I'm using beta 6 on a MacBook Pro and can't get XP to install. When XP asks for the 25 character ID code I am told it is invalid. I am using a Volume Licensed CD that I have used many times before with our Volume Product code. I have tried this with both a SP2 CD and a SP1 CD, both give the same error. I know the code is valid, as I used the same SP2 CD and code to install on a Boot Camp partition on this same MBP. So it appears that for some reason the VM is refusing to recognize something about the Volume License code, even though it does seem to know that the CD is correct for a Volume License. (See attached screenshots.) Any ideas?
Arne: VM has nothing to do with the key as far as I can think of, since the key you entered is crunched by an algorithim on the cd to see if it is a valid key or not. I wonder if by chance when the files were being copied over if that dll got damaged somehow. I would try to make a good copy of the cd and try again. Mike V.
Sorry, I can't buy that. I have tried it several times with at least four different known good CDs, both SP2 and earlier SP1a. And I know that the last SP2 CD that I tried works fine, as I used it (with the same volume license code) to install XP on the Boot Camp partition on this very same MacBook Pro. Hmm, I just thought of something. We've got an Intel iMac one of our technicians is using as a test mule, I think I'll try to install on that as well. If that fails too...
Interesting. I use a volume key and no issues. Don't know what to tell you, except that for some reason the algorithim is getting broken under VM which does not make any logical sense. Mike V.
I agree, it doesn't make sense to me either. But it's all I've got at this point. The same CD and code worked fine on the Boot Camp partition, and works fine if I use it on one of the many Dells within the organization. But it won't work with Parallels. I've even gone so far as to try it both with and without an external keyboard, even though the code displays correctly on the screen.
You know what you could try? Borrow a commerical XP with SP2 cd and install it (home or pro should not care), see if that will install in the VM. If it does, try an inplace upgrade to your version. Mike V.
I have the exact same problem. i used 2 different cds multiple times. the volume product code works fine on dell machine down the hall. i have a 17" powerbook with double density dvd i wonder if its related to that. Could it be that the parallels VM does not provide the key check with the proper response with the newer dvds? I have left a couple emails to parallels tech support, and gotten no response. i tried using cd to disk image (i made a disk image on th emac from the cd) but it doesnt recognize .dmg or .img files when it asks you to browse to the disk image. thanks jim
Try making a CDR master of the disc in Disk Utility, and then changing the file extension to .ISO (they're the same, but parallels may not recognize .cdr)
one more thing. i tried adding a usb cd drive to try a more normal cd unit. but i cant figure out how to get the vm to recognize it as a cd. Any thoughts? jim
i tried creating iso image as you specified. but it refuses to boot from it. thanks for letting me know how ot make in image anyway.
