Windows Vista Installation Stuck in "Completing Installation..."

I am trying to install from a Vista ISO image on a Parallels 9 on OSX Mavericks.
I have tried multiple settings, but it always gets stuck in the "Completing Installation..." step. Don't know what else to try.
Before any genius says that the ISO may be corrupt. I have tested it installing it on an older laptop with no issues.
I need help

 

Funny that I've got exactly the same issue. I want to create a Windows 7 VM in Parallels 9 so that I can VPN to work, but my Windows 7 was an upgrade so I fist need to install my Vista, and then upgrade to Windows 7.

I tried a number of times, it loads everything and then hangs during the completion stage, just like the issue you are having.

I then spoke to technical support who tried doing it maybe 6 times (remotely) with no joy. They even created an ISO image of my Vista disc and then tried that and that also failed. They then told me it must be a bad Vista disk.... I told them not as I'd installed it for a virtual machine only a short time ago.

I then downloaded VirtualBox and successfully installed the Vista ISO image the Parallels tech created, and managed to create a virtual machine no problem. I then did the same with my disk. Again fine.

I told the technician at Parallels at the start that I believe the issue is that Parallels isn't allowing the Vista install to restart Windows during the process.
I firmly believe this is the case as during my install via VirtualBox it did indeed do a restart windows during the install completed.

I mentioned my findings several times, but it I feel it was ignored (I'm not a muppet, I'm a Software Development consultant myself).

So, you are not on your own.

Can someone at Parallels please review the installation of Vista, taking special notice of the behaviour when Vista restarts Vista as I think that's the problem?

Also, are there any logging features in Parallels so that we can see what's going on when it doesn't work?

Regards,
Rich

 

Me too.

Unfortunately, I'm not any kind of software engineer, specialist or genius. I hope there's a fix for this soon. I really don't know what to do

Layni

 

Hi Layni,

I sorted mine out fine. I downloaded a Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64bit SP2 ISO (google it). I then used the ISO file instead of my Windows Disk (Parellels will see it when you add a new VM) and it happy accepted my genuine Licence Key from my actual physical Windows Vista Ultimate disk and installed fully.
The Vista VM was then happy to take all the windows updates and works now 100%.

Give it a try and I think you will be ok. It would appear that Parallels likes SP2 and not earlier versions of Vista.
Oh, and before you take it, make sure you first update your Parallels as there was a bug fix a short while back (came after me have 2 long afternoons of Parallel Support) which did make my original Vista problem get a little further on, but SP2 then went the extra bit to get the job done.

My Version of Parallels is:-
Build 9.0.24172
*(Revision 951362; Tuesday, December 3, 2013)


Good luck and best regards,
Rich.