Hi Each time I restart my windows partition, it runs chkdsk which shows literally thousands of allocation unit invalid and cross linked allocations. Once fixed, windows loads OK, but the next reboot does the same again. I have reinstalled both parallels and windows XP, but I always get this behaviour - and it takes 15-20 minutes, consuming more than 50% CPU. I am running on MBP, 10.4.7, 2Gb RAM - neither XP or OSX are even close to being disk bound. Any ideas? Shaun
Hi Shaun, I just ran chkdsk in a cmd window, then forced it with chkdsk /x to check on reboot, my volume shows clean, no problem. I am using XP lightly for a couple of win only apps. Are you generating a lot of files and deleting them??? After windows loads okay, can you try running chkdsk from the gui right click on the c: drive -> properties --> tools -> error checking After running all your programs and stuff see if XP VM is corrupted before shutting down. Do you connect the XP VM to the network, is it protected?? I know, stupid question, but it really only takes a few minutes for XP to get a virus (I tried it for fun with a XP VM, amazing what one can catch!)
Under what file system did you format your virtual hard drive? FAT or FAT32 is often susceptible to corruption so that every single time the system crashes, chkdsk will run. NTFS is far more robust. If you're using FAT or FAT32, try converting it to NTFS. Check out this Microsoft page on how to convert your file system: How to Convert FAT Disks to NTFS Running Parallels, I don't think there's any reason to ever run FAT16 or FAT32 with XP. For Boot Camp, yes, so Mac OS can read and write to the FAT partition, but with Parallels, there's just no reason to do so. If you're running NTFS, disregard this.
Hi I ran chkdsk, fixed errors, checked my antivirus software, etc, but still got allocation errors on reboot. So I did as suggested and converted to NTFS - I had been using FAT32 for compatibility, but you're right, with the parallels tools, it is not necessary. Voila, all is well - no allocation errors. Many thanks Shaun
