Parallels Desktop support

What is Parallels Desktop?

Parallels Desktop is an application that allows you to run different operating systems on your Mac, by using a special virtual environment. It is usually used to run Windows, but you can also run macOS, Linux, Google Chrome OS, and other operating systems. For more details, please visit the Parallels website: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/.

How does Acronis True Image 2021 handle Parallels Desktop virtual machines?

Acronis True Image 2021 provides complete support of your virtual machines created with Parallels Desktop 16 or higher. When you back up your Mac, the virtual machines are backed up as well. When you recover your Mac, the virtual machines revert to the state they were in when the backup started. After recovery, all your virtual machines remain consistent and bootable.

How does it work?

Every time you run a backup, Acronis True Image 2021 creates snapshots of all Parallels Desktop virtual machines stored on the disks or in the folders selected to back up. These snapshots are used as time points to revert to when you recover your Mac. After the created snapshots are stored in the backup, they are automatically deleted from your Mac.

Which virtual machines are backed up?

Acronis True Image 2021 backs up all virtual machines that are:

• Stored on the disks being backed up
• Added to the Parallels Desktop application
• Currently running, stopped, and suspended

How do I recover virtual machines?

If your virtual machines were created with Parallels Desktop 16 or higher, all restored virtual machines will boot after recovery. If you used an earlier version of Parallel Desktop, you should run the recreate_pd_hdd.sh script to restore the bootability of your recovered machines.

Since Acronis True Image 2017, this script is shipped with the product and is located in /Applications/Acronis True Image.app/Contents/MacOS/recreate_pd_hdd.sh. If you use an earlier version, download the script file from: https://kb.acronis.com/system/files/content/2016/08/49198/recreate_pd_hdd.zip.

To run the script:

1. Unpack the .zip file of the script.
2. Open Terminal.
3. Type bash "[script_path]" "[vm_path]", where
   • [script_path] is a path to the script file.
   • [vm_path] is a path to the folder, where the recovered virtual machine files are located.

   For example:

   bash "/Applications/Acronis True Image.app/Contents/MacOS/recreate_pd_hdd.sh" "/Users/John/Downloads/My Windows Virtual Machine.pvm"

Note: We recommend recovering the PD machines as new virtual machines and rather than overwriting the previous ones.

Limitations

If you have Parallels Desktop virtual machines configured to use the Boot Camp partition, pay attention to the following limitations:

• If the virtual machine is running, backup of the Boot Camp partition will fail in most cases.
• If the virtual machine is suspended, backup of the Boot Camp partition will succeed, but recovery from the backup will fail in most cases.
• If the virtual machine is suspended, recovery to the Boot Camp partition will fail. Instead, remove the Boot Camp partition, and then recover it from the backup to the unallocated space.