A snapshot is a saved state of the virtual machine. Snapshots can be created manually or automatically when the virtual machine is running. After you make a snapshot, you can continue working with the virtual machine and revert to the created snapshot at any time of your work.
Snapshots are stored in the primary OS inside
the virtual machine bundle
, in the
Snapshots
subfolder. Each snapshot has a number of files, including the
.sav
file that contains the virtual machine's state, the
.mem
file that contains the memory dump for the virtual machine, and other different files of the virtual hard disk.
Note: Snapshots are not backup copies or clones of your virtual machine. You cannot use them alone without your virtual machine or move them from the virtual machine bundle.
You may need to make snapshots in the following cases:
Note: Snapshots cannot be created for virtual machines that use the Boot Camp partition.