corrupt hdd file and pvs is ZERO kb

My Parallels installation (which has been bulletproof for 1.5 years) has decided to crash. Yesterday Windows downloaded a major update and rebooted and everything was fine. At the end of the day I put the WinXP VM to sleep and then put the Mac to sleep and went home. When I tried to start everything later that evening the battery was drained. Then I tried to wake up the VM and got the message that it was not a valid configuration file and after further checking, that the .hdd file was corrupt.

I tried copying the snapshot file back and did get a very old snapshot to boot. I also tried various methods to restore the original file including updating the xml files and even the pvs file.

Well I finally accepted that I would use the older snapshot and worked in that VM today. Now I just booted again and the .pvs file has been wiped out! Zero kb! This is the second time this has happened and now I can't boot the only remaining VM. Something is seriously fried, anyone have any additional suggestions?

Mark

 

Hello Mark,

Please create a new VM in custom mode (Parallels Desktop menu bar -> File -> New) and use the existing virtual hard drive (the .hdd file) - choose this option on the fourth step of OS installation and browse to the file.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Thanks Xenos, I tried that with the same result. Tonight I went further. Using some of the threads posted here I reconstructed the package files, DiskDescriptor.xml files and the pvs file, matching them to the existing Snapshots.xml file and I'm reasonably certain I have the structure correct. Same result, still a corrupted file. Here's the top-level DiskDecriptor and a screenshot of the Parallels directory.

Mark

 

Hello Mark,

Thank you for the screenshots.
Could you let me know the size of the .hds files from the .hdd package?

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Sure.

3ad8229c - 8.62Gb
5fbaabe3 - 10.82Gb
524a37eb - 38.56Gb

 

Mark, I am sorry I have to ask for more information from you again.
Please find the Snapshots.xml file in your VM folder, open it with Text Editor and paste the contents in your next post.
Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

You got it. I'll do anything to help recover this file. Here's the Snapshots.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ParallelsSavedStates xmlns:xsi="" vm_uuid="" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="" >
<SavedStateItem guid="" state="poweroff" >
<Name></Name>
<DateTime></DateTime>
<Creator></Creator>
<ScreenShot></ScreenShot>
<Description><![CDATA[]]></Description>
<SavedStateItem guid="{524a37eb-c4cc-4bd4-8ca5-ce6cd1d1dec2}" state="poweroff" >
<Name>ML120707</Name>
<DateTime>December 7, 2007 2:40:44 PM</DateTime>
<Creator></Creator>
<ScreenShot>:/Resources/Saved_state.png</ScreenShot>
<Description><![CDATA[December 7, 2007]]></Description>
<SavedStateItem current="yes" guid="{3ad8229c-d7bd-4eda-9235-3fd883d69e84}" state="poweron" >
<Name>Snaphot 1-25-2008</Name>
<DateTime>January 25, 2008 10:53:13 AM</DateTime>
<Creator></Creator>
<ScreenShot>Snapshots/{3ad8229c-d7bd-4eda-9235-3fd883d69e84}.png</ScreenShot>
<Description><![CDATA[]]></Description>
</SavedStateItem>
</SavedStateItem>
</SavedStateItem>
</ParallelsSavedStates>

 

Xenos, any updates? I still haven't been able to recover the file and I really would like to get some information out of it. Thanks for the help!

Mark

 

Hello Mark,

I am sorry for the delay.
Here is the answer given by developers:

There is no easy way to restore the information from your virtual hard disk. If you can ask an IT specialist for help, you should modify the DiskDescriptor.xml file contents (the file is stored in the .hdd package). The DiskDescriptor.xml file contents must correspond the virtual hard disk package contents (disk size, cylinders, heads, .hds files etc.)

One more suggestion: please check if you have a hidden lock file in the .hdd package. Deleting it might solve the problem.

