MacLawyer
Oct 15, 2007, 04:10 PM
Thread was moved from "Parallels Desktop for Mac > Installation and Configuration in Mac OS".
Stacey M
I have an office full of brand-new, still in the box aluminum iMacs. Well, except for this first one I'm working on right now.
Like many others online, I had serious Windows XP installation problems. This particular machine is very, very clean, with completely updated OSX 10.4.10 installed. I installed the latest Parallels build (5160) and repaired disk permissions, but the problem persisted.
The good news is that I've overcome the problem, but thought a quick summary would be in order for those searching for a solution and who don't want to read dozens and dozens of posts.
When installing Windows XP Home (brand new, just out of the box), I repeatedly got the blue screen of death within Parallels, with the error message "SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILED". (Although I had to read really, really fast to see it before the blue screen cleared!) This was repeatable over and over again. After the blue screen, I attempted to launch Windows XP Home, only to have the black DOS-like screen hang up and freeze at the message, "Boot from hard drive..."
This seems to be a fairly common problem, even causing some users to rant and abandon Parallels.
I uninstalled Parallels and all files I could easily determine where Parallels-related (Spotlight search for "Parallel")... I'm sure there are others, but these are what I removed. Then downloaded the latest build from Parallels (the software updater feature within Parallels itself didn't work, so had to download directly from the website), installed it, then repaired permissions using Disk Utility.
Then, I made a disk image of the Windows XP Home CD using the instructions from the Parallels knowledgebase (http://kb.parallels.com/entry/30/458/).
Finally, I ran the Parallels express installer, but selected the .dmg disk image rather than the CD-ROM during the installation process. VOILA! Problem solved.
Not sure if this is a Tiger-related issue, or an alum iMac issue, and don't really care. I'm frustrated that I had to waste an entire morning dealing with this, and Parallels really should be admonished for this... it appears that their support on this issue (like many others) has been less than stellar, to put it lightly.
In any event, hope this helps someone.
GS
Stacey M
I have an office full of brand-new, still in the box aluminum iMacs. Well, except for this first one I'm working on right now.
Like many others online, I had serious Windows XP installation problems. This particular machine is very, very clean, with completely updated OSX 10.4.10 installed. I installed the latest Parallels build (5160) and repaired disk permissions, but the problem persisted.
The good news is that I've overcome the problem, but thought a quick summary would be in order for those searching for a solution and who don't want to read dozens and dozens of posts.
When installing Windows XP Home (brand new, just out of the box), I repeatedly got the blue screen of death within Parallels, with the error message "SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILED". (Although I had to read really, really fast to see it before the blue screen cleared!) This was repeatable over and over again. After the blue screen, I attempted to launch Windows XP Home, only to have the black DOS-like screen hang up and freeze at the message, "Boot from hard drive..."
This seems to be a fairly common problem, even causing some users to rant and abandon Parallels.
I uninstalled Parallels and all files I could easily determine where Parallels-related (Spotlight search for "Parallel")... I'm sure there are others, but these are what I removed. Then downloaded the latest build from Parallels (the software updater feature within Parallels itself didn't work, so had to download directly from the website), installed it, then repaired permissions using Disk Utility.
Then, I made a disk image of the Windows XP Home CD using the instructions from the Parallels knowledgebase (http://kb.parallels.com/entry/30/458/).
Finally, I ran the Parallels express installer, but selected the .dmg disk image rather than the CD-ROM during the installation process. VOILA! Problem solved.
Not sure if this is a Tiger-related issue, or an alum iMac issue, and don't really care. I'm frustrated that I had to waste an entire morning dealing with this, and Parallels really should be admonished for this... it appears that their support on this issue (like many others) has been less than stellar, to put it lightly.
In any event, hope this helps someone.
GS