non-standard boot camp problem...

Hi,

I've got a MacPro, 4GB ram, running 10.5.1 & Parallels 3.0 (build 5540)

There's three hard drives in my mac
(1) Main mac partition / Old bootcamp XP partition
(2) Extra Mac partition / Current bootcamp Vista partition
(3) NTFS vista backing up

Disk utility tells me:
the old bootcamp XP is disk0s3
the current bootcamp vista is disk1s3

I've tried various custom installations (editing the pvs file manually as explained here: http://kb.parallels.com/entry/27/472/0/ )

one disk (either one).
both disks (in either order)

The best result I get it where the startup process seems to stop quite early on "Boot from hard drive... _" where the underscore stops flashing.

Any ideas as to what I can do? I'd like to run my MacPro in Leopard, and access the Vista apps/settings until I port everything over to the Mac side. I've even tried a rather long Parallels transport from the vista partition, but that image(120GB) also stops at the same stage....

help?

 

Hello,

could you please provide me with your .pvs file and the result of the "diskutil list" command?

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

Hi Alicia,

Thanks for looking into this.


Here's the terminal output:

/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *232.9 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 116.0 Gi disk0s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data 116.6 Gi disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *298.1 Gi disk1
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS 320GB 149.0 Gi disk1s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data 148.8 Gi disk1s3
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *233.8 Gi disk2
1: Windows_NTFS 250GB 233.8 Gi disk2s1


Here's the contents of the pvs file:

[System]
App Version = 3.0.5540
Boot = d
Parallels VM Name = Vista 2 drives
VM Id = {2e4735b8-6140-48a0-b8a3-feb0d4d076e7}
VM Description =
OS Type = 137
Memory = 1024
Video Memory = 16
Memory block size = 14
Acceleration level = 2
Enable write-back disk cache = 1
VT-x support = 1
Start auto = 0
AutoShutdown = 0
Start full screen = 21
Start dashmode = 0
Start full screen warning = 1
PC Speaker enable = 1
Window Mode = 0
Seamless Startup = 0
Application Doc Icon = 2
Multi frame = -1
Guest Tools Status = -1
Undo Disks = 0
Undo Disk Uuid = {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
DirectX Shaders support = 0
[Shared folders]
Shared folders enabled = 1
Sharing enabled = 0
Map folders to drive = 1
Shared folders count = 0
[Shared Profiles]
Shared Profiles enabled = 0
Shared Profiles use desktop = 1
Shared Profiles use documents = 1
Shared Profiles use pictures = 1
Shared Profiles use music = 1
[Windows sharing]
Windows sharing enabled = 1
AutoMount enabled = 1
Spotlight processing enabled = 0
[Video]
Video resolutions enabled = 1
Video resolutions count = 0
[Coherence]
Show taskbar = 1
Show taskbar in Coherence = 1
Relocate taskbar = 0
Exclude Dock = 1
Multiple displays = 0
Group all windows = 0
Disable drop shadow = 0
Remove Wallpaper = 0
Do Not Minimize to doc = 0
Bring to front = 0
[Shared Application]
Shared from Win to Mac = 1
Shared from Mac to Win = 1
SmartSelect = 1
Shared from Win to Mac Old = 0
Shared from Mac to Win Old = 0
SmartSelect Old = 0
[IDE devices]
Disk 0:0 enabled = 1
Disk 0:0 = 1
Disk 0:0 media = 1
Disk 0:0 connected = 1
Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp;disk1s3
Disk 0:0 cylinders = 0
Disk 0:0 heads = 0
Disk 0:0 sectors = 0
Disk 0:1 enabled = 1
Disk 0:1 = 2
Disk 0:1 media = 1
Disk 0:1 connected = 1
Disk 0:1 image = Default CD/DVD-ROM
Disk 1:0 enabled = 0
Disk 1:0 = 0
Disk 1:1 enabled = 1
Disk 1:1 = 1
Disk 1:1 media = 1
Disk 1:1 connected = 1
Disk 1:1 image = Boot Camp;disk0s3
Disk 1:1 cylinders = 0
Disk 1:1 heads = 0
Disk 1:1 sectors = 0
[Floppy disks]
Floppy 0 enabled = 1
Floppy 0 = 1
Floppy 0 image = /Library/Parallels/Tools/vmtools.fdd
Floppy 0 connected = 0
[Serial ports]
COM1 enabled = 0
COM1 = 0
COM2 enabled = 0
COM2 = 0
COM3 enabled = 0
COM3 = 0
COM4 enabled = 0
COM4 = 0
[Parallel ports]
LPT1 enabled = 0
LPT1 = 0
LPT2 enabled = 0
LPT2 = 0
LPT3 enabled = 0
LPT3 = 0
[Sound]
Sound enabled = 1
Sound = 1
Sound connected = 1
Sound device = Default Audio
Mixer device = Default Audio
[Network]
Network enabled = 1
Network = 1
Network connected = 1
Adapter No = 0
Adapter name = Default Adapter
Adapter type = 4
Port = 0x00000300
IRQ = 3
MAC address = 00e87c61e82e
Network2 enabled = 0
Network2 = 0
Network3 enabled = 0
Network3 = 0
Network4 enabled = 0
Network4 = 0
Network5 enabled = 0
Network5 = 0
[Usb]
USB enabled = 1
USB = 1
USB autoconnect = 0

