VM hosed?

[sydbarrett74]

HI all, I have Vista running in a VM on build 1922, Mac Pro/4GB. After a power outage during a bad storm where the power flickered on and off, it looks like my VM is hosed. Now, when I launch it, it stops at the memory POST and doesn't even load Vista. I have performed a full hardware diagnostic, and checked my HD for errors, and there are no problems.

 

[joem]

I guess that since you are asking that question, you don't have a backup of your VM. I'd suggest that when you finish rebuilding the VM from scratch, which you may have to do, that you make a backup.

The hardware and disk checks indicate that your physical hardware is OK, but the .hdd file holding your VM disk may have been damaged. You might try creating a new VM and attaching your current .hdd file to see whether it's the .hdd or something else.

If that doesn't work, Vista may have a repair capability. If it does, booting from the install may give you access to it. I haven't looked at Vista, but Win2k and XP have repair consoles that may be helpful.

 

[sydbarrett74]

Joe, you're brilliant!

The problem was not with Parallels per se at all, but rather that the OS loader got corrupted (which could very well be a Vista bug since I recently upgraded to a newer post-RC1 build and only co-incidental with the storm). I was able to run the 'Startup Repair' option from the Vista installation CD and that did the trick.

I will however take your very timely advice and create backups of my VM just in case I encounter a more serious problem in future. WHEW -- if only all computer-related problems were that easy to fix.