Problem Resolved
The problem was eventually resolved by 2nd line technical support.
Apparantly it is to do with the size of the drive being incorrectly calculated by Parallels, here is the solution. I could not work out the calculation and it was done for me in the end by the support team.
1. Start Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac
2. Open the list of the registered virtual machines and right-click any of the VMs that do not work.
3. Choose the Show in Finder option
4. Right-click on the appropriate .pvm file and choose Show package content 5. Right-click on the .hdd file inside .pvm bundle and choose Show package content 6. Check that the appropriate .hdd bundle and all the files inside it have Read and Write permissions and <user name> owner
Note: To check Ownership and Permissions please right click on the required file and choose Get info option. On the Ownership & Permissions tab you can find permissions combobox and owner combobox inside details tab.
After that you should open DiskDescriptor.xml file from the .hdd bundle. Please open DiskDescriptor.xml file with TextEdit application from /Applications/
Note: the virtual machine should be stopped before you start working with the DiskDescriptor.xml file
For example you will see:
<Parallels_disk_image Version="1.0" >
<Disk_Parameters>
<Disk_size>131072256</Disk_size>
<Cylinders>130032</Cylinders>
<Heads>16</Heads>
<Sectors>63</Sectors>
<Miscellaneous>
<SuspendState>0</SuspendState>
<ChangeState>0</ChangeState>
<CompatLevel>level2</CompatLevel>
<GuestToolsVersion>4.0.3844</GuestToolsVersion>
</Miscellaneous>
</Disk_Parameters>
<StorageData>
<Storage>
<Start>0</Start>
<End>131072256</End>
.....
You should check the values inside DiskDescriptor.xml file and change the specific value in the tag <End> from "<End>XXXXXX</End>" to "<End>YYYYYY</End>"
NOTE: you may find several <StorageData> tags. You need to do it with the last one.
To count YYYYYY you should do the following:
Start Calculator application from /Application/
Calculate XXXXXX / 63 value
Add 1
Remove fractional part
Then multiply to 63
Calculated value is the YYYYYY value.
Please replace the values inside the file. Also make sure that in <Sectors><Sectors> tag the value is 63! not 32. Then save it and try to start your virtual machine again. It should start fine.
NOTE: Please backup your edited DiskDescriptor.xml file to some safe place. You will need it in case you recreate or reconfigure your virtual machine. E.g. if you edit configuration of your virtual machine and then get the same error message, just replace the DiskDescriptor in .hdd file with the edited and saved one.
