3188 Ruins Bootcamp

So, I've wasted the majority of my work day looking for a fix for running Parallels Build 3188 with BootCamp under OSX 10.4.9

I get the dreaded "Unable to open disk image Boot Camp!" message. I've done the following:
-re-do my xp partition completely
-reinstall parallels

Am I missing anything boneheaded? Help!

 

Note that BootCamp works great as it usually does... the partition is on the same drive as OX and is NTFS. The machine is a MBP 2.33 w/ 2g ram.

 

Probability you will not receive any reply. I've sent this error too many times both here and in techical support section but no one has replied to me.
You should pray

 

Ugh indeed. I'm supporting multiple people in an educational institution who are bleeding edge. Now I'm wondering what build to de-grade to.

 

I have seen that message with my installation as well.

What I found was that if I start my WinXP using the icon on the desktop, then the message appears. Howerver, if I start WinXP from the main Parallels screen, then it is found. Weird.

Not sure whether this your problem though.

 

Mine bombs via both methods.

I've done everything but format the entire drive on the MBP, which I'm not going to be doing. I've un-installed and re-installed parallels 3188 completely, completely reformatted the XP partition and reinstalled the OS. XP works great in BootCamp, but when I try to roll parallels, it throws the mentioned error, then fubars the XP partition. This requires a "repair" when trying to run it in BootCamp.

 

FYI: Reverting to Build 3120 (the last build I had working before either upgrade of OSX or Parallels) seems to work.

Is there somewhere better to be communicating with actual tech people @ Parallels about these issues, or is this forum pretty much it?

 

I'm in the same boat! I'm using linux though, and everything was working great. Then I rebooted after installing the security update that came out before 10.4.9 and suddenly I get the same dreaded "Unable to open disk image Boot Camp!" message. I've been out of commission for a week now and it's really frustrating. I wrote parallels support the day it happened to me but they haven't written back yet (#114587). I was using 3170 and so I tried upgrading to 3188 but that didn't work.

I've gone so far as to single step through the pvsso executable that seems to open the bootcamp partition with elevated privileges for the main parallels app, looking for bugs. It looked ok, to me, but it's hard to tell.

Where can I get 3120 so I can try it out?

Thanks
David

 

I've always had a problem with the "unable to open boot camp" error - I just press OK on the error box, then press the small green PLAY triangle on the right hand of the screen.

Just checked it now, and it work ok.

 

Yikes, looks like there are no readily available links to previous builds. I spent the last 10 minutes searching for previous build links and they all seem to clean up nicely to only download 3188 (current build as of this post.)

 

Found it!

http://download.parallels.com/RC/Parallels%20Desktop%203120%20Mac%20en.dmg

Sadly, it still didn't work for me. :-(

-David

 

For what it's worth, I'm running 3188 + Boot Camp + WinXP with no problems on a Rev. A Macbook, so the problems you're encountering may not be specific to this build, but rather a result of some other aspect of your configuration.

 

Ok, I finally got my Parallels working with the latest code. It's *extremely* fragile though! Apparently, if the boot camp file system is not clean then it will not work and I get the dreaded message.

To fix it I have to do this: boot into the linux partition (ext3) which makes Linux clean up the journal up and then reboot back into Mac OS X, which unmounts the filesystem cleanly and then finally Parallels begins to work.

So there is some test in Parallels that fails when then disk is not unmounted cleanly. This is *extremely* frustrating since it means I have to reboot my ENTIRE computer (twice!!) if Parallels, the Mac, or Linux crashes.

I'm very very frusterated at the moment since a stupid bad serial port driver (from IOGear) just brought down my computer and now parallels doesn't work again.

Parallels, please fix this bootcamp problem!!

Thanks,
David

 

3811 Problems using Boot Camp & Lessons Learned - freezes, install problems, & more.

I am sure there are multiple ways to trouble shot this is just a recap of my experience and some things that helped.

Longtime Mac OS and Win OS user - no computer genius but believe I have a significant amount of knowledge and experience.

New MBP 15 inch, 2.33 Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 200GB hd, and 3gb ram.

Set Up Boot Camp Win XP SP 2 Partition using v1.2 and a 32GB partition with FAT32. For the most part this works well without problems. Had some issues installing the Mac Drivers, but straightened this out.

First let me give parallels some props - when it works it is amazing. It is fast and performs how I believe everyone imagines it should, etc… The problem is what about when it doesn’t work, and what kind of damage it can cause.

I have had many problems with Parallels 3188 and installing and using it with the boot camp partition as the VM.

Problem #1: Installation
First - Mac partition is humming, working perfectly, and all maintenance and os software (and firmware if necessary) is up to date.

Second - install Win XP SP 2 using boot camp v1.2 Before installing Mac drivers, but after the win xp is installed do at least one manual shutdown and restart.

Third - install mac drivers. Important let the mac disc made with boot camp do all the work. Do not hit cancel or touch any tabs except the certificate tab that asks if you want to install the video driver, etc.. choose install it anyway as the instructions direct. When it is done do not let it restart - say no. Then do a manual power shut down and power up. (If you hit cancel or screw up the driver install risk getting a system 32/DRIVERS/pci.sys error. If you get this then just start over. Destroy the partition using the boot camp utility, restart the computer, use bc utility to make a new partition, install XP fresh, etc..)

Test the Mac OS and Win XP functionality - once you are convinced your Win XP is working perfectly and you can boot and reboot into each without problems then you are ready to try and install Parallels.

Parallels install - follow the directions for custom install using boot camp partition as VM.

Starts off rather positive and innocently. The initial install of parallels tool and drivers goes through flawlessly. Then the trouble starts with when parallels tries to restart the virtual machine following the initial tools and driver install. It appears to boot up - you see the Win XP logo but you never make it to the welcome screen. It freezes on a BLACK SCREEN, and when I say freeze I mean it freezes everything - the virtual machine and the mac os. The whole thing locks up! The only thing to do is a hard restart.

