Parallels tries to make AFP disk connection that doesn't exist

C

CliveS

Bit poster
(Using latest Beta)
My Parallels VM's are on a Iomega Firewire external disk and worked fine. Today I got a new style Airport Extreme WiFi basestation and decided to try the external disk running off the USB port on Airport. All looked fine as a connected disk but Parallels warned it could not run the VM as it was unable to determine the drive geometry. I guess something not supported for networked attached disks.

Problem is now that the disk is back connected to my MBP via Firewire but whenever I try to start a VM Parallels attempts to make a drive connection (AFP connection) to the non-existant dirve. From an OS X point of view the volume is mounted fine but parallels is stuck. I can cancel the connect to network drive dialogue OSX is asking me but this dialogue box repeats and eventually the whole machine starts to crawl until it locks up.

A fix for this greatly appreciated!
 
I've had the same issue, after I transferred a VM over an AFP connection from my desktop to my laptop. If I don't have that AFP connection mapped, I get the same result. I actually spoke to one of the so called "sales engineers" at Parallels. It was obvious in speaking to Dave, that he had no clue, so he said he would refer it to one of his engineers and they would get back with me. The following evening, I got a forwarded email from Dave from his sales engineer that said since it was an AFP connection, it must be an Applecare support issue and referred me to Apple! Obviously Parallels has grown too big, too fast if they are hiring these kinds of idiots that won't even take the time to understand the issue. It is OBVIOUS this is a remnant somwhere from the Parallels installation that is referring to the AFP connection that was made when the VM was transferred. Unfortunately it looks like it's too much to ask for the real support techs to bother taking a look at the issue.
 
Thanks for the reply and to let you know I'm still experiencing the problem. To say the least it's a real pain.

Can someone at parallels give some hint of where to look to solve this...

To re-cap I have de-installed Parallels and re-installed (3188). I have a fully up to date OS X install and latest AirportX s/w (not that the later is relevant I'm sure). I have deleted and also previously edited the user/library/preferences/com.parallels.... files (yes one had a reference to the no longer connected volume which gave me hope as I thought I was onto something but nada).

So parallels is installed on my boot volume. The VM's are on the boot volume. There are no extra drives or shares configured. Whichever VM I try to start from the desktop, or even just start parallels the first thing it does is try to mount the volume that was connected to the airport extreme usb port. If no drive is present parallels will cripple OS X in about 15 seconds so I have to force quit it asap.

In order to just to be able to use parallels I have a cheap usb drive now connected to the aiport usb port and named as per the previous volume when I was trying out VM's over WiFi. The new drive is blank and can be dismounted once the VM is up and running but must be there in order for parallels to start up.

No other apps do this, it's entirely a parallels problem.
 
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Is Parallels complaining or is Windows complaining?

If Parallels is complaining, when the VM is shut down try removing the "Windows Applications" folder out of the VM's folder. If that does not work, try deleting the com.parallels.*.plist files. Also check the pvs file with text edit and see if the AFP location is somehow referenced in there.

If Windows is complaining, use regedit and search for the AFP drive and remove all references to it.
 
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It is Parallels making the request. I have deleted EVERY reference to parallels, including .plist, .pvs files entirely from the machine. Then reinstalled the latest beta. When I first run it, it asks to create a new VM. I go through the process...trying both a bootcamp partition and a fresh windows install. In both instances, the next time I start parallels, it goes back to looking for the AFP network connection that I had originally pulled the deleted VM from. I have created a new user on the same machine, and it doesn't exhibit the same issue, only on my user login (admin rights).
 
OK, so it is obviously something in your user folder. Parallels only creates the Parallels folder for your images plus the preferences files in ~/Library/Preferences

If you've removed all those items, I cannot see why it does not work for your login but does for another.
 
For reference I have precisely the same symptoms as bscinc posted above. Already done all you suggested, editing/deleting the plist files, de-install/re-install but parallels just wants to mount the darn WiFi usb drive.

Doesn't seem to have any particular relevance to any of my VM's (Various XP's, Fedora). Just starting parallels forces the drive to mount.

So have to wonder if this is Parallels forcing the drive to mount of some quirk of OS X and the some bit of code relating to the new Airport Extreme basestation..

Ho hum...
 
definitely not the airport extreme issue, as I dont' have one. Plus I get the same sympton if connected wireless or ethernet. I think there are some hidden files somewhere that Parallels references that we just haven't stumbled on yet. Unfortunately, no one at Parallels support seems to have a clue either.
 
I've got the same thing going on here. I'd transferred my VM using AFP from my Mac Pro to my MBP prior to a business trip. While on the road I tried to use Parallels and the MBP kept locking up - hard freeze - after trying to connect to my Mac Pro and not finding it.

Upon returning home, the MBP is able to load my VM in parallels but only after reporting that it cannot locate one of the hard drives on the Mac Pro. If I turn off networking, I get the same errors and problems I encountered while travelling.

I've done like the others here and have uninstalled Parallels, removed all VMs, removed all references to Parallels in Preferences, etc. However, upon reinstall of Parallels even with no VM on the machine it still tries to connect to my Mac Pro. I'm a long time Windows user and can pretty well find my way around issues that develop under M$ but I cannot figure where the hidden reference is to AFP as it relates to parallels!

I'm running Parallels build 3188

Steve
 
Has anyone else encountered a problem of this kind? I'm at a loss and am unable to use ANY VM on my MBP unless connected to my home network and in touch with my Mac Pro.

HELP!!!
 
Adding some more info just in case it prompts some ideas..

Just installed Apple Security update 2007-004 and fired up Parallels. immediately get the message 'AFP client has been updated.. do you want the new version to access the same keychain'...

Just more info, if only to say the same thing, to confirm Parallels is attempting to mount a volume it shouldn't have reference to.

/sigh.. help!
 
I found a solution! In your user home folder there is a hidden file - .parallels_settings. This file had some lines that referenced my Mac Pro. I suppose I could have edited the lines in the file to remove the reference to the Mac Pro, but I just got delete happy and zapped the file. Now when I start up Parallels on my MBP it no longer demands an AFP connection to my Mac Pro!!!

Why Parallels support couldn't help with this is beyond me. I guess not enough people have complained about it.

I've been a loyal Parallels user since beta and have had very FEW problems with the program. Unfortunately, the lack of support has driven me to look at alternatives. Sorry to say, but I located this hidden file while installing a competing product.

I hope this solution helps someone else.

Good luck,

Steve
 
One more place to look

I was experiencing this too, and I removed all the parallels plist files I could find as well as the .parallels_settings file in my home directory, but parallels was still stubbornly trying to connect to a non-existent share. Then I found a hidden directory called .parallels-vm-directory in my Documents folder. After deleting this directory, as well as all the other files previously mentioned, parallels finally stopped trying to connect to the share. From what I can tell, this hidden directory just contains symbolic links to the locations all the VMs you have ever tried to open in Parallels, so removing the directory shouldn't delete anything important.

I also just want to weigh in and say that this is a very annoying bug and parallels should not be ignoring it! It's disgraceful that we pay $80 for this software, and multiple people have reported the same issue, yet Parallels has yet to respond.
 
Excellent find jblang. This shoud really be added to the FAQ, and of course it is something that whould be fixed altogether.
 
Yep fixed it for me too.

Total gratitude to sditmer and jblang and others in this thread. Happy Parallels user again now.

Excellent find.
 
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