Parallels 5/Win 98 fails to launch

When I try to launch Parallels 5 and Windows 98, today instead of the Windows
startup screen I get a Parallels notice to create a new virtual machine. I do not want to do this.

COMPUTERS
iMac 27" 2010 and MacBookPro Feb 2008, both with Snow Leopard current version.
Parallels 5 upgrade

I am thinking that perhaps the Windows XP.pvm file or the .iso disk image is
either
a. damaged, or
b. cannot find the correct account, since I renamed my root directory (see
HISTORY below). I renamed the root directories with applecare help, and I
wonder if this could be the problem, that Parallels or Windows 98 are looking for the old account name??)

HISTORY:
On March 6 I backed up my data, so that is okay.
On March 10, I worked with Applecare phone support because my filesharing
between my MBP and my iMac27" were not working. We repaired permissions, it
didn't help, we did a few hours tech support/repair, including reinstalling the
Snow Leopard operating system on the iMac27". While we were doing that,
she/techie helped me rename my root directory/home folder because both the MBP
and the iMac were called etanafinkler, and it was really very confusing for me.

I don't believe I launched Parallels since then. I tried to launch it today,
and there were a lot of damaged permissions. Aookecare Tech support guided me to verify
and repair permissions in Disk Utilities, and to fix the damaged permissions by
"Get Info" and in the bottom, sharing and permissions, some of the account
icons had only read only" rights, which I changed to "read/write."

Options to do:
A. Applecare cannot help further.
B. Parallels support costs $20, instead of paying that, I might upgrade from
Parallels 5 to Parallels 6 and I think they will help me install it correctly
and fix my trouble.
C. couldn't find anything on google
D. I may uninstall Parallels, and try Bootcamp. I
could run Bootcamp on my MBP and sit it next to my iMac so that I can
multitask. I have not used Bootcamp because I dont' like the idea of turning my
computer on and off to access Windows, and then being stuck in Windows without
my Mac apps handy.
E. I could uninstaLl and reinstall Parallels 5 and Windows 98; my hesitancy
here is that Parallels 5 is an upgrade on my iMac. Parallels 4 was on my MBP
and I migration assistant to get it on the iMac which caused a bunch of
proglems and it was not an easy install at all. I needed lots of help from tech
support at Parallels..

thanks for your input

 

Hello ETANAF,

Have you tried to locate your virtual machine (.pvm) file in Finder manually (by default it is located either in /Documents/Parallels or in /Shared/Parallels) and launch it by double clicking the file? What is the result? Can virtual machine be started or do you receive any kind of error meesage?

If you receive any error message on startup please send a problem report to Parallels support team by clicking Help menu of Parallels Desktop - Report a problem while error message is still on the screen. Post the id of the report here.

 

> Have you tried to locate your virtual machine (.pvm) file in Finder manually

Wow!! I got a gift this morning with your email and easy success!
SOLVED!!

I HAD done that before I repaired permissions, and it hadn't worked, so I didn't think to double click on the Windows XP.pvm file again...

So what the heck was the issue? The last thing I did last night was on the top level "parallels" folder, I went in and gave everyone "read and write" permissions and said "apply to all folder contents."

Then this morning, I read your message and double clicked on Windows XP.pvm and it worked!!!

Isn't it so great when a troubling technical issue that seems to need a reinstall of software and the backup data is solved simply!

Now I'll make a manual back-up of the Windows XP.pvm file, since I see Time Machine doesn't back it up.

thank you so much for the prompt early morning reply
Etana

 

Hi Etana,

I am really glad that helped

Well, your username was changed as you specified and the path to your virtual machine in vm configuration file was not valid anymore, as it was still pointing to your old user. Not sure, but sounds like your new user was not granted permissions to use virtual machine as well. So when you give such permissions and then re-registered virtual machine with Parallels Desktop again (by double-clicking .pvm), everything became normal.

And that's great! Hope you'll enjoy using Parallels Desktop again from now on

 

JuliaU,
Thank you for the added explanation of your last post. It really cleared up for me what happened and how exactly it got fixed, including what double clicking on the pvm file did.

MUCH appreciated, especially the quick responses, so I didn't have to wait 2 weeks and research other places. Instead, I got a lot of work done today using Parallels.... Thank you again.

Etana