question about Parallels 5 on a Mac

[tadd5181]

I have just installed Parallels 5 on my Mac (Mac OS X, v. 10.6.4). I get several error (?) messages when I open Parallels.

1. One says "Unable to connect CD/DVD1"...what does this mean?

2. Another says that I am booting from my bootcamp partition inside a virtual machine". What does this mean? Do I need to be worried about this? Why?

3. When I open Parallels, sometimes I get a small window which has "my boot camp" and "windows 7"...I usually click on one, but I don't know what I am doing, and don't know what the difference is.

Otherwise, Parallels seems to be running ok.

 

[IvanLasston]

1 - it means your virtual machine cannot open your actual CD/DVD drive - this probably means your Mac has the disk mounted and is using the drive so Parallels cannot take control. You can try to unmount whatever disk you have in finder - then go to your virtual machine -> pulldown devices -> cd/dvd and try to connect it there if you want to try and use the drive.

2 - It means you installed windows with the bootcamp assistant. Then you installed parallels and pointed a virtual machine to that bootcamp partition. All this means is that if you are accessing your bootcamp partition - either through rebooting or through Parallels - then what you change on windows will always be reflected. It is generally a good thing.

3 - This is a little more puzzling - but a small window that gives you choices means you may have inadvertantly installed windows twice - once in a Virtual Machine - once pointing to your bootcamp partition. You can right click and select show in finder to show you where those machines are coming from. Do you remember doing two installs of windows?

 

[tadd5181]

I opened Finder and don't see even one installation of Windows, but maybe I don't know what to look for there. I remember clicking on both "my boot camp" and on "windows 7" when opening Parallels at different times in the window which lists both (and only) those two choices. I had installed Windows 7 when I first bought and started my Mac, which was last fall, and I have just installed Parallels this month.

 

[IvanLasston]

I may have not been clear enough in my post. If you right click in the Window in Parallels that shows you Bootcamp and Windows 7 - a menu will pop up and one of the choices should be -> show in finder. This should take you to the PVM file.

Do you understand how virtual machines work? With Mac/Parallels there are 2 types of virtual machines. One is an actual virtual machine - which means there is a virtual disk file on your Mac hard drive - the file extension is hdd. The other is a bootcamp virtual machine. This is a real partition on your hard drive that you can either run in a virtual machine or dual boot into using bootcamp.

So - my contention is if you have 2 "machines" showing up - one is the bootcamp partition, one is a virtual machine. You can also try using finder to search for hdd files. Here is a link with a file lists for virtual machines for your edification.
Parallels Virtual Machine

 

[tadd5181]

I am so new to Parallels that I am not really understanding how it works. I have a "trial" right now of Parallels but I have a purchased copy on the way via FedEx. I hope the one I will receive soon has some sort of explanatory manual enclosed. If not, what I need to do is read (copy?) the on-line manual. In that regard, I cannot locate it on-line...can you direct me to where that manual is? Thanks for your help.

 

[chscag]

Here is your best source of information for Parallels 5: LINK

Regards.

 

[IvanLasston]

The actual documentation is kinda pain to find.
Documentation: Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

Here is the user guide
Download Parallels Products: Desktop Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Automation Software & Solutions