My company's Quickbooks file is on a Win Vista VM. I downloaded the latest build of Parallels 4.0 and went through the backup and conversion process. Yet when I was directed to start the VM to complete the process, everything stopped, giving me a black window with a Windows logo and no functionality. I need to figure out how to get version 3.0 back on my system and restore from the backup or from a Time Machine backup. Of course, I'd rather get 4.0 working, but I don't have the days to invest in trying to fix things as others have experienced, nor to wait the three business days it takes Parallels to reply to a support ticket.
You may just uninstall Parallels Desktop 4.0 and install Parallels Desktop 3.0 back. After that you may use your backed up virtual machine as it was before the upgrade. Nevertheless, you may try to do the following instead: 1. Go to your virtual machine configuration 2. Change OS type to Ubuntu Linux and start the virtual machine. Usually it is antiviral software or custom driver configuration which prevents one from smooth upgrade process, so you may uninistall Parallels Tools and any antiviral software from your virtual machine with Parallels Desktop 3.0, then install Parallels Desktop 4.0 and try to convert (after backup) the virtual machine.
I still have the v4.0 DMG downloaded yesterday. I'll work to uninstall v4.0 using that tool in the DMG, then use the v3.0 DMG (found here: http://download.parallels.com/v3/en/GA/Parallels-Desktop-5626-Mac-en.dmg) to install v3. Then I will restore the winvista.hdd file from Time Machine, and keep my fingers crossed. Having to uninstall McAfee from my v3 VM seems outrageous. Doesn't everyone using Windows have anti-virus installed? Where in the installation procedure does it tell you to do this prior to installing v4 (or to delete Tools, or to remove custom drivers, whatever they are)? I really think Parallels needs to take down the v4 upgrade for a while until they get this conversion process working for a vast majority of their customers (not just the boneheads who don't run anti-virus in a Windows environment).
ksymmers, Usually the convertion procedure goes smoothly, I have just mentioned two major possible reasons of failed upgrade. We are working on improving the upgrade procedure to fit more and more various configurations.
