Cannot Clone (or otherwise duplicate) VM hdd files

I used to be able to, but can no longer clone my VM files. I have tried to clone them on the startup drive, USB drives, and networked drives. I have tried to copy with the Finder, recover using Data Rescue II, and even tried to archiving the files with Stuffit. I have checked my hard drive with Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, Data Rescue II, and Tech Tool Deluxe (no disk errors). I've had this problem for several months, and it has persisted through two different VM's and the upgrade to Parallels 3.0 build 4560.

• When I try to clone, the progress bar stops about 1/8 of the way across, and then my computer freezes almost completely despite low CPU usage.
• When I try to copy by dragging the VM folder to another disk, it stops copying after about 618 MB and I get the message: "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in winxp.hdd.o.{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}.hds could be read or written. (Error code -36).
• When I tried stuffing the files with Stuffit, I also got an error code.

The VM otherwise seems to run fine with Parallels only very rarely crashing (Parallels 3.0 was a big performance improvement). I have run the Parallels Compactor and have seen no errors (except my main VM has ballooned to 32 GB despite only 8 GB used on the drive).

I have a feeling the problem is in the hdd hard drive image file, but I don't know what else to do.

I would appreciate any help anyone can give. I am thinking of creating yet another VM from scratch, but re-valditating WinXP and reloading all my software is a huge pain.

Thanks.

 

do you have a succession of old clones?

cloning 9 gb takes a while

I use a fast firewire La Cie disk and it takes about 15 minutes
the msac HD is about 20% empty
and the nominal C drive 30 gb 9 gb used

I think USB ir USB 2 just may be too slow

Hugh W

 

Why not first copy "winxp" to your desktop and then to another disk.

 

I tried copying just winxp.hdd locally onto the desktop, but I still get the same error message.

When copying onto external drives, I have tried it on external drives connected via USB2, Firewire, and my Airport Extreme network. I usually try to clone overnight, even though it should not take more than an hour to clone my VM's.

 

Did you make sure your VM machine is shutdown and not just suspended or running?

I have cloned some of mine quite successsully both on firewire and USB2.