Thanks very much for your detailed and well organized answer. I have a couple of further questions before I get started.
1. Are there any concerns I should have about the VM's themselves when upgrading to Fusion 8? I have a Windows 7 instance and an XP instance.
2. I have this machine with a 250 GB hard drive and a newer desktop one with 1 TB, which currently I've just been using to back up the laptop's VMs and surf the net. If I start using Carbon Copy Clone, will a 2 TB external disk be sufficient to begin mending my bad backup ways?