Virtual machine cannot be started

M

magnolia

Bit poster
I installed Parallels and Windows XP and and it worked for a few days. Now I cannot get it started a message comes up stating:

Virtual machine cannot be started because of the following problem:

Parallels Desktop is unable to access the virtual hard disk image file /Users/*******/Documents/Parallels/Microsoft Windows XP/winxp.hdd. The file is used by other application.

I have searched for a lock. There is none.
I have uninstalled everything and started over but nothing works, what does this mean? I have a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, with 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM running windows XP with service pack 2. Now Parallels and Windows have disappeared from my desktop. They appear to be still there under Applications.
I see others have had this problem in the past with various reasons suggested. None seem to fit this case. Please help!
 
which versions please?
OSes and PD

I had this happen 18 months ago
a very old bug i was sent a fix and posted it to the forums

Hugh W
 
I started with OS X 10.5, which I think has been updated. Parallels version is 3.0.
Where can I find the fix?
Thanks
 
Success!

I have found the lock file and dragged it to the trash. Here's how I found it (from a solution on the forum).

RESOLUTION
1. Go to Macintosh HD -> Users -> "Your user name (The house" icon) ->Documents (Library) -> Parallels) and open the Virtual Machine Name folder.

2. Right-click (CTRL+click for Mac mouse or SHIFT+CTRL+click for Mac mouse) on the .hdd file and select "Show Package Contents".

Parallels is working now, but I keep getting the same message (below):

Please check your configuration!
Floppy image file /Users/****/Documents/Parallels/Microsoft Windows XP/unattended.fdd could not be found.
Do you want to continue anyway?

Does this matter? What should I do with the lock file? Should I empty the trash or not?
How did it get there in the first place?
Please can you check the links to the fix for this, because I couldn't find it and it took days to figure it out using a combination of suggestions.
Please share this with anyone else having the same problem. Make sure they know how to right click, because I didn't.
 
Just had this happen to me...just wanted to thank you for posting the fix...I searched google and found nothing but old forum links that were no longer valid...thanks for taking the time to post your efforts...you saved me another hour of search ancient Google cache!!
 
Final step of the fix

Dragging the lock to the trash worked at first, but then I got the same problem recurring until I emptied the trash. So be sure to do this as well.
 
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