Computer disk hardware configuration problem

I have now been having this problem for some months.

When I try to boot PD 4.0 from my Bootcamp partition (which boots just fine outside of Parallels - it is XP Pro SP3, the machine is an MBP running SL 10.6.1), I get the following error:

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware."

I then shutdown the VM, go to Configure, select "Image File" for Hard Disk 1, and again Bootcamp partition. Parallels then does some "updating virtual machine" stuff, and presto, I can now boot it.

I have now tried 101 different things, and can't resolve this. It is an annoying procedure to have to follow. Does anybody have a definitive answer why this happens?

 

In case this helps any, there is a problem report ID: 669636.

 

Nobody seems to know why this is happening, and yet there is now the offer to upgrade to Parallels 5.0. Does anybody have any idea if this issue has been resolved in the new version?