"No boot device" message

No boot device

I still get this error after following, as far as I can tell, all suggestions posted. Any ides appreciated. This is on a Mac Pro, 2.6G, 3G RAM.

 

Thanks, Joe. This solved the problem for me. I was getting really frustrated.

 

connecting floppies?

Can you please explain what you mean by connecting the second floppy image to the emulated floppy? I got through the first step fine - and now it is asking for disk 2 and I don't know how to get it to recognize it. I tried renaming the disk2 image on my desktop to the original filename of disk 1 but couldn't get it to recognize. In order to change the setting in Parallels i need to stop the VM. Please help! Thanks!


[When the Windows install asks for the second disk, leave the VM running, release the mouse and keyboard, and connect the second floppy image to the emulated floppy. Then click inside the DOS window and press enter. Repeat for the other two floppy images.

 

Never mind. I figured this out. Now I can't get Parallels to recognize my XP CD, which was the problem to begin with. My PC recognizes it for what it is, but Parallels doesn't.

 

Joem

You seem know have a good grasp on what is going on. I just got my new MacBook Pro 17 inch and put it to sleep and I had the same problem described. I had Parallels and Windows XP Pro preinstalled on order but can't believe I'm having this trouble now.

It worked fine and now I just get a black screen saying the boot device isn't found. I tried changing the boot order with CD first and then with Floppy Disk first, and then back to hard drive but nothing. It just is a black screen with "No boot device found. Click enter to continue". If you click enter it just repeats.

Then I read all these posts and tried to find out the name of the Virtual Machine so I can open it by doing File Open in Parallel's drop down menu. But I don't know it's name. I can't find a .vps file or a VM folder or a .hdd or .fdd that Parallels will see to open.

I don't know much about Parallels... I was just hoping that by paying for the preinstallation that I wouldn't have these headaches. But I suppose I have to deal with it just the same. I looked in library/parallels/ but there aren't any VM folders in their (at least with that name). Any idea how I can identify where the Virtual Machine folder is located? I would imagine they would have had to install XP Pro on my system with my purchase and that there should be a virtual machine somewhere on my system if XP Pro was running great in the first few hours. Does that make sense?

Any input would be helpful.

 

Well, it's a .pvs file, and library/parallels, /library/parallels, and ~/library/parallels are all different, with the latter being the default location.

To find the files, launch Parallels, but don't start the VM (or stop it if it autostarts). When you look at the Parallels console, the location of the VM file (the .pvs file) is shown in a text box near the top, and the .hdd and .fdd file(s) are shown with the devices just below.

If Parallels and a VM are installed under one user ID and you switch to another one, you will not have access to the VM unless you change the permissions on the relevent files, and point Parallels to the correct location, typically /users/username/library/parallels/VMname where username is the short name of the original user, and VMname is the folder where the VM is installed.

If none of that is useful, write again with a more complete description and someone will try to help.

 

Hey there,
I just found your postings, and I've been finding them really helpful for me. Like the other guy, I need to create bootable floppy images. I configured my VM to floppy/hard drive/cd-rom, and set the CD-ROM IDE configuration to 0:0. I renamed the floppy images with the .fdd suffix, like you said, and went through each step in my VM connecting each floppy image. When the "Windows 2000 Professional Setup" started it gave me a message saying:
"Setp has determined that your computer's startup hard disk is new or has been erased, or that your computer is running an operating system that is incompatible with Windows 2000. If the hard disk is new or has been erased, or if you want to discard its current contents, you can choose to continue setup.
If your computer is ruuning an operating system that is incompatible with Windows 2000, continuing Setup may damage or destroy the existing operating system. Any dats currently on your computer's startup hard disk will be lost"

!!! Naturally, after reading this, I decided going forward might not be such a great idea. Funny thing is, that Windows 2000 and Mac OS X are incompatible is nothing new. In fact, I thought that Parallels' VM was designed specifically to circumvent that faact.
Do you --or any of our peers on this site--have any idea what all of this means. I have quit that window, and the VM has reset itself. The configuration page is still there as is, as are the floppy images on my desktop, as well as the disk itself.

Thanks for reading. I don't have anyclients, but am finding this a bit frustrating all the same.

Tom

 

The startup hard drive it is referring to is your emulated disk (.hdd file), so go ahead and format it. This is a necessary step. the message has nothing to do with your Mac hard disk.

Remember, the Win2k setup thinks it is running on bare hardware, and the disk on the emulated bare hardware is the .hdd file.

 

OK, I'll give it a shot, thanks. I was hoping it was referring to the virtual hard drive, since I was inside the running VM. Still, those were scary words, and I love my iMac!

Thanks for your informative expert help.

 

Thanks Joem,
I ran the startup, as you said i should, and like you said the startup, and file copying began. It asked me if I wanted to format it as NTFS or FAT. I chose NTFS. Now, after all the copying is finished, it does not move on to the usual Windows interface, but rather back to the first VM DOS screen, with the message: "non-system disk or disk error"
Any thoughts?

Tom

 

Switch your .jdd file to controller 0:0 and the CD to 1:0

 

Hi,
you meant .hdd, not .jdd, right? If not, where do I find a .jdd setting in the configuration screen?
Thanks again. You're all over the answers.
Tom

 

Sorry for the typo. .hdd it is.

 

Thanks Joem,
I set them up like that (CD-ROM 1:0, .hdd file 0:0), with the boot sequence the same as before (Floppy First). The first page says "non-system disk or disk error". So I experimented by manually clicking "disconnect" on the floppy icon. Then went to the screen and hit enter. It says:
"Windows 2000 could not start because of a computer hard disk configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows 2000(TM) documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

Should I be re-arranging the boot sequence in the VM configuration screen? Or maybe trashing the floppy images on my desktop? Or ejecting the Win 2K disc from my superdrive? or a combination of these things? Maybe my iMac doesn't have the right drivers to deal with the old 2000 software.
Thanks,
Tom

 

Ummm... Setting the boot sequence to boot from the device you want to boot from would seem like a safe bet.

 

Alright, alright. Point taken.
Only thing is, I've already booted from floppy images, have a CD-ROM in the drive, and I'm not sure where the emulated hard drive fits into the whole scheme. Guess I've had this stuff wrapped around my head too much. All the windows files were apparently copied to the VM hard drive, and I've tried every boot sequence, with all combinations of floppy/hard drive/CD-ROM coonected and disconnected. So why it's giving me this message is beyond me...
Thanks for all the advice, regardless.

Tom

 

With Win2k installed on the VM hard disk, and the hard disk set to 0:0, and the boot sequence starting with hard disk, it should boot. If it doesn't, something didn't install properly. I'm assuming that your VM setup is everything set to defaults. I'm also assuming that after it copied files to the hard disk (emulated), it restarted successfully and completed the installation.

The next thing I'd try is going through the floppy boot sequence again, and trying to repair your installation.

I'm using Win2k with no problems at all.