I have been using the latest build of Parallel Desktop 7 on my MacBook Pro running MacOS X Snow Leopard, with Windows XP SP3 on the Bootcamp partition. I have experienced no problems whatsoever with the virtual configuration under MacOS X Snow Leopard and the software has remained error free. Today I upgraded to MacOS X Lion and was subsequently unable to fully boot up the Virtual Windows XP OS. The load failed very early with a Windows error "computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware." I closed down MacOS Lion and rebooted my MacBook Pro into Windows and found that the Windows XP OS in the Bootcamp partition functioned perfectly and loaded Windows XP without any problems. I went into disk managment and checked the health of the disk and found no problems. Thinking that this error is normally associated with boot.ini problems, I checked out the boot.ini file but it appears in this case that the file is as it should be. Perhaps that is obvious as the OS booted up without any issues! The issues seem to reside within the virtual disk configuration where I confess that I am lacking in skills. I have posted a support ticket but thought I would ask whether anyone in the forum has a similar experience and can advise me of the steps I may be able to take to correct the problem. Tim.
hello Tim, Try to remove Parallels tools from boot camp (go to add remove programs) after that delete your virtual machine from Parallels and recreate it from the scratch. all you data would be kept safe.
Virtual Windows XP Boot Failure following Upgrade Hello YanaYana, Many thanks for your expert help. Having followed your instructions I now have a working Virtual Machine again that I am using at this moment. I also have to comment that the system seems to be running faster than before which is a bonus! I use my Outlook Mail client opening time as a benchmark for this. Best Wishes, Tim from Orkney
finding "add/remove programs" I have the same exact problem now that I have upgraded my MacBook Pro to Lion yesterday. When attempting to get Parallels to load Boot Camp, I get the same message: "The load failed very early with a Windows error "computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware."" However, per your suggestion, I cannot find add/remove programs. Under the Virtual Machines menu, I do find Reinstall Parallel Tools. Please guide me to "add/remove programs" so that I can remove Parallel Tools and fix this problem. Thank you.
The add and remove programs is a component of Windows Control Panel, you'll have to select Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove... (try switching to Window mode instead of coherence mode in Parallels if you are having problems in finding the start menu).
