"Boot from hard disk..." hang -- HELP

After installation of Parallels 3.0, following instructions I took defaults and placed the (brand new out of the box) Windows XP CD in the drive. I watched it for a few minutes as it displayed what it was doing. Time for a cup of tea. Came back, the Parallels screen was there and the message that the virtual machine was stopped. I clicked the arrow to start XP, the window did the flip and the last message is "Boot from hard disk..."

This is not a very encouraging start!

 

Seems more explanation is required. Since I could find no Windows XP on the hard drive, I decided that it didn't load properly. So I started all over. Uninstalled Parallels and installed Parallels and then Windows XP. After copying all the drivers, the next message is to setup Windows. There is a long pause and then the following screen appears -- momentarily. I had to do the Windows install cycle several times to finally get a photo of the screen.



That doesn't give me any clue where to begin. What might be the problem?

When I start the just installed Windows XP, the message is "Boot from hard disk..."

HELP

 

Hey come on! Is there no idea what to try?

Or should I just find some one to buy the Windows XP?

My previous approach of going back and forth between the iMac and my laptop PC. With Parallels I could have both on the same platform. However, so far it doesn't seem possible.

 

I'm having precisely this problem. Trying to install Windows XP on a MacBook Pro. I wasn't quite as persistent, in that I didn't manage to get a snapshot of the screen as you did, but I did see it flash by about nine times.

I tried all the different install options that I could find; same thing every time. No FAQs on it or anything even remotely related. In fact, I had to do a web search to find this forum -- the main website doesn't seem to have any links to this forum or to any useful support options AT ALL. Very, very, very disappointing, that.

Amazingly frustrating experience. I've lost a solid two hours of work time so far and my to-do list is hundreds of lines long. That there's no response at all to this question after two days does not bode well for solving the problem.

 

What's most frustrating is that people have solved this problem. Still, no one sees fit to comment on it. One would think that Parallels support would have an FAQ on this, it seems to be showing up a lot. Anyway, here are some threads with several suggestions:

http://forum.parallels.com/thread4355.html

http://forum.parallels.com/thread6658.html

'Henry Rollins' has an explanation that penetrates the magical "make an ISO" mantra and gives an account of a reason for the failure:
http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?p=10324

So, short version: It looks as though the Superdrive in MacBook Pros can't read WinXP SP2 discs reliably, so you need to make either an image or a copy of the disc, and use that to install off of.

 

Thanks for the post. After all the searches I had done, I hadn't found those. It appears that I did not use the "correct" words for the search.

However, after reading all those threads, I am not sure where to proceed. One even mentions creating a copy on a PC and then making a copy on the Mac. Without a working PC these days, that would be pretty tough. This looks like this will consume a few hours before it is complete. If I am able to get it completed.

There is also a mention of Parallels Image in the Parallels applications folder. There is no such thing in my installation.

Many of those posts were over a year ago. So here in August of 2007, what approach should a guy use to avoid more dead ends.

 

This worked for me...

I found a knowledge base article that seems to address this problem at
http://kb.parallels.com/entry/30/458
looks like it was posted yesterday.

Anyway, I uninstalled Parallels (for the 5th time) and followed these directions creating a new virtual machine, named Damn windows ;-) and it worked.

BTW, loved your screen shot, I caon't believe you caught that, the message went by SO fast! But that's what convinced me that we had a similar problem.

 

Wow. That was the solution. Windows XP SP2 is now installed.

Thanks for that Knowledge Base item.

Perhaps the Parallels development team could include that in the installation package. It seems a lot of frustration would have been prevented for the multitude of users who are installing Windows XP with SP2.

This experience does nothing more than give Parallels a bad reputation. The lack of a response from a Parallels representative on this thread does nothing to change that opinion.

Now that the install is behind me, I can learn how to operate Windows in the Virtual environment. First thing is to make an internet connection to register Windows XP. After that, I have no intention of accessing the internet through Windows.

Regarding the snap shot... It did take three tries before I was able to snap at just the right time before the screen flipped away. Prior to using the camera, I had tried to use the Mac screen snap shot facility. Never could make that work!