To find out if there is a lock file run this command in Terminal:

ls -la ~/Documents/Parallels/<Your VM folder>/<Your .hdd name>.hdd/

If you will see the .DiskDescriptor.xml.lock file in the output, run the following command:

rm ~/Documents/Parallels/<Your VM folder>/<Your .hdd name>.hdd/.DiskDescriptor.xml.lock

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Fixed! What a relief! There were some unusual errors at first, but in the end we were able to use the Image Tool to combine the snapshots into a new hdd file and that restored everything. This was a combined effort from me, our local support guru and the Parallels engineering team so thank you very much! And I just backed up critical files and ordered a new backup drive which will be here tomorrow.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Mark

 

Congratulations!!!

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Same Problem with ZERO kb pvs file

I have just encountered the same problem with my fedora virtual maching running Parallels on my MacBook Pro.

I tried copying a backup of the the virtual machine folder for my fedora system and then copying over my current fedora.hdd.


This time Parallels allowed me to select my fedora machine as an option, but then gave me a corrupted error when it tried to load it.

I have critical data that I need to recover. Any ideas Zenos?

Sounds like this is a bug??

Thanks,

 

Randy, could you describe step by step what you did for we could see if there is a bug? Please provide more details. Screenshots are appreciated.

Can you open your .hdd file with Parallels Mounter?

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Additional Information on ZERO k pvs problem

I juet created a new thread titled 'ZERO K pvs file & Virtual Machine Corrupt' for this.

In my post I stated the following:

I have had several recent startups of Parallels (Parallels for Mac 3.0 build 5584) crash unexpectedly. After restarting, the crash goes away and everything runs normally until my last shutdown of Parallels which went normally.

Upon trying to restart Parallels, it would not recognize my fedora virtual machine (only giving me an option for my windows xp virtual machine). I looked in the fedora directory and noticed that the fedora.pvs file is now ZERO k in size and trying to open the fedora.hdd virtual machine with Parallels Mounter or Explorer gives me a message that the file is corrupt.

Has anyone else run into this? I have had flakey behavior with this latest build. I really need to access some files on this virtual machine. Any ideas on how I can extract them or restore this virtual machine?

Additional Information since last posting:
1. I copied an older saved folder for fedora to my system. I then replaced the older working fedora.hdd file with the one from the corrupted folder and tried to load the virtual machine. This time it found fedora and let me select fedora as my virtual machine; however, upon trying to start it up it gave me a corrupt error.

2. Using the bad Fedora.hdd I went to show package contents and took the largest and latest of the two hds files and copied it to the fedora virtual machine directory. I then renamed it to fedora1.hdd. Then pointed to this file in the edit virtual machine window. The system performed the conversion of the file and I was able to load the file.

After fedora booted all directories seem to be there EXCEPT for the directory that I last working on which is the directory that I need to recover files from?? Not sure why this directory is gone now?

I sure need these files.

 

Xenos,

Sure could use a reply from my last post. I was able to restore my data by copying an old copy of DiskDescriptor.xml and fedora.pvs and memory.sav for the corrupted folder.

I could then load the fedora virtual machine but only once. It hangs when I exit Parallels and sometimes causes my MacOS to hang when I perform a shutdown. When I boot back up, the fedora virtual machine is corrupted OR sometimes it loads the fedora menu saying that fedora will load in 4 seconds but it never counts down or loads. Once I'm in that state its basically hosed.

I don't trust Parallels anymore. I am also frustrated with the response from support on such a serious issue.

Perhaps I need to look for another option. Without any feedback from Parallels on this issue I'm running out of options. I have been so pleased with Parallels until recently, hopefully a solution can be identified.

Thanks,

 

Xenos,

I am still waiting for a response on this post... I am still crashing... Very frustrated with Parallels right now. Is anyone there to respond???

Thanks,

 

Hello Randy,

I am awfully sorry for the long absence.
I have asked an engineer, but he found it difficult to identify the issue.
Please reinstall Parallels and install a kernel without smp and acpi support in Fedora.

Best regards,
Xenos