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User profile for user: Wycliffe
Wycliffe Author
User level: Level 1
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Time Capsule - Filling to Capacity Quickly

I am running Parallels build 6.0.11828 on my MBP.

I do not have the option of backing up the virtual machine selected in the Parallels settings.

For some reason, on every backup after the initial one on my Time Capsule, my MBP is backing up 3.97GB of data (the same amount each time), even when nothing on the MBP has changed or has been used - as you can imagine, over a very short period of time, the Time Capsule becomes full with my data.

Has anyone ever had this issue?

17" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 23, 2010 3:35 AM

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User profile for user: Bob Timmons
Bob Timmons
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
159,206 points

Posted on Dec 23, 2010 6:31 AM

Welcome to the discussions, Wycliffe!

This is a Parallels thing and the same thing occurs in VM Fusion, Aperture, Entourage and any type of application that uses a "monolithic" type of database for operations. Any change at all is interpreted by the application as a complete change to the database, so the entire database gets backed up on each pass. This can fill a drive very quickly.

The only viable solution is to "exclude" the item that is being backed up on each pass and manually copy over the database when you need to backup.

See #8 and #9 in Pondini's excellent Time Machine - Frequently Asked Quesions
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User profile for user: Bob Timmons
Bob Timmons
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
159,206 points

Dec 23, 2010 6:31 AM in response to Wycliffe

Welcome to the discussions, Wycliffe!

This is a Parallels thing and the same thing occurs in VM Fusion, Aperture, Entourage and any type of application that uses a "monolithic" type of database for operations. Any change at all is interpreted by the application as a complete change to the database, so the entire database gets backed up on each pass. This can fill a drive very quickly.

The only viable solution is to "exclude" the item that is being backed up on each pass and manually copy over the database when you need to backup.

See #8 and #9 in Pondini's excellent Time Machine - Frequently Asked Quesions
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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Dec 24, 2010 8:44 AM in response to Wycliffe

Wycliffe wrote:
Thanks Bob and Happy Holidays!

I exclude the Parallels VM from my backup, but will try your suggestions and see what happens.


See #A2 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for a couple of 3rd-party apps that will show exactly what's getting backed-up.
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Time Capsule - Filling to Capacity Quickly

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