please!!

Dini

If you're running Windows 7 in Parallels, each time you back up your Mac, the Windows 7 virtual machine will also be backed up provided you don't exclude it.

Any good external hard drive that is the same or larger size than your hard drive will be OK. Format it to the Mac standard. (HFS+) Use the built in Time Machine back up program.

Most external drives come formatted as FAT32, which can be used with either OS X or Windows. The problem is you won't be able to save files over 4GB in size on either platform using FAT. The most common filesystem type for Windows is NTFS and HFS+ for OS X. Both will allow you to save any practical file size you want (NTFS is limited to 16 EB, HFS+ to 8 EB...that's 16 TB (terabytes) and 8 TB, respectively), however they will only fully work with their respective platforms.

Usually, if you need to use a drive strictly with Windows, you would format it NTFS. If you plan to use it exclusively with OS X you would format it HFS+. There is a third option that I use with a drive that spends equal time plugged into either platform, and that is exFAT. It has the same 16 EB file size limit as NTFS, but works fully (read and write) with both Windows and OS X (Windows XP does require an update available from Microsoft, it works out of the box in Windows Vista and up).

Like I said, most drives come "Windows" formatted (which is really to say they are formatted as FAT32, but will work on both). There are some drives out there that are billed as "Mac OS X" drives. These are pre-formatted HFS+ but usually carry a markup of around at least $20-40 from what I've seen. Sometimes they come in a fancy white or silver case to match the Mac a little better, but internally they are the same as their "Windows" counterparts. Simply formatting the "Windows" drive however you like will net you the same drive at a cheaper price.

Formatting is as simple as plugging in the drive, opening Disk Utility and choosing "Erase" with whatever filesystem you plan to use. I usually do this regardless, to get rid of any stupid "backup utilities" or whatever crap the drive manufacturer wants to put on there to "simplify" my life.

chscag said:

If you're running Windows 7 in Parallels, each time you back up your Mac, the Windows 7 virtual machine will also be backed up provided you don't exclude it.

Any good external hard drive that is the same or larger size than your hard drive will be OK. Format it to the Mac standard. (HFS+) Use the built in Time Machine back up program.

Click to expand...

From the description of your system.. this.