Error: Missing (Boot Camp-)Harddrive every time I am starting Parallels

[PeterMiller]

I am using Parallels 5.0.9344 with a Mac Pro (OS X 10.6.3). Every time I am starting Parallels (only after q complete new start of the Mac) I am getting an error, that the Boot Camp partition is missing – Parallels is not starting. I can solve the problem in the configuration, but next time I start my Mac, it’s the same error again! In the configuration, in the harddisk section, there are two harddisks to choose from, one obliviously being the system disk (OSX, because of the size) and the other, smaller one being the second partition on the disk, the Boot Camp partition. I can switch in the source section to the right, Boot Camp, partition – next time same problem, switch to the wrong, system disk again! I tried deleting the whole harddisk section and only attached the Boot Camp partition- next startup same error and switched again to the OS X system disk. I tried closing the little lock in the left corner, after switching to the right partition – next system start, same error! Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[joevt]

Parallels uses a stupid method to remember the selected Boot Camp disk. It uses the disk# device names.

:~ joevt$ ls /dev/disk?
/dev/disk0	/dev/disk1	/dev/disk2	/dev/disk3	/dev/disk4	/dev/disk6	/dev/disk7

If you have more than one disk attached to your Mac (especially Mac Pros) then the device names change every time you reboot the Mac (possibly because the kernel is multi-threaded and disk devices may be added in any order).

They need to do some research and come up with a better method or combination of methods to identify a disk.
- hard drive model (but some people may install more then one hard drive of the same model).
- partition layout (but some people may have disks of the same size with the same number and size of partitions).
- volume IDs (but some people may clone a volume without making a new volume ID, plus volume IDs can only be obtained from known file systems).
- volume names (but some people may have disks with the same volume names).
- hard drive location (firewire port/usb port/drive bay number) (but some people may move a hard drive to a different location).
- an Apple alias (but who knows how smart aliases are and the drive the alias points to needs to be mounted before the alias can be used).