Recovering file from non booting Windows 10

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by JohnH40, Jan 21, 2019.

  1. JohnH40

    JohnH40 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Hi,

    Using Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac, Windows was OK using 7, recently upgraded to Win10 which now won't boot. It gets to the desktop, but with no icons, no start button functionality, cant access any run controls, states an error message re desktop file missing.

    Normally at this point on a pc I'd take out the hard drive and recover any files i needed and reinstall windows, but obviously cant do that in this scenario of a vm.

    I'm happy to reinstall Parallels Desktop and Windows, but is there any way to access the folder structure and retrieve a few files before i do this?

    I've tried copying the .pvm file and mounting it with oracle vm on a pc, which refused to even see the file, and tried to mount it within ubuntu , but it just crashes.

    Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

    FWIW time machine has been running on the imac.
     
  2. Ajith1

    Ajith1 Parallels Support

    Messages:
    2,719
    Hi JohnH40, yes, there is a way similar to the PC which you can do to recover the files from corrupted virtual machine.
    1. Create a new virtual machine - Install Windows.
    2. Add the virtual hard disk of the corrupted virtual machine as a secondary hard disk to the newly created virtual machine. Refer to this article for steps.
    3. Launch the new VM and recover the files.
    4. Shutdown virtual machine and disconnect the secondary drive from the new VM.
    Let us know if you have any questions.
     
  3. Hi @JohnH40, could you provide us with the screenshot of the error message, which you got? If the previous steps will not work for you. Thanks in advance.
     
  4. Hussein2

    Hussein2 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Thank you so much. This worked!
     
  5. DebasmitaM

    DebasmitaM Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,142
    Hi, we are happy to hear your issue has been fixed. Please reach us out for any further queries.
     

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