Lost Windows 7 VMs

[ReggieN]

I have been using MAC Parallels with Windows 7/32 Bit and 7/64 bit for many months now with no problems. This morning when I attempted to open the Parallels Desk Top there was no Virtual Machine List that popped open as it had always done before. After clicking the VM List option on the menu several times I notice a small, very small, what appeared to be a minimized window in the top right corner of the desk top that I had never seen before. All that was there was a window bar with a + sign. When I clicked on it I was told that my Windows 7 32/Bit VM machine applications folder was being undocked and to get it back I should Right Click the Windows 7 32/Bit VM machine in the list and choose Configure> Shared Applications & select Show Windows Application Folder in the Dock with only an "OK" option to the message. When I clicked OK the Windows 7 32/bit VM disappeared from the VM List window so there was no way to right click on it after that. I closed parallels and reopened it and the same thing happened to my Windows 7 64/Bit VM. Now I have no VMs in the list. Can someone tell me what happened and more importantly how do I get my VM's back!

 

[Kathleen R]

Not sure what is going on, but one thing to try when something is messed up & you don't know what else to do is to shut down your computer for a few minutes (to clear random stuff out of the RAM) & then start up, etc.

Mine got messed up some time ago after resetting Safari & emptying the caches. It was messed up in Parallels. So then I shut down & immediately booted into bootcamp & it was also messed up. I was about to tear my hair out. I think i tried a few things & then finally shut down & went & did something else for about a half hour (that also helped to calm me down so I could deal with it more rationally). When I came back, I first booted into bootcamp, thinking that opening Windows running native would be more likely to work. Then opened Outlook also. They worked fine. Then I shut down & then booted into Mac & opened the VM (Win7 64 bit) using bootcamp as the VM. It all worked fine.

I would always try this before doing something more drastic like erasing & re-installing or anything else like that. You could always do other things if this doesn't work, but its amazing how this simple thing can resolve a # of problems.

You could also try searching the forums & the website for answers, but I have found that sometimes its hard to know what search terms to use.

Hope it works.