Windows XP under Parallels doesn't recognize second virtual hard disk

I am a certified Apple consultant, and a customer of mine has been unable to get Windows XP running in Parallels to recognize a second virtual hard drive. In My Computer, Windows sees his virtual boot volume as drive C: and the CD/DVD drive as drive D: but ignores the existence of the second hard drive even though it is activated in the Parallels Configuration screen and appears without hardware conflict messages in Windows Device Manager. I tested the procedure on my Mac and was able to replicate using Parallels Desktop 3.0 build 5582 (see file attachment).

The problem as I see it is that the newly created secondary hard disk and the CD/DVD device are competing the same drive letter (D. The computer has assigned the CD/DVD player to drive D: and has not assigned a letter to the hard disk. If I can figure out how to assign a different drive letter to the hard drive, then I believe I will have solved my customer's problem.

The number of installed and bootable devices (hard drives and CD/DVD) is less than the maximum of 4. I recognize that I'm not running the latest Parallels build (5584). I will install and test build 5584 later today.

I noticed instructions on the Parallels forum for expanding the partition drive (http://forums.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=19328&highlight=second+hard+drive).

My customer is not technically inclined, and I would prefer to help him with his requested task without having to resort to the fix mentioned in the above forum message.

 

Was able to resolve my own problem. Issue was Windows-related and not a fault of Parallels. I accessed Admin Tools in Control Panel and launched the Computer Management screen. From there, I initialized and partitioned the secondary volume via the Action menu (see attached). Afterwards, I was able to use My Computer to copy files onto the new drive which was assigned to drive E:.

 

very interesting

I have a problem with Parallels transporter failed to move a set up with two had drives from my old Sony Vaio

Hugh W

 

I created a 5-page PDF of the procedure that I used for my client that can be downloaded from my blog via this link:

http://macsolvers.wordpress.com/200...reate-a-2nd-virtual-hard-drive-in-windows-xp/