Multiple DOS-formatted drives confusing Parallels?

minim · Mar 28, 2007

I am using Parallels to access my Bootcamp WinXP partition - very simple setup which has been working perfectly. However, since I recently obtained a Firewire external hard drive to house my CD collection (which I'm ripping while I'm in Australia so I don't have to lug all the discs back to the UK with me), Parallels is having a crisis while the drive is attached to my MacBook Pro. It's giving me this error:

"More than one Windows partitions are found. This is not a standard Boot Camp configuration. Please refer to the Parallels Desktop for Mac User Guide, Using Boot Camp Windows XP Installation chapter for instructions on how to configure Parallels virtual machine in case of a non-standard Boot Camp configuration on your Macintosh computer."

I'm assuming that this is because I've had to format the external as DOS so I can use it both from my Mac and from my old Sony Vaio which is enjoying retirement as a music server beside the stereo, but I don't see why Parallels is thinking that it's a non-standard Boot Camp partition - sure it's a DOS-formatted drive, but there's no OS on there, just files. Is there any way to fix this up? I've found that when I disconnect the firewire drive, Parallels boots up just fine, as per usual, but that's a real pain when you're in the middle of ripping 400-odd CDs...

Any suggestions?

Platinum Samples · Mar 28, 2007

See http://forum.parallels.com/thread10315.html

hairyneanderthal · Mar 29, 2007

fixed by ynot

Platinum Samples said:
See http://forum.parallels.com/thread10315.html

I was helped with the same problem by ynot in this thread http://forums.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=9583

You need to edit your *.pvs file manually and make sure you have the correct entries in the [IDE devices] section. You will need a set of entries for every DOS hardrive you want recognised by parallels.
Here is my IDE section. Note the extra entries for each "Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp"
I found the relevant entries for diskXsX by running df at the terminal.

[IDE devices]
Disk 0:0 enabled = 1
Disk 0:0 = 1
Disk 0:0 media = 1
Disk 0:0 connected = 1
Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp;disk0s3
Disk 0:0 cylinders = 0
Disk 0:0 heads = 0
Disk 0:0 sectors = 0
Disk 0:1 enabled = 1
Disk 0:1 = 2
Disk 0:1 media = 1
Disk 0:1 connected = 1
Disk 0:1 image = Default CD/DVD-ROM
Disk 1:0 enabled = 1
Disk 1:0 = 1
Disk 1:0 media = 1
Disk 1:0 connected = 1
Disk 1:0 image = Boot Camp;disk2s2
Disk 1:0 cylinders = 0
Disk 1:0 heads = 0
Disk 1:0 sectors = 0
Disk 1:1 enabled = 0
Disk 1:1 = 0

Apparently the documentation needs updating to accommodate this.

mraub1 · Mar 29, 2007

While the above might work, the author clearly is familiar with Unix commands. I'm not and the chance of me screwing something up in editing this file is very high. This problem ought to be fixed promptly as it apparently afflicts everyone who is both trying to use Bootcamp as the Windows source and has an extra drive attached to their Mac.

hairyneanderthal · Mar 29, 2007

mraub1 said:
While the above might work, the author clearly is familiar with Unix commands. I'm not and the chance of me screwing something up in editing this file is very high. This problem ought to be fixed promptly as it apparently afflicts everyone who is both trying to use Bootcamp as the Windows source and has an extra drive attached to their Mac.

You need to run one very simple Unix command and edit the text file that defines your virtual machine, if you get it wrong the only thing that happens is that it still doesn't recognise your hard drives.
This IS the fix, if you read ynot's posts in the first link I sent you will see that he was surprised that this hadn't been included in the documentation yet. http://forums.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=9583

I'll rephrase, this is the fix for the moment as I would expect this sort of feature to be added to the GUI preferences, probably in one of the next updates seeing as Parallels have pinpointed the problem and know how to fix it.

mraub1 · Mar 29, 2007

Well. this may be a fix; hopefully it's not the fix.

Here's what I get with the UNIX command:

Filesystem 512-blocks Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2 866123776 259322784 606288992 30% /
devfs 196 196 0 100% /dev
fdesc 2 2 0 100% /dev
<volfs> 1024 1024 0 100% /.vol
/dev/disk0s3 109977560 18474456 91503104 17% /Volumes/Windows XP
/dev/disk1s1 312505408 170143232 142362176 54% /Volumes/PHOTOS
automount -nsl [211] 0 0 0 100% /Network
automount -fstab [222] 0 0 0 100% /automount/Servers
automount -static [222] 0 0 0 100% /automount/static

My next question is where is *.pvs file? I typed that in Spotlight and it found nothing. I nosed around in the Parallels folders and also found no file with that ending.

Thanks,

MIKE

hairyneanderthal · Mar 30, 2007

mraub1 said:
My next question is where is *.pvs file? I typed that in Spotlight and it found nothing. I nosed around in the Parallels folders and also found no file with that ending.

Strange, spotlight picks up my pvs files.
By default the pvs files are in /Users/Username/Library/Parallels/WinXP (for example) unless you have moved them

mraub1 · Mar 30, 2007

Thanks for the information. I haven't moved any *.pvs files--at least not intentionally. As much as I like OS X, it's not quite as easy to get to actual files on the computer's HD, compared to Windows. Of course, usually there's no need to do so.

The forcast is for rain most of the weekend, so I hope I'll have time to get this fixed.

MIKE

mraub1 · Mar 30, 2007

The pvs file you want to edit is the one with the Parallels icon which is probably on your desktop. I have right click activated on my mouse, so I right clicked and told it to open the file with Text Edit. I added ";disk0s3" right behind the disc entry for Bootcamp and saved the file. The disc0s3 is what my computer has named my Windows partition.

The first time I tried to open Parallels, I got an error message that the disc could not be opened. I tried again and up came Windows. I had to call M$ to activate (this was expected), but that proved painless.

All this kind of reminds me of the gyrations you had to go through to get Windows 3.1 to run stably. I hope the Parallels programmers gets it fixed for the next release.

MIKE