sharing a single guest OS between users

Is it possible for multiple users to share a single guest OS image? It makes no sense to me to install Windows (for example) multiple times just so my wife and I can both use Windows. Can I move the Windows image I created over to /Users/Shared somewhere?

 

This is in the Knowledge Base. It doesn't seem to work for everyone but it's worth a try:
http://kb.parallels.com/entry/27/119/

 

Multiple Users problem solved

I seem to have solved the "multiple user" problem described in other posts, where a Parallels Desktop VM is accessible under one user account on a multiple-user Mac, but not on others.

The KnowledgeBase article here recommends moving the winxp.hdd and winxp.pvs files to /Users/Shared/Parallels/winxp and giving "Others" write permissions.

But, as others have reported, this didn't fix the problem. Even with the vm files in the Shared directory, and permissions changed as recommended, the error message:
"WINXP.HDD the file is missing, corrupted or used by other appplication"
appeared whenever I tried to start the "shared" VM under another user account. Even worse, once I had gotten this error, the ORIGINAL user could no longer access the winxp.hdd!

The solution is to copy the directory that Parallels creates in the original user's Library -- /Users/[username]/Library/Parallels -- to the Library of the other user accounts.

That directory contains another directory named "winxp," inside of which are:

• unattended.fdd
• Windows Applications (a folder)
• winxp.sav

Once I had copies of these files in /Users/[otheruser]/Library/Parallel/winxp/ other users could access the shared VM. It also fixed a problem I'd been having with Novell Login!

 

This info should be added to that KB article!

 

This is not a solution that worked for me. I am using Parallels 3.0 and do not have these files in the library folder. I also do not have unattended.fdd anywhere that I can see. I can run my Windows VM fine in my account from the shared folder, but not my son's account, even though he has read/write permissions on the folder.

 

None of this worked for me either...

 

I had the same problem (of not being able to start Windows on the second user account after changing permissions on the .pvs and .hdd files). I solved the problem by changing permissions on *all* the parent folders for the Windows files. Specifically, if your Windows VM is in Users > Shared > Parallels > Windows XP, make sure everyone has read+write permissions for the "Parallels" and "Windows XP" folders. Worked for me!

 

Still can't share...

I'm using Parallels 3.0 (5160) on a Mac mini running a clean install of Mac OS X (10.5.1). I have several user accounts on this Mac mini, so I created my Windows XP HDD under the /Users/Shared area. When I first tried to run parallels from another account I got the message that the HDD was missing, or corrupted. I figured it was a permissions issue so I granted the other accounts read/write permissions on the HDD. Then I tried to launch Parallels Desktop again and I still had problems. I found the following FAQ:

http://kb.parallels.com/entry/27/119/

and did what it said, including option B. Now Parallels Desktop launches just fine but when I try to start the VM, I get a dialog saying "Virtual machine cannot be started because of the following problems. Parallels Desktop is unable to access the virtual hard disk image file /Users/Shared/Microsoft Windows XP/winxp.hdd the file is used by other application." Now after implementing the FAQ I can't even run the VM under the same user account I installed Parallels and created the VM HDD under, which is really strange.

I have the permissions opened wide up to everyone and wheel (whatever the hell that is) for /Users/Shared/Microsoft Windows XP and everything underneath it. So there must be some other directory that needs to be opened up somewhere. Have any ideas where that would be, or what else needs to be done? Thanks...

PS: Wanted to try gwbarrow's solution but I did not have a /Users/<username>/Library/Parallels directory.

 

Did you eliminate the simplest possible causes of this behavior? With that, I mean:

* restart the computer
* repair permissions using Disk Utility
* make sure the winxp.hdd file is not locked (get info on the file and uncheck the "Locked" box)