Please help: VM does not start. NTLDR missing??

T

Tom.Bieth

Bit poster
Hi!

I have a real big problem. I am writing my paper work to get my geman "MD" degree and my "Windows XP" VM does not start anymore after the backup of my MacBookPro!

This is the error I get while booting:

error_booting.gif


I needed Windows for a statistiks programm (SPSS) so a good friend of mine told me about Parallels. Everything worked great. The application is just amazing,

Now, here the issue:

The VM is (was) configured with 4 GB HDD space. The .hdd file was 4.05 GB big. The first problem yesterday was that I could not copy the .hdd file to an external HDD. I tried it several times. Every time I got an error after 4 GB were transfered.

So I mounted a image in TOAST 8 and copied the image to the external HDD.

This worked BUT:
After I reinstalled my MAC I mounted the .hdd image file. Now the strange part started:
Every time I am mounting the image I get 2 x "My Disc" with a .hdd file. One is 4 GB big and the other is 43 MB big.

How can I "reunion" the two files? I think the error occured has to do with this???


Plese help me, I need the results from my questionaire for my paper work next week.
I hope someone of you has a suggestion...

If there will be no chance to get the VM back to work. I need the saved files from the VM. Is there a chance to extract them out of the VM .hdd file???

Thanks in advance,
Tom

Germany
 
External HDD is FAT! :-(((

Hi again,

I searched in the forum and found this post:

That would be an OSX or hardware problem, yes?

If your external drive is formatted FAT32, and your .hdd is larger than 4 gig, the copy will fail as soon as you have 4 gig (-2 bytes) copied since that's the FAT32 file size limit.

If the external isn't FAT32, you have another problem, probably either a corrupt .hdd file or a problem with the external disk. In any case, it's not a Parallels problem.
Click to expand...


How can I get the two files back together???

Tom
 
Just a try

Hi Tom, i think that the easiest way to resolve the problem is a new install of a VM.
At the end of installation, append the old Hdd as second volume.
So you can take your data back.
By :)
 
Cannot open second HDD - 25 $ Reward for help

Hi Gibert,

thanks for the suggestion. I installed the new VM and appended the "old" second HDD Image.

In windowd the 2nd HDD is listed, unfortunately the disc does not open. The error says "may be corrupted or not readable".

Is there another chance to get the files back?? I do need my results from the questionaire.


To everybody: I will reward 25 $ (payed with PAYPAL) for a suggestion that will bring my data back!!



Desperate greetings from Germany,
Tom
 
Dear Tom

good morning to you and sorry to hear of your problem.
According to the error message, NTLDR ( NT Loader) is missing, which means it does not see that image as valid window... in normal pure window situation, we should be able to boot from CD and could choose replair option, and get the bare window... However, I' m not sure if parallels will support boot from CD (F12 to inititate boot menu).. you might want to search the forum to see if anyone has try to boot from CD in parallels... sorry that I could not be more help here...
Good luck..

JL
 
Boot from CD is not possible

Hi leejsci,

that was the first thing I tried after encounering the problem. I googled for the error message and found suggestions to boot from CD and recover the Windows installation.

But: My VM freezes when the boot sequence from CD is about to start...

I think the 45 MB which are missing in my original .hdd image are causing the trouble!! :(

Tom
 
Hello Tom,

I really hope the virtual HDD geometry is not ruined - otherwise it is possible that the data is lost forever.

Here's what I would suggest you to try:
0. Make sure you copy the .hdd from the backup location to your Mac before trying anything. As well, make sure you keep the backup safe for some time till the problem is solved.
1. Install another instance of Windows in another virtual machine. We will use it for just a limited amount of time, so you needn't activate Windows.
2. After you have Windows installed, shut down the virtual machine and connect the faulty .hdd to it (go to Edit->Virtual Machine...->Add->Hard Disk->Use an existing...->Specify the path to faulty HDD)
3. Boot the VM. Windows should recognize the faulty HDD. Try browsing it. If you can - this is a good sign. Let us know so that we could think of further repairing. Send me a note to [email protected] with "ATTN: Tim Surgent" subject.

Best regards,
Tim
 
Dear Tom

Good morning to you again... try Tim's suggestion.. and I have been thinking...
let's use the parallels to be our advantage here...
if Tim's suggestion does not work.. try this.. (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HDD IN SAFE PLACE)
1) in Parallels, File - New and select typical and select your exisiting hdd drive. at this point, window installation should take over and (HOPE) to see that there is a c:\windows directory and will prompt you for repair option....if repair was succesful, you will have bootable window and get the data out.
2) if 1 does not work... do the same (with fresh copy of hdd) and when it sees c:\windows directory.. choose install in different directory.. window's installation should ask you to name the new directory.
make it like c:\winnew or something...

only concern I have for step 2 is, (if works) it may require more space than what you currently available in hdd image....

also, if typical setup does see C:\windows directory, try custom setup as well...

Good luck!!!

JL
 
2° try -

After apended the 2° HDD to the new Vm, open the command " manage" from My Computer options.

Open " disk management" and look how your second-bad HDD is seen!

Try the right command-option and look what chances you have.

I wait for...

by
 
Solved it!

If you haven't by now, you can do this to get files back.

I had the same problem and got really annoyed as it had lots of important stuff on.

What I did was, mount the hdd image as a 2nd hard drive on a new install of windows, then, as it still was unreadable, I used a program called File Scavenger to find all the files.

It worked and I have all my files back. I did have to reinstall all my programs, but the main thing was the files.

I've learned to make backups of important files every day! Can't trust windows in any case.
 
VM does not start--Data recovery

Hi,

Information about using the File Scavenger would be much appreciated as I'm desperately trying to access data and all the tips in this thread have proved fruitless. I have a Macbook, using XP in Parallels, and the only app I run in Parallels is Quickbooks. I need to get my QB file.

Do I download File Scavenger into the 2nd (new) VM or into OS X environment? Where do I actually look for the missing data? Does some sort of file sharing need to be enabled first?

Thanks,

deena
 
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