Problem starting up Windows XP

Need help! Can't find out what's happening with my parallels. It's been a week that I can not open my VM and it shows the picture attached below. I'm using Macbook Version 10.5.6 and Parallels 3.0 Build 5636.

Your help will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

Try checking the virtual machine hard disk size, for that, you need to search for an .hdd file called something like "winxp.hdd", try checking it in the default folder which is /Users/<username>/Documents/Parallels/<VM_name>
That file is basically your VM in which Windows is installed, so it should have a decent size, more that 1 Gb.

 

Checked it!

Hi Desgael,

Thanks you for your immediate help. I already checked the windowsxp.hdd and it says the size is 17.28 GB. Please see the snapshot attached. What do I need to do?

Thanks again..
Jing

 

Hello Jing,

I do not see the snapshot but if the VM hard disk is present then the problem might be with the guest OS.

Try the following steps:

1. First of all, try accessing the hard disk via Parallels Explorer. If you would be able to see the content of the disk then it is not corrupted.
In any case, back up the hard disk, just copy windowsxp.hdd to some other place.

2. If there are any snapshots in the hard disk (if you right-click on windowsxp.hdd and see several .hds files inside), try merging them using Parallels Image Tool.

3. After that, I would suggest to try Windows repair installation as per article http://kb.parallels.com/en/5138
That way we would also be able to check whether Windows detects any OS inside or not.

 

Snapshot

Hi Desgael here's the snapshot.. I'll try to do what you said.. Happy Easter!

 

Tried it

Hi Desgael,

1. I tried accessing the hard disk in Parallels explorer and I was able to see the contents of the disk.
2. I can't see .hds files inside the windowsxp.hdd when I right clicked it.

Please see attached snapshot of the windowsxp.hdd info.

Thanks so much!

 

Hi Desgael,

I tried #s 1 and 2.

1. I can acces the windowsxp.hdd so that means it's not corrupted.
2. When i right click the windowsxp.hdd I have to choose many options like open it with disk mounter etc.
I tried opening it in disk mounter and this is what I saw. Didn't find .hds files.

 

If the disk content is accessible, then the problem seems to be with Windows installation itself, but judging from the screenshot I would suggest to try the following:

1. Backup the virtual machine hard disk image (copy winxp.hdd to some other place)

2. Shut down Parallels (and unmount the disk) and remove anything except winxp.hdd in the virtual machine folder.

3. Launch Parallels and create a new virtual machine (File -> New ) using the Custom installation mode. When prompted - select an option "Use existing hard disk image" and point to winxp.hdd. At that point there is no need to have Windows disk inserted.

4. If the issue persists, perform the repair of Windows installation. http://kb.parallels.com/en/5138


By the way, to see the .hds files inside winxp.hdd you need to select option "Show package content" when you right-click on it.

 

Corrupted

Hi Desgael,

I tried steps 1 and 2. Worked well until it said that my windowsxp.hdd is corrupted
Please see attached file.

Thanks again!

 

Hi Desgael,

I was able to use my existing hard disk now but I still got the old start up message in windows xp..

 

If Parallels is unable to use the hard disk, try the following:
right-click on winxp.hdd and select option "Show package content".

If there is only one .hds file inside, just drag it out of the winxp.hdd (I hope you did a backup as suggested), then delete now almost empty winxp.hdd and rename the .hds file to winxp.hdd.

When done, try again step 3 from my previous reply.

Updated:

If you have attached it successfully - try step 4, Windows repair.

 

Did what you said but I again got the same start-up message. I noticed something, after setting up the OS installation I saw 2 folders of Microsoft Windows XP. One named Microsoft Windows XP - which you can see the winxp.hdd then the other one is named Microsoft Windows XP 1 - which has the .pvs file that only exists after opening the VM and setting up OS installation. Is this normal? Please see attached file.

Thanks so much again!

 

Upgrade

I don't have my windows installation disk anymore. Can I use any windows xp installer? How can I do the repair without losing my old files?

By the way, I also purchased the upgrade to Parallels Desktop 4.0. Will this help me if I upgrade my version?

Thanks!

 

Another question

Hi Desgael,

Can I use a new installations disc of windows xp? Different from the one I used before?

Thanks

 

Windows xp disc

Hi Desgael,

I followed the instruction on Repair the installation of Windows XP in Virtual Machine but I stopped on this step:
9. Windows should ask you to press any key to boot from the CD - click in the window of the VM to capture the keyboard input and press any key.

- I pressed a key but the configuration of Windows did not start the Setup process. I checked if the disc was recognized in my virtual machine and it did recognize. I can't see any problem but it did not start the setup process when I pressed a key and I can't move on to the next step. Any thought on this?

Your help will be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jing

 

I was able to start the set up process of windows xp in my vm but there's an error. Please see the attachment.

Thanks!

 

Regarding this error - this might be caused by scratches on CD. Try creating a disk image and use it instead (use the first part of the following article to check how to do that): http://kb.parallels.com/en/4664

 

Thanks Desgael!

I tried the link you posted to create a disk image but I was unable to create the image it says input or output error.
Please see attached image.

Thanks again!

 

This might mean that there is a problem with disk utility or with a CD itself.
To check this, I would suggest to try using some other software for creating disk images or try creating the disk image on another machine.
Or as well you could try a different CD since this one is not original one as you have noted.
Also, on a side note, if you are performing a Windows repair, as you have probably noted in the article, the Service Pack should be the same - on CD and on Windows installed. Additionally, if this is a different CD make sure that at least type of Windows is the same. i.e. I would not suggest to repair Pro edition with a home edition.