Virtual machine cannot be started

Hi Folks,
I'm a total Mac virgin, installed Parallels and and it worked. Now I cannot get it started a message comes up stating:

Virtual machine cannot be started because of the following problem:

Parallels Desktop is unable to access the virtual hard disk image file /Users/*******/Documents/Parallels/Microsoft Windows XP/winxp.hdd. The file is used by other application.


I have uninstalled everything and started over but nothing works, what does this mean-Please help!! I have a core 2 duo intel mac 2.16 Ghz, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM running windows XP with new service pack updated

 

Hello,

please try to use this article.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

Thank you Stacey, but I am unable to open the winxp.HDD file. This is the message I get:
Parallels Explorer is unable to open the VHD. Make sure the HD file is supported and not corrupted or used by parralels explorer or another application." Any ideas please!

 

Please tell me when this message occurs.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

Hi Stacey, it happens every time I try to open the disk.

 

Hi again,
The disk was being opened by Parallels Explorer, so I changed this to default mounter. I could then drag the file to desktop and then rebooted the whole system. I still cannot open Parallels Desktop as the same message states the file is corrupted. What should I do now?

Thank you again
Cathy

 

Cathy,

please try to use this article now.

Best regards,
Stacey

 

I seem to have kept the old path to the winxp HD instead of the new windows hd. this is the message I now get when trying to edit the VM


Unable to find the image file /Users/catherinebranch/Documents/Parallels/Microsoft Windows XP/winxp.hdd of the virtual Hard Disk 1. Please check that the path is valid and required disk image file exists.

Thanks again, sorry!

 

Yeah! managed to change the path and it now works! Thank you so much for your help, sorry for the lack of knowledge, you are brilliant!
cathy

 

Cathy,
I am glad that everything is working now.
Happy Holidays!

Best regards,
Stacey