Clueless Newbie: How to reinstall windows 7 and parallels 6

T

TheresaS

Bit poster
Hello,
I have searched and cannot find help for this elsewhere. I am new to all of this and really don't understand a lot about the entire virtual machine (would rather not have to, but will do what I need to, I guess). New to Mac also, so everything is feeling foreign.

I have OS X running Windows 7 with Parallels 6. I have some major corruption of all of windows with links leading to the wrong places, all applications have been moved, etc--likely from a virus.
I have tried reinstalling various programs but it is a broader problem and I want to uninstall/reinstall Windows 7.
Can anyone help me with how to go about this? Do I need to uninstall parallels also. Will that involve repartitioning the drive, etc? This is a case of not knowing what I don't know. Usually I am pretty fearless, but I am in a time crunch to get this done and the whole system working in harmony!

Thank you very much and I apologize if this is a lame question and/or answered elsewhere.
Theresa
 
Hello Theresa,

You need to create new virtual machine and install Windows 7 from the scratch. In fact you can have more than one virtual machine at a time and even run them simultaneously (but it can be rather slow).
So please follow this article to create new virtual machine http://kb.parallels.com/en/4729 - you will be able to copy all valuable data from the old machine after that, just make sure you have good antivirus installed in anew one.
There is no need to reinstall PD, just create new virtual machine.
 
Thank you so much for your prompt response. Just to be clear, do I need to somehow delete the existing virtual machine if I create a new one? As I do not want to have more than 1 at a time.
 
After you ensure you have copied all data you need from this machine - you need to right click Parallels folder in the Dock, click Virtual Machines List, find old virtual machine in the list, right click it, choose remove, in dialog window asking if you want to remove files click Move to trash. That's all
 
almost there PLEASE HELP AGAIN

Thanks to the previous responses, I have nearly completed this reinstall to a new virtual machine and removed the previous one where i was having problems. My remaining issue is that the absence of the "Applications" for the virtual machine Folder that was on the Mac Dock for easy access. It sat in the same place as the Mac Applications folder on the dock.
This is the way I access most applications in windows and so this is a problem. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to create it there?
If I try to copy the Parallels applications folder to the dock from Finder, it copies every single file (not just the link to the actual application) and they are not clustered into categories.
I am very grateful to those of you who share!
Thresa
 
Open Virtual Machine menu --> configure -> Options -> Applications _. Show Windows Applications folder in the Dock. It Should help
 
Corrupted Virtual PC won't even open

Hi everyone,
I've been looking for a solution similar to TheresaS's problem. My original virtual PC on my Mac has been corrupted. I followed info on this thread to create another virtual PC but my former one is so corrupted that it wouldn't even open for me so that I can copy my files over.
Can someone please give me some advice on how to retrieve my files? I have been backing up on my Time capsule but honestly I don't know if it backed up my PC files and I don't know how to retrieve them even if I did.
Thank you very much for any help!
Distress....Lina
 
there are a lot of options actually.


2. Check if the virtual machine is mounting with Parallels Mounter.

1) Locate the 'Windows_name.pvm' file, it is usually located in one of the following directories:

/User/Documents/Parallels/
/Users/Shared/Parallels/

2) Right click the .pvm file and choose 'Open With > Parallels Mounter'.

3) If virtual machine mounts fine then find the largest .hds file, copy it to .pvm folder and change extension to .hdd (you may rename file to make it easy to read) in order to restore the data which is not corrupted.

3. In case if virtual machine cannot be mounted, it means the whole virtual hard disk and it's file system are corrupted and you can try to restore Windows by following the windows recovery guidance:

1) Recover using Windows CD/DVD:

For Windows XP: 5138
For Windows Vista/7: 5223

2) Create new virtual machine from the scratch and try to connect the virtual hard drive of corrupted VM to the fresh one:
Go to Configuration of the new virtual machine > Hardware > click '+' button in the left down corner of the window and add existing hdd file. Put the location path into the appeared dialog window.

4. In addition you may use one of the third party file recovery applications, for instance TestDisk (free) or DMDE (free trial).

Note: applications above are just examples of the possible recovery applications which can be used, in case if you have any difficulties using those applications, please contact the support team of each application separately.
 
Unable to display PC desktop in Parallels

Hi,
I install Firefox yesterday for the first time in Windows 7 and inadventantly a virus latch onto the Firefox browser on got into my MAC RUNNING ON Parallels 7.

The virus keep opening a unknown url and does not allow me to uninstall the app.

Each time I try to uninstall the Firefox, Firefox will pop up in Windows.

Now , I am able to boot up Parallels , but unable to view the desktop on Windows 7.

The IE 7 browser is open and I am not able to close the browser to display the Windows desktop.

The mouse cursor moves but Windows application or functions on PC hangs in Parallels.

I am only able to close Parallels but I am unable to run or open or close any applications or function in Windows..

Please tell me what I should do ?
 
well you've got the virus, and as usually - you may try to repair Windows with Windows installation CD. Or better install new VM and transfer all the data to new clean Virtual Machine
 
Reinstalling Windows

Hi,

I have a similar problem and would appreciate reassurance before I do any further damage. I have had Windows running within Parallels on my new iMac but have been receiving warnings that my version of Windows was not properly licensed (I used discs previously installed on my MBP) it now asks me for a password I don't have and will not accept the original DVD's so I have reluctantly purchased a new set (Home Premium) and am about to install them.

What should I do?

My inclination is to follow some of the above advice by creating a new virtual machine. In doing that can I at that point install my new version of W7 or will Parallels recognise the existing (unlicensed) version and not let me install the new?

If I create a new VM and then delete the old VM does that action also delete (uninstall) the W7 associated with the old VM?

Should I somehow (?) uninstall the unlicensed version of W7 before doing anything?

Should I uninstall and reinstall Parallels?

Urgent assistance would be greatly appreciated as I am in the middle of putting together a presentation needed for early next week.

Thanks in advance

John
 
Each VM is like a separate physical machine, the fact that you have one unlicensed installation in one VM won't matter for a newly created VM. So you can create a new one and keep the old one also. Alternatively you can use the Product Key you bought on the existing VM to license it.
 
i just upgraded my mac to mountain lion and i can't access my parallels 6. I was reading more about it and came to find out i need to upgrade my parallels to 8. if I do that, would my Window OS just migrate to parallel 8 and among other Window files that i have from before? Please help...not sure whether to upgrade and if i do i cannot find my Windows OS cd. thank you in advance.
 
Parallels 8 will be able to use Parallels 6 Virtual Machines, obviously.
 
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