Hello there,
I encountered the same problem when I tried to install XP last week. I couldn't press F8 to make it work neither. Thought it was the problem of the CD and I exchanged it for a new XP CD from the store the next day. However, I couldn't install the XP by clicking right forward button anymore, as the hard disk had been created as per Alex from parallel's support.
Alex gave me a list of instructions (below for your reference if you need it), but none of them seem to work for me so far.
QUOTE:
Such situation happens when the virtual hard disk has been created but
an Operating System hasn't been installed on it. Check that your
BOOTABLE and installation media is connected and the appropriative Boot
sequence ('CD-ROM, Hard disk, Floppy' or 'Floppy, Hard disk, CD-ROM') is
set.
If you install from a real CD/DVD:
Select the Use real CD/DVD-ROM and specify which real drive to connect
to the virtual device in the CD/DVD-ROM Drives list (see the picture).
Insert the CD/DVD disk with the operating system distribution into the
appropriate drive of your computer.
If you install from an .iso image file:
Check the Use image file option and specify the path to the .iso
distribution file in the Image File field.
Try to clean your CD & CD drive.
If no help, try to to create .iso image from your CD and install from it.
Also prevent the Mac HD to go to sleep at any time, using the Mac Energy
Saver (otherwise, the installation of the XP guest got stuck during the
installation of the XP drivers).
UNQUOTE
I've been working on this problem for over a week, but still haven't installed XP successfully. Getting really frustrated.
Another question, if I uninstall parallel desktop and reinstall it again by downloading it from the website, will that give me a clean slate and start from scratch?
Would appreciate it greatly if anyone can give me a solution.
Thanks.
Grace