Can't Connect to HDD after Migration to New Mac

[joevt]

Do you have "Finder -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Show all filename extensions" enabled? Virtual machines in Parallels Desktop 5 usually have a .pvm extension.

Use the following to list everything in your virtual machine and to dump the contents of the DiskDescriptor file:

ls -lRd ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*
ls -lR ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*
ls -l ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*/*.hdd/DiskDescriptor.xml
cat ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*/*.hdd/DiskDescriptor.xml
ls -l ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*/*.pvs
cat ~/Documents/Parallels/XP*/*.pvs | grep .hdd

the .hdd drive is more unhappy. It is now saying that Windows is not detected, although Windows was installed there as recently as Wednesday morning

What do you mean by "it"? Wenesday was yesterday or do you mean 8 days ago? How is that possible if you've been having the problem for 4 months?
Please provide context in the form of a screen shot if you are unable to explain what your are doing or what is happening. Let's just try to get the .hdd working with Parallels Mounter first.

I just did an update to the latest Parallels build 2 days ago (9376), and that loaded properly, and I was able to reload the tools at that time. I was hoping that the update would fix my "unable to connect to hard disk 1" problem, but that error came back after I updated

It sound's like
1) everything was working 3 days ago and that you didn't have the "unable to connect to hard disk 1" problem then.
2) you updated to 9376 and were able to boot the virtual machine into Windows and reinstall the latest Parallels Tools that came with 9376.

So if (1) is true then what "unable to connect to hard disk 1" problem were you hoping to fix by updating to 9376?

I am assuming you have only one virtual machine (XP Pro) with only one virtual hard disk (winxp copy 1.hdd) which is Hard Disk 1 in the virtual machine configuration and Hard Disk 1 contains a bootable Windows XP. Provide a screen shot of the Hard Disk 1 setting in Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Hardware -> Hard Disk 1.

 

[JillO]

Sent screen shot of error messages last night, and another screen shot today. Also sent the results from pasting the code into the terminal, and got 183 pages of data, which I copied to a Word file and sent via email.

I have one .hdd drive on this hard drive--a backup from my previous version is stored on another hard drive in my machine.

Also, I explained in my last email that I installed Parallels 5 in May of 2010, and limped along with the "unable to connect to hard disk 1" problem for some time. It would freeze and I had to stop the virtual machine and restart about every 10-30 minutes. I gave up on that and set up a new computer with Bootcamp to run my Windows programs. But I miss the ability to go back and forth between operating systems here at my own computer, and so I decided to try to get it fixed. I started looking on the forums, and there appeared to be hope that I might be able to get it fixed, and several days later, here I am at this point again.

It was not working properly for the last 4 months--I just gave up on it for awhile, but I should not have to sacrifice using the program that I purchased, nor should I have to find another solution (VM ware, etc.). This product should work for me as it did before May 2010.

 

[joevt]

Sent screen shot of error messages last night, and another screen shot today. Also sent the results from pasting the code into the terminal, and got 183 pages of data, which I copied to a Word file and sent via email.

Sent where?

I don't think there should be 183 pages of data unless you have lots of folders in ~/Documents/Parallels/ that have a name that starts with XP or you have lots of .hdd files.

For text only data, it's better to use TextEdit instead of Word, then use Format -> Make Plain Text and save as a .txt file. Word also has a save as text option.

I explained in my last email that I installed Parallels 5 in May of 2010

Are you emailing tech support? I don't work for Parallels.

limped along with the "unable to connect to hard disk 1" problem for some time. It would freeze and I had to stop the virtual machine and restart about every 10-30 minutes.

Does this mean you would sometimes not get the "unable to connect" message? Is the freeze related to the "unable to connect" message, or does the freeze only occur if you do not get the "unable to connect" message? That would make more sense since you can't get a freeze in Windows without being able to boot Windows and you can't boot Windows if you can't connect to hard disk 1.

Are you using Time Machine or a virus scanner or other program that scans files? Disable them. Maybe add ~/Documents/Parallels/ to the Privacy tab in the Spotlight system preferences. You want to make sure only one person or program is using the files.

I gave up on that and set up a new computer with Bootcamp to run my Windows programs but I miss the ability to go back and forth between operating systems

Parallels can use a Boot Camp partition as the hard disk so you can boot the same Windows using Boot Camp and Parallels.

 

[JillO]

Thanks Joevt. Still trying.

I apologize. I did think that you might be with Parallels support. That said, I also have a machine in my office that is set up as a Bootcamp partition with Parallels, another that is Bootcamp only, and both of those are working properly. The other machine with Parallels is version 4. I updated my own machine first, and that is the one that is giving me the "unable to connect to hard disk 1".

As to the machine behavior before and during the error:
It starts up properly, and runs for a short time
If I take any kind of break in my work, I come back to the machine and the screen is black, with the message "unable to connect..." At that point the Windows part of the machine is frozen, and the Parallels desktop menu is grayed out.
If I leave it even longer, then the black screen has messages behind the error message.
I have to stop the virtual machine to be able to get rid of the screen.

Thanks!