Parallels: Copying VMs
I just got parallels and am trying to set it up. One of the main reasons I wanted to get Parallels rather than just using a cheap PC is that I am trying to set something up and would like to be able to save the intermediate configurations, so that I have VM1 with a basic windows configuration, VM2 configured to run some program A, and VM3 configured to run programs A and B. I thought I could simply put Windows on VM1 then make a copy (i.e., copy both the .hdd and .pvs files to a new directory). Set up program A. Etc. However, it looks like it is a little more complicated than that. Scanning the manual, it looks like Parallels uses absolute, rather than relative, paths for determining where the harddrive is, so that I need to point the copy of the .pvs file to the copy of the .hdd file. My questions are first, is that true? And second, are other things going to break when I copy these files to a new directory?
Comments
Scanning the manual, it looks like Parallels uses absolute, rather than relative, paths for determining where the harddrive is, so that I need to point the copy of the .pvs file to the copy of the .hdd file. My questions are first, is that true? And second, are other things going to break when I copy these files to a new directory?
Yes that's true, you need to point the .pvs to the hard drive. I'm not sure why you'd need to move the hard drive. If you only run one hard drive at a time, you can just move them into place.
For example, I have a Parallels folder in /Applications. I put the .hdd inside this folder. I have a backup of the original drive so if anything messes up, I delete the .hdd and drop the backup into place and it launches without any configuration changes.
1) Copy an existing VM (which is a package, not just a single file).
2) Renamed the copied package.
3) Opened the package in the Finder and renamed the (two?) files inside.
4) Opened the package in Parallels, and fixed up the paths in the VM settings to match the file name changes I'd made.
At any rate, I know it can be done so that there's a clean distinction between the two VMs, and something like the above procedure will get you there.
I wish I could remember for certain the exact procedure I've followed, but I've successful duplicated Parallels VMs before. What I believe I did was...
1) Copy an existing VM (which is a package, not just a single file).
2) Renamed the copied package.
3) Opened the package in the Finder and renamed the (two?) files inside.
4) Opened the package in Parallels, and fixed up the paths in the VM settings to match the file name changes I'd made.
At any rate, I know it can be done so that there's a clean distinction between the two VMs, and something like the above procedure will get you there.