"A Disk Read Error Occurred"

[Jack Zhang]

Dear Parallels, I cannot start my Windows Vista Business Ultimate virtual machine. It keep giving me following error:
=======
Parallels(R) 3.0 build 5608 (c) 2005-2008 Parallels.....

640 KB Base Memory
1048576 KB Extended Memory
Boot from hard drive....
A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
=======

I am using MacBook Pro, the OS is Leopard (OSX 10.5.4), Guest OS is Windows Vista Business Ultimate.

I have tried to use the parallels explorer to mount the hdd file but it gives me following message:
====
Parallels Explorer is unable to open file system volumne.
The file system is not supported or contains errors.
Start your virtual machine and check the disk for file system errors.
====

I am not using boot camp, I directly installed the virtual machine from the installation disk using Parallels.

What should I do now?

Thx!

 

[John@Parallels]

Please perform backup of Virtual Machine using one of the suggestions in
Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from
http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf
on page 243, e.g cloning Virtual Machine, or simply copying Virtual
machine folder (when Parallels Desktop is in stopped state), such
operations if incorrectly performed can lead to data loss.

and perform steps in http://kb.parallels.com/en/4680

 

[Jack Zhang]

Parallels throws exception

Hi John,
I followed till step 9 of the instruction: http://kb.parallels.com/en/4680. But the parallels throws exceptions and it stopped. I put the error message in the attachment.

Thx.

 

[John@Parallels]

Please try to reinstall Parallels Desktop as described
http://kb.parallels.com/en/4790

 

[Jack Zhang]

Still not working. Any more ideas?

 

[John@Parallels]

When you tried 4680, did you perform operations with all disks?
Or with only one?

 

[Jack Zhang]

only 1 hdd file

I only see one winvista.hdd file. I attached the picture of the directory.

 

[John@Parallels]

yes, it the one you need to perform operations with,
Don't forget to backup first

 

[bowerymarc]

same here

same thing happened to me.... maybe it's because it's a NTFS expandable drive?
if I try various utils (e.g from Hirens) many give the same read error.

I went to a backup version of the drive which was backed up before this stopped working, and they give the same. Could it either be the latest security fix to osx 10.5.8?