"Boot from CD/DVD-ROM drive... failed."

[mintcake]

I have a Mac Mini with 1.66 GHz Intel core duo processor, running 10.4.8. Parallels 2.2 build 1970 is installed. I'm trying to install the guest OS. I have Windows ME and Windows XP VMs configured, but neither will install the guest OS. On launching the VM, the console says "Boot from CD/DVD-ROM drive... failed. No boot device available, press Enter to continue."

I have bootable ME and XP CDs, they are not recognised. I've tried them in the Mac Mini's CD drive; I've tried them in an external (USB) CD drive; I've tried creating ISO images in Parallels ImageTool; I've tried creating ISO images in Disk Utility; I've tried burning the ISO to a fresh CDR; all these drives have been connected in the Parallels console; always the same message: "Boot from CD/DVD-ROM drive... failed."

I'm running low on ideas. If it won't recognise the CD in the Mac's optical drive, surely it will recognise an ISO image created from the CD? Why won't it boot? I'm tearing my hair out here...

 

[pglenn]

I'm running into the same problem. I've got a Macbook Pro dual core 2.66 with 2 gigs RAM. I've tried build 1970 and the new Beta, but can't get either XP or Vista to work. I've also tried the ISO's.

 

[joem]

Try making sure the CD is on IDE controller 0:0 and the hdd on 0:1.

Put them back where they were (hdd on 0:0 and CD on 1:0) when you are ready to boot from the hdd.

 

[pglenn]

Yeah, tried that and it still didn't work. Now my trial has expired and can't really try anything else.