Add yet another issue to this mess. When I try to start 4.0 it stops at the MS-DOS screen and won't go further. I can't load Tools and I've tried a few of the other steps thru the "black screen" search, such as going thru Transporter but no dice (says it can't find the .hdd). So it hangs at the startup screen with these lines: "Trying to boot from Primary Master IDE drive.." and "NTDLR is missing". After that it says, "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". What to do next?
The fix would depend on the guest OS type you have. Check this article, for example: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320397 Also, at the following article are several useful solutions: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm You can check the following ones: "Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file" "Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file" "Corrupt boot sector / master boot record" These solutions would require you to boot from a Windows CD, so you would need to change the Boot Order settings, check the following article on how to do that: http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v4/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/22237.htm You can also try either repairing Windows installation (http://kb.parallels.com/en/5138) or restore the virtual machine from a backup if you have it.