I had Parallels and XP installed on my Mac when I bought it from an online retailer. I imagine it is installed properly, and that all is as it should be. However when I have tried to run it, and I open a VM, it says NO BOOT DEVICE AVAILABLE. I've been a regular Mac user for years, and am definately not as familiar with Windows. Could somebody help me fix this? Thanks very much.
Sounds like you need to install an OS. Parallels is a Virtual Machine (also known as a computer simulator). It only simulates the hardware, you need to install software on it. If you want to run Windows, you need to connect your Windows Install CD to the VM and let it run. There is also an install-wizard you can run if you download build 3036 from the stickey at the top of this forum. The wizard makes installing Windows easier. If you want to install something else in the VM, like say Linux then you just connect the linux instal disc and run the installer in parallels.
If you have both XP and Parallels installed, it may be that the XP install is in bootcamp. You can run XP if this is the case by holding down the option key when you boot your Mac and selecting the bootcamp partition. If you want to use Parallels, you need to create a VM and install an OS. You can install XP (you need the install disk) or some other OS. I happen to like Win2k, but I may be a bit weird. The latest Parallels beta can be coerced into booting XP from a bootcamp partition, but unless you have a good technical background in both Mac and Windows, it may be more trouble than it's worth to make it happen and it is beta and beta = doesn't work yet. If you do attempt to use the beta, I'd suggest you back up your bootcamp partition first so that when you trash it, you can get it back. Really, I wouldn't try this at home.
