Parallels Desktop and Windows Vista Service Pack 1

IanJS said:
Dear John,

Parallels made me happy until Vista SP1!

I could happily use Vista Home Premium on My MacBook pro since I bought it December - either in native mode booted up from Boot Camp or in Virtual mode via Parallels. Everything was fine until 2 weeks ago when I allowed Microsoft Auto Update to install Vista SP1 in the Parallels virtual machine. From then on I've had nothing but trouble and hours and hours of time wasting efforts to fix it.

The Vista SP1 within Parallels virtual machine crashed several times but eventually fixed itself, but it now runs VERY SLOWLY and takes several minutes to load.

The "Native" Boot Camp Vista SP1 has NEVER worked again. Boot Camp got broken and has been unfixable, despite dozens of attempts to fix it. This means I can no longer access certain peripherals such as my Netgear Network Storage drives which don't support Macs and won't work in the Parallels Vista VM.

I'm now preparing to install the Parallels 5608 build upgrade, and have considered cloning the pre SP1 Windows backup to the Vista Partition on my hard disk.

Question 1. Will build 5608 fix the problem and allow me to use Vista SP1 in Boot Camp and in the Parallels VM?

Question 2. Would you recommend I erase the Vista Partition and clone back the pre Vista SP1 version?

All I want is to return to the trouble free blissful days I had before Vista SP1. Any other advice?

Thanks, Ian
Click to expand...

Before upgrading to build 5608
1) Go to Configuration Editor of this VM > Hard Disk >Advanced
2) Click "Clear" button. This will remove Parallels information from
Boot Camp partitition
3) After it finishes boot this VM
4. Stop and try Boot Camp
 
I tried that - but Vista SP1 still crashes in native mode

Dear John,

I followed your instructions to the letter; i.e.

Before upgrading to build 5608
1) Went to Configuration Editor of Parallels VM > Hard Disk >Advanced
2) Clicked "Clear" button. Removed Parallels information from Boot Camp partitition
3) After it finished, booted the Parallels VM - All was OK
4. Stopped and tried to launch Vista SP1 via Boot Camp - It Crashed - Blue Screen of Death.

Retried all of the above. Did not run Vista SP1 in Parallels VM, but restarted computer and tried to boot Vista SP1 from Boot Camp - FAILED AGAIN - BSOD - crash, self reboot

Installed the New Build 5608.

Booted up Mac OSX, ran Parallels VM, Vista SP1 came up with menu choices, clicked "Normal", SP1 booted up in VM OK.

Tried to restart and boot Vista via Boot Camp - BSOD again

In other words Build 5608 didn't improve anything. I still have the problem I had before trying 5608. Vista SP1 still runs within a Parallels VM but crashes whenever I try to boot up native. The Vista Repair disk fails to repair the native installation.

So - Back to where I was after updating Vista to SPI. Can only run in Parallels VM, but not in Native Mode.

Are there any other files to remove from the Vista Disk? Curious why Vista SPI works fine in the VM but not native mode. Any idea what the cause of the problem might be?

Any other suggestions would be welcome. PLEASE??

Thanks, Ian
 
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Vista won't boot in Native Mode - Only in Parallels VM

When I try to boot Vista in Native Mode from boot camp, it seems to boot normally then when it suddenly crashes, the BSOD flashes up for an instant, then the machine reboots. It happens so fast haven't been able to read the BSOD before the machine reboots.

When I have tried to Repair Windows, using the Original Vista Home Premium Disk, trying to restore from a Restore Point always failed.

Each time I tried to Repair, the messages I got were:

"Startrep.exe Application error.
The exception Breakpoint
A breakpoint has been reached (0x0000003) occurred in the application at location 0x739070fd.
Click on OK to terminate the program."


Then after trying to Repair again, the message would come up:

"Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically." and asks me if I want to send the info to Microsoft.

In the details, Problem registration 06 says "Corrupt Registry".

I cannot boot Vista at all in Native from Boot Camp. BUT if I boot up with Leopard, and open Parallels, Vista will start normally. I checked the restore points will be there OK, as long as I didn't try to repair the native mode from a restore point.

If in Native mode the registry is "corrupt", how come Vista will run normally, (but slowly) in the Parallels VM?

Do you have any recommendations how to fix this?

Thanks, Ian
 
Removing Vista in Parallels makes me nervous

Thanks again.

