HyperV backup

[liscio]

Hello,
we have a registered VV 2.5 with extended VSS support

Now i want to use it to back up my hyper-V virtual machines.

I've read your PDF about hyper-v, and i have 2 questions:

1) your docs tells me to use the HyperV VSS writer.... i've noticed that, while comparing, Hyper-V makes a snapshot (now named "checkpoint" in 2012R2).... then, after the execution of the profile, hyper-v merges the snapshots.
What if, instead of selecting HyperV VSS writer, i manually specify the source folders where i have the HyperV files, and select the profile option (in advanced settings) to use "Volume Shadow Copy Service to copy open files"?
What would be the difference?

2) most of my VMs are shut down for long time, i don't power up most of them for weeks. How should i set up VV to not copy VHD files that have not been even powered up since the last execution?
If i delete a VM and its vhd files, i don't want VV to delete it from target. What option should i select?

Many thanks

Best regards,
Andrea