Just upgraded to Parallels 11 because it's supposed to be more Windows 10 compatible...but...

I still cannot get Windows 10 to install after my Parallels 11 upgrade. It was a waste of 50 bucks as I see it right now as the entire reason for me to upgrade was to allow me to install Windows 10.

I've got a 27" retina iMac with a TB Flashdrive and 64 GB or RAM and the M295 video option. I've tried, unsuccessfully to install Windows 10 back in Parallels 10 about twenty times...I'm getting really, really weary of trying all the lists of things recommended on the Microsoft forums...sfc scannow...Software Distrubution folder purge and delete...Dism Cleanups, etc. etc. etc...and I'm at my wit's end.

When I FIRST tried to install Windows 10, it got all the way up to like 70% on the big progress circle...then it went only to 6%....then only to 1%...now it doesn't even get to that stage. In each instance my iMac would eventually freeze and lockup and the only way I could ever get it to respond was to power it down with the power button. It always restarted back at Windows 8.1...and now I also have a "rollback Windows" icon when it starts, but when I click it I get an error message that the operating system doesn't exit.

If anyone has any suggestions or know what might remedy my situation, please, please, please help! I'm very, very frustrated.

 

A few questions...

1) Are you upgrading?
2) How many CPUs / Memory do you have assigned to the VM and how many are actually on the host?
3) Lots of people are having issues running out of space in the VM (not host) if you are upgrading.
4) Are you using the create media tool or actual windows 10 upgrade?

 

I am upgrading. I currently have Windows 8.1 on my VM.
I have 2 CPUs/16GB of memory dedicated to the VM.
I have tried using the MediaCreate tool as well as mounting the ISO file and running setup.
I've disconnected all USB devices.
I've run Scannow, DISM Cleanups, Restorehealths, SoftwareDistribution folder clean-outs, stopped all Norton AV stuff, etc...nothing seems to work. I eventually get either a total freeze of my iMac or a "Something happened" notice from the Windows updater.

Each ultimately fails. I don't know if I should just eliminate my Windows VM and reinstall it all from scratch now, or just abandon the entire idea of running Parallels and Windows on my iMac. I feel like I'm just banging my head against a bloody wall now and it's just needless abuse.

I'm really wondering if I need to abandon Parallels and just run Windows on my old Xi PC...I love my iMac, but really want to be able to run Windows 10 when I need to. Is it possible to get a refund on a recent upgrade purchase of Parallels?

No one seems to have a real clue how to help me.

 

Unfortunately this may very well be a non-parallels issue and just windows. There are many times I had to recreate windows from scratch (not VM, just physical) because it exhibited weird issues and no forum or suggestion in the world fixed anything. Might be corrupted registry, who knows. I'm seeing a ton of forums on the internet over lock up issues during upgrade. I had a similar issue on my Surface Pro 3 until I gave up and just made a USB install disk and installed from scratch. I learned a long time ago, with Windows, reinstalling and redoing everything you have is generally faster than trying to fix unknown errors, or rooting up bad malware or fixing windows update issues. I'm in IT and a true industry expert in Windows & Servers and unless it's a crazy piece of software that cannot be installed ever again, redo it. But then again, that's why I'm an expert in VMWare, Citrix and Parallels, I do snapshots before anything

So my honest advice, just start from scratch. Might be a better idea anyway as new Parallels 11 is good on battery life but not if you have an insanely congested broken installation of windows. And you want a clean Install of windows 10. There are a lot of elements that come from 8 (links, registry entries, apps) that get left behind, waste space, etc.

I'm sure you can ask for a refund from them, I don't know; they seem nice enough.

 

I'm a Mac novice. This is my first Apple computer and my first exposure to Parallels so I have a question for you since you've been round the block more than a few times with it all.

I'm going to try to start from scratch. So, I currently have Parallels 11 installed running Windows 8.1. I have my downloaded Windows 8.1 setup file (6.4GB) in my Mac's Download folder.

To start from scratch do I somehow wipe this Windows install from the Parallels control panel or do I do it from within the Windows virtual system? And, will I need to uninstall and reinstall Parallels or just Windows?

Update: I'm just going to run the Windows Setup program from within the Windows VM and see what happens....can't get any worse can it???

Update 2: Well, seems I'm stuck. I tried to run the windows 8.1 setup file and after the download and initial blue setup screens, after it asked me to accept the licensing terms, it failed in the installation of Windows 8.1 and rebooted me back into my old 8.1.
So, I'm assuming I must wipe out the Windows VM from Parallels Control somehow instead. Never done that before so I guess I'm going to have to learn.

Update 3: Well, after deleting the VM from Parallels Control Center I was able to reinstall Windows 8.1 and then upgrade it to Windows 10. That was a lot more work than it should have been- and in fairness to the Parallels folk, I'm sure it was something Windows did during the installation of things initially that caused a problem for all subsequent attempts to install.

 

In parallels (have library open, not a vm), click file => new. In the new select the first big icon "install windows or another..." Click continue. It should automatically select the ISO image, if not click image file then drag and drop your windows iso file into "drag the image file here" spot. Afterwards just follow the directions, it's pretty straightforward and Parallels will pretty much do everything for you.