I already have Boot Camp 2.1

I feel nervous at the thought of losing the whole Vista installation with all the software installed in it. If I remove the Vista in parallels and continue to be unable to repair the Boot Camp version I'll have a big job reinstalling everything.

Are there any drivers or hidden files I could try to remove.?

Phew, Maybe I'll need to spend a few hours backing up and doing this over the weekend. It defeats the purpose and ends up costing hours of grief to fix problems which one would think shouldn't happen in the first place. Sorry for my gripes. I'll try.
 
I got Parallels Desktop 2.5 in the MacUpdate promo a month or so ago but didn't get around to buying Vista straight away.

I have no intention of using Bootcamp and am running 10.4.11. Will I be able to successfully install Vista SP1 under Parallels 2.5?

Thanks
 
Repair Failed, now I have no Vista anywhere. !!

Dear John, I did your suggested action to remove Vista SP1 from Parallels, then tried to repair VIsta in Boot Camp, Could not do it. Tried many times.

After several attempts trying to launch Vista in parallels from within Windows Vista, I gave up. Then tried to install the latest Boot Camp 2.1 update and install SP1.

EVERYTHING FAILED!!

Now I have no Vista. No Boot Camp Vista and No Parallels Vista.

I'm in a worse position than I started. What should I do next?

I just want what I had before !!!
 
jonh said:
I got Parallels Desktop 2.5 in the MacUpdate promo a month or so ago but didn't get around to buying Vista straight away.

I have no intention of using Bootcamp and am running 10.4.11. Will I be able to successfully install Vista SP1 under Parallels 2.5?

Thanks
Click to expand...

John, it is not officially supported,
Vista SP1, supported only since 5600
 
IanJS said:
Dear John, I did your suggested action to remove Vista SP1 from Parallels, then tried to repair VIsta in Boot Camp, Could not do it. Tried many times.

After several attempts trying to launch Vista in parallels from within Windows Vista, I gave up. Then tried to install the latest Boot Camp 2.1 update and install SP1.

EVERYTHING FAILED!!

Now I have no Vista. No Boot Camp Vista and No Parallels Vista.

I'm in a worse position than I started. What should I do next?

I just want what I had before !!!
Click to expand...

I need details, what is error, detailed steps by Vista repair
 
I've decided to do a full -Vista -reinstall

John,

I've reached a point where I'm resigned to starting over from scratch and setting up a new completely re-installed Vista and the many software packages. Since I am time challenged, it'll probably take me a week or more to complete all the steps as many will require activation and probably calls with other software registration hotlines.

I'm going to try it without SP1 at first and store disk images, then try it with a clean SP1 before re-installing the Parallels VM. I'll do my best to capture any error messages that might appear so I can feed them back to you.

Maybe this is sub optimal or unnecessarily time consuming, but at least I'll have a clean start and can be better prepared with disk images to recover previous states. It's important to feel secure and not be afraid of sudden crashes. I don't know if I should blame Microsoft or not, but lately I had trouble with this Vista SP1 upgrade and some XP SP3 upgrades on some other computers.

Thanks, Ian
 
Vista SP1 - Successful Parallels Installation

I eventually managed to get a clean Vista SP1 installation in Boot Camp and then set up a parallels VM for the installation.

Firstly I made sure I had the latest versions of Boot Camp and Parallels.

I started from scratch reformatting, reinstalling Vista in Boot Camp and upgrading it to SP1, then created a new VM in Parallels. However, there were problems - sometimes the Boot Camp Vista would not boot and required the original Vista disk and a repair. BUT after 5-6 instances, now it seems to work OK most of the time. It still occasionally happens after using the Parallels vm, so I need to make sure I have the Vista Disk with me whenever I travel.

The whole process took me THREE WEEKS. I made backups (clones at every step) and had to reinstall all kinds of software that needed activation.

To summaraize installing the SP1 update in Boot Camp worked, and the installation of the vm seems OK, but occasionally still requires the Vista disk.

It's not perfect and I still feel uneasy and can't leave home without my Vista Installation disk.

I still don't know whether it was a Vista SPI problem, Boot Camp or Parallels?
 
Vista SP1 - Successful Parallels Installation

Yes I installed Vista using Bootcamp assistant

I installed the Bootcamp upgrade BEFORE I went through the process.

Thanks
 
Yes the Bootcamp 2.1 Upgrade

I downloaded it from the Apple Website and used it to repartition the disk first.
 
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