**Warning** Lesson #1 if you ever have to shut down parallels VM in any fashion other than using the Windows XP start menu - shut down - turn off method. Then boot back to Mac OS. Never boot to the Win XP after an improper shutdown in parallels VM. If you do then you will almost certainly destroy your Win XP install and have to start all over. The parallels instructions hint at this but do not emphasize it enough. NEVER GO BACK TO WIN XP NATIVE BOOT UNTIL VM HAS SHUT DOWN WIN XP PROPERLY!!!

I found this out the hard way on more than one occasion. Along these lines also make sure you are aware what OS boots at startup and be read to push the alt/option key if necessary. Once Parallels froze and I restarted it after a hard reset, and I forgot that it was set to boot to Win XP and I wasn’t paying attention so of course it booted to XP caused a major error and destroyed the partition. Had to start all over - do not try fixing the error (usually a system 32/hal.dll is corrupt or missing error). I spent a whole day trying to fix it. Although there are many fixes to this on the internet none pertain to Parallels and it is the bad shut down in parallels that caused the problem. For some reason if you correct this problem (discuss later) before returning to native XP boot up then no harm done, but if you try a native XP boot up before fixing the parallels vm xp problem then you are screwed and just start over from the very beginning. i.e. erase the partition, reassess the partition, new/fresh xp install, etc..

So what to do when Parallels VM freezes everything and have to do a hard restart?? Do not panic as I did multiple times. Recovery is possible.

First - boot back to Mac os. Thank goodness my Mac os has never been compromised in all the problems I have encountered.

Next try running parallels again. Sometimes you will get errors saying it couldn’t access boot camp or file can’t be found and your VM will not start up. Annoying but luckily not the end of the world - another trick I found from member fso (posted on 3/15/07) is that you should not use the desktop shortcut/alias to start the program. Bizarre but it is true! Just get rid of that thing and go to your applications folder, parallels folder, and find the icon to run parallels (drag it to your dock for convenience). Parallels seems to run much more consistent and stable if you start it using the icon in the parallels folder. If this doesn’t work then create a new Virtual Machine. At a minimum a new VM has always allowed me to start XP in a VM again and then shut down properly. Once shut down properly within the VM, XP can be booted natively, and it works fine.

Summary and Few pointers:
1. If you get the BLACK SCREEN of death in parallels XP VM then perform a hard reset and boot to MAC OS only and follow the suggestions above. You can always create/install another VM. As long as you do not access your Boot Camp XP partition via a native boot until there is a proper VM XP shutdown, then everything should be ok and Boot Camp XP should not be damaged, etc…
2. NEVER boot to Win XP (boot camp partition) after a parallels XP VM session ends with an improper shut down!!
3. Do not activate windows xp until you have parallels VM up and running. Then activate it first over the internet while in a parallels VM session. Should be no problem, then activate it again next time you perform a native boot into your XP partition. This should prevent having to call MS for a activation number.
4. Do not install XP Software or do XP updates etc..through the parallels XP VM interface. Always boot natively in to the XP partition (boot camp method) to do installs, updates, etc..
5. Access/Start Parallels by using the icon in the parallels folder located in the applications folder.
6. I find that if I end a VM session and it shuts down properly, no freezes, etc.. If I want to start a new VM session then I first shut down/close parallels, then reopen it using the correct icon, and then start the VM session. I find that this method is more stable. Sometimes if I just hit play button without closing Parallels it has a higher tendency to freeze on start up.
7. When closing a VM session always use the XP start tab, shut down, etc.. Never chose restart - my experience is for whatever reason parallels tends to crash more with restart. Even if I want to restart - I choose shut down (and as stated above) - after proper shutdown I close parallels and then restart it and then start a new VM session. All a pain in the … but this what I have found leads to the most stability. Using restart etc.. is not a problem when using boot camp to natively boot into the XP it is only when using the parallels VM XP
8. All of the Parallel problems I have experienced are at Startup or Shutdown (except for the install issue which was kind of a Startup problem). Once the VM XP session starts properly and windows desktop appears I have not had any problems with one exception - I tried updating Win XP and it froze. That is why above I recommended that everyone performs installs and updates etc.. by booting natively to the XP os using boot camp method.

I think that is it. I hope this helps people and it is not too confusing. Excuse grammar and typos - I just tried to put this together quickly.

 

I'm having trouble getting my mouse to work in VM....... I can't get fully logged into windows because I get the screen to activate windows...... and mymouse will not work, either with the usb or the trackpad... I've tried everything I possibly could to get my mouse to work within the windows os window but to no avail... someone said to install the Parallels tools but I CANT until I am FULLY logged into windows....... what's going on? What am I doing wrong?

First time posting....... my computer specs are:

MBP 10.4.9
2gig mem 667 MHz
2 GHz Intel Core Duo
Running WinXP Home sp2 via Bootcamp (9 months-no problems)

 

I've always had this issue and like you I just clicked OK and then the green start button and it boots up. Ugly but it work. Oh and before I get the error msg. that I click OK on, I am prompted to enter my password.

 

There used to be an issue with windows startups when a login was required. I don't remember the specific threads but one work around is to NOT have windows require a login.

 

Never personally had an issue with this.

Pertaining to the bad unmount. Mount and unmount the partition inside of Disk Utility.

If it just Black Screens, un-install Parallels tools via booting in Safe Mode. Then, once you are in, re-install them.

 

I'm not "logging" in persay.... I just cannot get to the desktop.... I get the dreaded Activate Windows msg before I even get to the Desktop......

 

Have you actually Activated the copy of Windows?