 

UPDATE: If anyone ends up here, I feel your pain, and I have NOTHING to suggest to you, other than stick to the plain vanilla one drive boot camp setup, and hope that works for you. I myself will be formatting everything, and starting afresh - precisely what I was wanting to avoid by using bootcamp support in Parallels.

Despite Alicia's initial response on this forum, she never followed this up, ignored my direct messages....

Parallels' email support was also disapointing/insulting. Despite a number of exchanged emails between us, the last email I got from them suggested that I needed to edit the PVS file - and pointed me to the KB article that I myself had originally quoted to them in my problem email!

Absolutelly shocking! The support email obviously manned by a human, but has an accuracy lower than a primive support bot.

The one time I need support from a software company (after using up all the available resources), I get slapped on the face.

I'll go and look at what VMware/Fusion are offering - maybe they now how to treat customers.

/Rant

 

Hello,

according to the Note section here, beta builds are in the testing stage and not eligible for Parallels Technical Support.
Anyway, please, try to boot the VM with only one Hard Disc enabled (see Configuration Editor). Will it start? It's better to try two variants: disk0s3 is enabled and disk1s3 is disabled and vice versa.

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

Hi Alicia,

Please excuse my despair, but you did ask for information, and then seemed to neglect me.

Currently, I'm using the 3.0 build 5582.0 release (non-beta, I believe), with exactly the same symptoms as before...
This, by the way, is the version that I used when I asked for support.

As mentioned in my original post, I had tried a number of different setups.
This time, I was systematic and went through every possible permutation (and logged the results):

Only One Disk 0:1 enabled = disk0s3
Result: "Windows bot manager" Winload.exe missing/corrupt
Repair: Vista Ultimate CD knows of Vista installation, but cannot find it: location unknown.

Only One Disk 0:1 enabled = disk1s3
Result: "Boot from hard drive... _" freeze
Repair: Vista Ultimate CD cannot find installation to repair

Only One Disk 0:1 enabled = VM of Vista partition, created with Transporter
Result: "Boot from hard drive... _" freeze
Repair: Vista Ultimate CD cannot find installation to repair

Both disks enabled, Disk 0:1 = disk0s3; Disk 1:1 = disk1s3 *This is the 'normal' setup*
Result: "Windows bot manager" Winload.exe missing/corrupt
Repair: Vista Ultimate CD knows of Vista installation, cannot find anything wrong to repair.

Both disks enabled, Disk 0:1 = disk1s3; Disk 1:1 = disk0s3
Result: "Boot from hard drive... _" freeze
Repair: Vista Ultimate CD cannot find installation to repair

Conclusion:
It looks like my vista installation is on disk1s3, but the initial boot process has to take part on disk0s3, so I cannot just boot with disk1s3... Both disks have to be used in the correct order for Parallels to get beyond the booting from HD screen.

I am therefore stuck, unless Parallels learns to cope with a 2 bootcamp drive setup, where windows isn't installed in the first bootcamp partition, or, if I can somehow change the way windows boots up.

Given the above information, do you have any other suggestions for me, other than reformat and start again? should I experiment with changing any other values in the PVS file - if so, what?

Many thanks in advance,
Luis.

 

Hello,

could you please set the following setup:
Both disks enabled, Disk 0:1 = disk0s3; Disk 1:1 = disk1s3
and boot from Vista Installation CD and run "fixmbr" command in Recovery Console?

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

As a follow up to this thread, I'd like to add my resolve:

I tried the above suggestions - running the Vista version of 'fixmbr', and once more, I got the same results. I believe that the problem here is how Parallels deals with multiple drives: Specifically where XP is initially installed in the first BootCamp partition and then Vista is installed onto a second bootcamp disk/partition. The windows startup process in such an environment presumably makes a reference to both drives during the startup, and Parallels doesn't seem to handle this. While it is fair enough that Parallels doesn't handle such a specific setup, I am surprised that nobody else seems to have come across this problem.

