Virtual machine crashes after relocating to Mac Mini

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Dustin Wenz

Bit poster
I'm trying to move a Windows XP virtual machine from a MacBook Pro to a Mac Mini. Both machines are running Parallels Desktop build 1848.

I copied the whole directory containing the PVS and HDD files over to the Mini. When the virtual machine starts, Windows seems to boot normally. After I am presented with the XP desktop, Windows crashes with the blue memory dump screen, followed by Windows restarting itself. It is locked in an endless cycle of crashing/restarting.

The VM works flawlessly on the MacBook Pro, and any new VMs I create on the Mini work just fine. I just can't seem to move a VM from the MacBook to the Mini without it breaking Windows. Both systems are Core Duos; the only difference is that the Mini has half the RAM that the Macbook has (512MB vs 1GB), and that VT-x doesn't seem to work on the Mini.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?
 
Please try to create new VM configuration (*.pvs) and attach old virtual disk to it (*.hdd). It should solve your problem.

PS: Relocation of HDD is always OK, but relocation of PVS could be with issues because of different paths and devices names. Anyway re-creating PVS is always helps.
 
I already tried that before I posted. Creating a new PVS with the same HDD also didn't work.

...but I know exactly what the problem is! I disabled VT-x on the MacBook Pro and the VM crashes just like it did on the Mini. So apparently, installing Windows with VT-x enabled and then later disabling it doesn't work. This must be a bug in Parallels (which wouldn't be a problem, if not for Apple's "bug" where VT-x is disabled on the Mini).
 
The firmware update 1.0.1 seems to have fixed the problem on the Mini. It's a little confusing at first, because the Mac actually has to be powered off for several seconds *after* the firmware update has been applied in order for it to take effect (this behavior was detailed in another thread relating to VT-x).

There still remains an issue with Parallels not simulating the non-VT-x mode correctly, but since all Macs can support it, there shouldn't be much of a problem for most people.
 
For the mac, this is not a problem, only people who are going to have problems are those who are pirating MacOS X. I think this is a mute point. All intel mac's have VT.

Paul :)
 
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