Virtual Machine functionality issues

Hi- I have 3 questions!

1. I've been experiencing decreased performance of my Parallels VM (Windows XP) and so I decided to carry out maintenance on it. I have been unable to do this because Parallels Tools does not recognise the .hdd file in my Tiger OSX.
It comes up with the error message:

"Image Tool cannot open the hard disk image file /Users/Tom/Library/Parallels/winxp/winxp.hdd for reading in order to determine its parameters. Make sure that the file exists and it can be read from disk."

2. I want to clone the VM as a backup of my parallels Windows XP OS. But the clone function does not work for the same reason.

3. I have deleted programs from my VM using the standard Control Panel method in Windows. But in the file "Windows Applications" on my Mac, all the programs I have deleted from the VM are still stored. How can I delete any unused files to increase storage space?

Many thanks!

 

Hello Tom,

Before we try increasing the hard disk capacity lets try a few set of trouble shooting steps. This could resolve the issue.

To increase the Performance of your Windows please follow the below mentioned steps.

1) Open Parallels Desktop. Do not start the Windows Operating System.
2) On the menu bar click on Parallels Desktop => click on preference => Memory.
3) Manually change the Memory to 800 MB => Click on OK.
4) Go to Configure => Memory.
5) Manually Change the Memory to 1000 Mb => Click ok
6) Go to Smart Mount => disable the Smart Mount .
7) Go to CPU => Manually change the number of CPUs to 1.
8) Go to Optimization => Enable Adaptive Hypervisor.
9) Go to Optimization => Enable Optimize performance for Virtual Machine => Click Ok.
10) Restart the Mac.

Check if the performance has been enhanced.

To back up your virtual Machine follow the below mentioned steps.

1. Please go to the location of your Virtual Machine .pvm file. Do a right click ( Control + Mouse Click ) Choose Copy.
2. Paste the copied Virtual Machine file in any safe folder or an external hard disk.

This is regarding the deleted applications that are visible on the Mac side.

You have enabled the Shared Applications options. Which means that both Mac applications and Windows applications will be seen in the list of applications. So to remove that from Mac programs list we need to disable the shared applications option.

1. Open Parallels Desktop.Do not start the Windows Operating System
2. Go to Configure => Shared Applications => Disable the shared applications options from both the sides => Click Ok.

Please reply us to inform the status of the issue.

 

Hi Peter

Thanks very much for getting back to me.

I am having trouble finding the options that you mention- for example "smart mount" or "shared applications"
Maybe this is because I'm running Parallels Build 3214?

If not can you help me by telling me where to find the options you mentioned?

The only ones I did find were the 'Parallels Desktop => click on preference => Memory" option which is set to 1000MB and "Go to Configure => Memory" option which is also set to 1000MB already. The others don't seem to be there?