I'm currently running Leopard, with a fresh Vista install in a fresh disk image through Parallels, and will erase my bootcamp partition in the near future.
CONCLUSION: Parallels works great with disk images, as well as with standard bootcamp setups. Parallels has issues with non-standard bootcamp setups - specifically where the system is not in the first boot camp disk/partition.

NOTE: Parallels transporter failed to successfully transport all my Windows 2000 (2K) Virtual PCs (although it worked fine with Vista/XP and Win2003 Virtual PCs). All the windows 2000 images crashed with the bsod (blue screen of death). I quickly gave up on that and just rebuilt my test machines.

I love the product, and use it daily, but wished I knew the above info before wasting much time trying to get it to do things that the current version cannot.

I hope the above experience can save someone some time.

 

hello i currently bought parellels desktop 2.0 for my macbook i installed with a cd and i set up an express desktop when it goes to the black dos screen its says:
boot from hard drive... failed
boot from cd/dvd-rom drive... failed
boot from floppy drive...
non-system disk or disk error
replace and press any key when ready

i been tryin to get help with this for over a month but nobody from the parallels team has help me so is there anyone out there that can

 

Hi livinglegend085,

Your problem doesn't really relate to this thread.
Here's some questions that come to mind:

1) Do you have a windows installation disk? - if so, what version?
2) Are you using Mac OS Tiger?

Good luck.

 

I am having the same problem as the original poster: multiple internal drives, but manually editing the PVS file to point to Boot Camp;disk1s3 does not help, it still just sits at "Boot from hard drive..." with a solid underline. Running fixmbr does not fix the problem.

Any new ideas? (Also running 5582).

(quick note - the boot drive is an SATA drive, but the drive with multiple partitions - 2 of them, including the windows one - is regular ATA/IDE).

 

Hello,

could you please go to Applications->Utilities->Console and there, on the left side choose Logfiles->~/Library/Logs->Parallels and take two logfiles - Bootcamp.log & BootcampOSP.log? Please, attach them to your reply.

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

Alicia,

Sorry for the late reply, but here are the contents of the Bootcamp.log:

BootcampOSP.log has no new entries for today.

Let me know if this helps, or how I can add some additional debug info.

Thanks,
Craig

 

Any word on the situation?

 

Booting from other than 0:0?

I note from Lui-g's 12-12-07 post above that all of the permutations he tried used Disk 0:1 or 1:1.

I don't have a Boot Camp partition or Windows, but I've noticed that in Parallels (I'm running release build 5584), I can only boot any operating system from Disk 0:0.

If I put a known-bootable disk image at 0:1, 1:0, or 1:1, and set it to be the only disk drive, it won't boot. I get much the same as Lui-g's symptoms--either an error message or a hang after "Boot from hard drive..." But if I change it to 0:0, the exact same disk image works fine--and this result is the same with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Debian Linux. Parallels doesn't even seem to attempt to run a bootloader other than on 0:0.

Lui-g, does setting your desired boot partition to 0:0 in Parallels work? (I'm assuming, perhaps wrongly, that one can do that with a physical Boot Camp partition just as with a disk image.)

Others, is this a known limitation of Parallels, or a bug, or am I just doing something wrong? (Now that I've figured it out, of course, it's easy to work around.)

 

still waiting.... still can't use my boot camp partition. hello?

 

I'd like to see what the owner(s) of Parallels would think of the way their customers in need of support are treated, if they were to read this thread.

The initial response is prompt and encouraging, but there's never any true follow up, and I'm also intrigued by the request of different log files for the second person that had my problem - why wasn't I asked for those? This is all very strange, and seems a little disorganized.

I recommend the following: 1) Try direct support. 2) Stick to using bootcamp only on the first hard drive, if you need to access it with Parallels. 3) avoid asking for anything in this forum, unless you like wasting your time.

Personally, after being abandoned twice in this very thread, and receiving dismissive & inattentive tech support emails, I gave up. I erased the Bootcamp partitions, and started afresh.

It's a shame, because the product is great. I started using it in Beta, then I bought v1 (before it was released), then upgraded to v2, then v3, then v3 premium. Still, I got no help when I needed it.

Good luck to you all, at least I know it's not personal, since udecker is getting the same treatment.

I'm abandoning monitoring this thread.

 

I agree with what Lui-g is saying - I feel a bit hung out to dry here.

Parallels is unmounting the volume with no problem. I have now re-done my setup with FAT32 and NTFS, reformatted the drive and repartitioned the drive in so many different arrangements that I've lost count. Still, I cannot get parallels to see the drive. (If I try to install Windows to the boot camp volume from within Parallels, it sees the volume during the install, but not on any subsequent attempts. Even though it's unmounting the drive.)

Is there anything in the world I can do at this point? Anything?

Hello?