How to restore a VM done with VMWare Fusion 4.0

[giapage]

Hello,

I've installed VMWare Fusion 4 on my MacBook Pro and now I need to format the computer in order to clean it and restore it later.

I want to be sure that I backup the right file so that I will be able to restore my virtual machine after re-installig the whole system.

I've found a file on Documents\Virtual Machines which is named WindowsXP.vmwarevm with the following properties:

Is that the only file that I need to backup?

From the web it seems that http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100759... it's the bundle file but I'm not sure if there are any other files to backup.

Hope you can help me.

Best regards

  GP

[avanish321]

That file does appear to be a valid vmare virtual machine bundle.

assuming that you are using only one virtual machine i.e windows xp, you just need to make a manual copy of that file "WindowsXP.vmwarevm" . This contains the entire image of the vm.

As mentioned in the article, best way to do that is

1. Launch Fusion.
2. If the Virtual Machine Library window is not visible, go to Window > Virtual Machine Library.
3. From the list on the left side, press Ctrl and click the virtual machine for which you want to locate the files.
   
   Note:  In Fusion 4.x and 5.x (Icon view), press Ctrl and click the thumbnail  of the virtual machine for which you want to locate the files.
   
   
4. Click Show in Finder.

Copy the file to external hard disc.

Once hard disc is replaced or formatted and ready to use, install fusion app frm your myvmware account.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_fusion/4_0

Once the app is installed. transfer the backed up file to (  prefereably ) same location Documents/Virtual Machines/

Double click on the bundle ( vmwarem )

[WoodyZ]

Make sure the Virtual Machine is shutdown from within the Guest OS, not suspended, and VMware Fusion closed before manually copying the Virtual Machine Package to the Backup Drive!

==========

Also do not use Time Machine to backup Virtual Machines as it is a known fact that Time Machine is not 100% reliable backing up/restoring Virtual Machines under all circumstances/conditions.  Also backing up Virtual Machines via Time Machine is disk/time intensive and wastes a tremendous amount of space for something that may be corrupt and worthless come time to restore it.  At a minimum I would exclude Virtual Machines from Time Machine and with the Virtual Machines shutdown, not suspended, and VMware Fusion closed then manually copy the Virtual Machines Package(s) to an alternate location, preferably on to a different physical hard disk.  Then keep the User Data that is stored within the Virtual Machine backed up off of the Virtual Machine on a regular basis so as to always have a current User Data Backup.  If you have to restore a properly backed up Virtual Machine that is not as current at least you'll have a working Virtual Machine and current User Data to go forward with when you find out your Time Machine Backup of the Virtual Machine fails.

[giapage]

Thanks WoodyZ.

Actually I'm formatting the hard disk of my MacBook pro because I'm a programmer and I've done some big mistakes using the terminal with administrator rights which made some of the system files corrupted and a lot of software including iLife and VMWare Fusion are not even starting! For this reason I have not the possibility to start the virtual machine before to do the backup of the file. Anyway I had only 1 virtual machine (Windows XP) so the file has to be definitively that one! What about the virtual machine was not shut down (It's almost impossibile). Is there any folder of temporanely files to backup?