HELP! Error starting VM following snapshot error

I recently reduced the size of my .hdd, following a very lengthy dialog with John from Parallels in the Windows XP forum (I think.) Everything seemed to be running fine, once the .hdd got compacted.

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=22294&goto=newpost

I only mention that in case anything I did as part of that thread may have contributed to this problem?

So, I decided to create a new snapshot (since snapshots have been a lifesaver in the past!)

When I did, I got the snapshot error below. After that, I can no longer do anything at all with the VM! I get the VM error below.

What do I do now!?

Thanks!
Mark

 

Delete Snapshots.xml and Snapshots folder
From DiskDescriptor.xml remove data between Snapshot tag
and http://kb.parallels.com/en/4938

Of course backup first

 

Thanks, John - That fixes the VM error, but I still can't create Snapshots. I forgot that the attached error is what started the problem when I tried to run Snapshot. This is what happened again after I did your fixes, then tried to create a snapshot again, once the VM was working again.

 

What build you are using?

 

Build 5608.

Since last posting, Parallels got totally hosed (when I tried to run it, I would get an error that there is no operating system on the VM!) and I had to restore it from a pre-compress backup, and then run the compress again. That took almost 5 hours. Now its back down to 6.7G, but I'm nervous about running Snapshot again?! Should I give up on Snapshots, and just back up the whole Documents/Parallels folder periodically?

Mark

 

Actually Snapshot is not for backup purpose, it is for keeping previous VM state.
Probably you can try http://kb.parallels.com/en/4790 as a first troubleshooting step

 

Thanks - I'll try the troubleshooting steps.

I'm not using Snapshot as a backup, but rather backing up as a replacement for Snapshot, which isn't working at the moment.