Parallels not finding my Windows OS

[Colin Parker]

When I start Parallels, the system asks me to load windows or another os. If I cancel parallels shuts down. I have been using Parallels for the past year on this machine and never had a problem. Any ideas? If I install windows again will I lose the information I have on the hard drive. I have a couple of files that I really can't afford to lose that I created last night and of course I have not had an opportunity to save a back up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Colin

 

[desgael]

The message means Parallels does not see the virtual machine file. I see you are using Parallels 3.0, then this is a big file with an .hdd extention. Most probably called winxp.hdd. Try searching for it using the Spotlight.
By default Parallels stores the virtual machine files in /Users/<username>/Documents/Parallels/ or /Users/<username>/Library/Parallels/ (that was the default place in 2.0 version).

If you find such file, try creating a new virtual machine (just as itr is on the screenshot), select "Custom", and when prompted select "Use existing hard disk image" and point to the .hdd file.

 

[Colin Parker]

Corrupt file

Thanks - this seemed to go fine until the last step and I got "Parallels Desktop is unable to access the virtual hard disk image file /Users/colinparker/Documents/Parallels/winxp.hdd. The file is corrupted."

Does this mean I'm screwed? Do I need to delete and reinstall everything?

 

[desgael]

If the hard disk is corrupted it might be urecoverable indeed. However, I would suggest to try the following:

1. Backup the winxp.hdd (just copy it somewhere else)
2. Right-click (Control-click) on winxp.hdd and choose "show package content" option.
3. Inside the .hdd there would be an .hds file, move it outside of the package and rename to winxp.hdd.
4. Try using this file the very same way as it was described above.

You can also check the following article:
http://kb.parallels.com/en/4680