Parallels: Error.

Hello guys,

How have you all been doing lately? I hope enjoyed a nice thanksgiving and black friday ;D.

I had Windows Vista Ultimate installed on my MacBook Pro through Boot Camp. I have decided to switch to Parallels or VMWareFusion in order to install Windows because it's easier to use rather than having to restart every time to boot in the operating system of your choice (even though Boot Camp is much better, Parallels is better for me at least nowadays). I used Boot Camp to restore the Macintosh HD into one partition, so of course the Windows partition got deleted.

Then I used Boot camp again and created a new partition for Windows (45GB) and choose Quit & Install instead of directly installing Windows.
I then installed Parallels and opened it (my windows xp cd is already in the cd rom and is read by my macintosh osx) but whenever I try going through the installation procedure but I keep getting the same error. I've tried to take the CD out and re insert it, rebooted the computer, and tried uninstalling/reinstalling Parallels but no luck. This is the error I keep getting


Please help me because I really really need to install and use Parallels in the coming weeks, then I'll go back to Boot Camp but I have to travel for business with my father and I need the 'easy-quick' business way to do it .

Thank you and have a nice day every one. And thanks again for your time.

Tarek.

Why did you repartition the drive? You don't need to partition the drive to install windows under Parallels or Fusion. you only need to put Windows on a BC partition if you want to have the option to boot natively. You could simply have either (a) kept your original BC partition and installed Parallels or Fusion to create a VM using the partition (then you would have had the choice to run Windows either in a VM or via BC), or (b) after you restored the Mac HD, installed Parallels and then within Parallels (or Fusion), followed the instructions to create a Windows VM using your disk.

If you want to have Windows on BC, you needed to complete the Windows installation, THEN install Parallels. Both P and F will automatically detect a Windows partition and offer to create a VM from it. You could have saved a lot of trouble by just installing P on top of what you already had ... I would delete the new partition and start over, depending on which way you choose to go.

Cheers

Thank you very much for replying me. The thing is, I am going to tell you exactly what was happening and what I did in order for you to understand my exact situation and what is happening now.

1) I had a Windows partition that had Vista Ultimate on it. I did the repartition process in order to restore it into Macintosh HD and then use Parallels to install Windows so it would automatically create a partition or what ever ON ITS OWN. At least that's how it was a couple of months ago when I bought my MacBook Pro.

2) When I tried installing through Parallels and the Windows XP cd was inserted in the laptop, it gave me the error that's shown in the screen shot above.

3) I tried uninstalling Parallels, using Boot Camp to create a new empty partition, and then try parallels again but no luck, still the same error. So I just gave up using Parallels and wanted to install Windows XP through Boot Camp. I restored again into a single partition and made a new one and chose "Start Installation".

4) After it rebooted and it said "press any key to boot from CD" I pressed a key and then it took me to the installation procedure. I pressed Enter, chose the partition, and everything was going smoothly. Then I chose "Format partition using NTFS" and pressed F. It formatted but then when it's copying files, it's always stuck on 14% I don't know the name of the file that it's stuck on, it stays on 14% for hours and nothing happens.

I restarted, still same problem. Repartitioned and did the whole process all over again, still same error. I am pretty sure there's nothing wrong with the CD because I tried it on my Desktop Computers (three of them) and it worked just fine and it was really fast too.

I don't know what to do, the trip is in a couple of days and I am stuck with this crappy laptop, I swear I feel like selling it and buying a Dell or an Asus laptop so I can use Windows and everything, I barely even use Macintosh. Please help me guys, tell me what to do? I am now searching for my Vista CD, I don't know where it went. So I can try and see if it doesn't install or anything, but the problem is that I NEED Windows XP. Some programs we use aren't compatible on Vista. Because they are kind of too old you know what I mean?

Thanks again guys and I hope some one can tell me what to do, I'll keep you updated of my Vista installation, I guess if it works then I should go and buy another Windows XP (my cds are authentic by the way).

And I am terribly sorry for this long post.

I think your totally missing the point. If you are running Parallels, there is NO reason to use Bootcamp to recreate a PHYSICAL partition on your Mac HDD.

Use Bootcamp to restore your Mac HDD to it's original state.

Open up Parallels, create a new VM, and put the Windows disk inside your Mac. Let Parallels pick it up and do the install. I just did this VERY process yesterday on my MBP to install Vista.

Again, NO PARTITIONING is required to use Parallels.

Oh, thanks again. So I need to repartition now, take out my Windows XP CD, then use Parallels to create a new VM (Virtual Machine) right? Then insert the CD and choose 'Start Virtual Machine'?

yes, ust Bootcamp to get back the partition. You can leave the CD in the drive, just when you start Parallels, it will ask you which device(if you have 2) you want to use to install it with. Once you pick your device, Parallels does everything else for you.

Take a look at this screen shot,



There is no VM except for the Boot Camp one (Boot Camp.cvs) or something. And in the virtual disks there is nothing there. I can not open the Boot Camp thing that is in the Virtual Machine folder, and there is no Remove/Delete option.

What version of Parallels are you using?

HEY I GOT IT WORKING. I didn't realize the Add / Remove options. I added a new hard disk and deleted the older one. Made it 32000 MB in size. It's installing the Windows now, let's hope it doesn't get stuck at 14% copying files. Thanks a lot man, I owe you one.


Edit - I am using Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac.

Glad it's working for you. I'm using v.4 of Parallels, so I think that's why it might have seemed different. Report back and let us know how it worked out.

Okay mate. Thanks again.

It still got stuck at 14% but it showed me an error saying (the file can not be copied, you can continue without copying it but the installation could be cancelled and you might lose...bla bla bla) something like that. I have made a research about the file that wasn't copied (gm.dls) and I think from what I have read that it's a sound file?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/99979-45-cache-file

I read that here.

If you get copy errors, it's likely the disk you are using has errors on it, or is dirty in some sort of way.

Oh well, the setup failed in the end because of the file that wasn't copied. I guess I am going to have to buy a new Windows XP cd, at least a SP3 one since I have SP2.