Major catostrophe - need help!

[davidmac27]

Major catastrophe - need help!

I have OSX 10.4.9 and loaded build 3188. I then loaded up Vista Home Premium and a ton of Windows programs. This evening when I tried to start Vista, it complains that Windows failed to start due to:

File: \Windows\system32\config\system

Status: 0xc0000225

Info: Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt.

Great! So I reboot with the Vista CD in the drive and Windows doesn't seem to see it. It tells me I need to insert the Vista DVD and reboot and then click "Repair your computer"

The problem is that I am stuck in an endless loop and never get to this point.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? I click on the CDROM icon at the bottom left of the Parallels window and it reports that I am connected to the default CD/DVD ROM. It seems that when I restart the VM, it tries to boot from the hard drive. It would seem I need to boot from the CDROM/DVD in order to get to the "Repair your computer" option.

 

[wingdo]

I can't offer advice on fixing the problem with Windows, but if you edit your virtual machine, click on booting (from the top options tab) choose to boot from CD-ROM first.

 

[davidmac27]

Quick update - I edited my VM and chose to swap the HD and CDROM so that it would boot from the CDROM. When it boots, I was able to run the repair procedure. It did this and then I swapped back and booted from the HD with no change - still getting the registry corruption message. I then tried to install a fresh copy of Vista over the existing damaged one and it wouldn't let me run an Upgrade - only a clean install (thanks MSFT).

I have pretty much run out of ideas.

Parallel's support or anyone else - help!!

 

[Mike@Parallels]

MS doesnt allow to run vista home in virtual enviroment. You need Vista Ultimate or Business.

Best regards,
mike

 

[davidmac27]

Is this going to be your final answer? It has been running great for the past month.

How can I go about fixing this?

 

[wingdo]

You didn't expect a software company to help you violate another software company's EULA did you?

 

[Leauki]

I don't see how this is a major catastrophe. Just create a new VM, install Windows Vista (preferably Ultimate), connect the old disk image as a second hard disk and install your applications again.

 

[davidmac27]

No, I didn't. Heck, I'm happy to pay an extra $100 to upgrade to Business, Ultimate, whatever. What I don't want to do is spend another week installing and configuring all of my applications. For all I know, this is some bug in Parallels that will happen again. All I know is that I have tried nearly everything and can't get Vista to boot. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be extremely appreciated.

 

[wesley]

While this possible bug gets ironed out, you could...
1) Just use Windows XP instead
2) Back up the .hdd of the VM routinely