Time to Start Over!

Doesn't take much windows to bring out the idiot in me--a humbling and frustrating experience. I've installed parallels and then windows xp. Thought I'd try increasing the partition size, following suggestions in jeliker's thread, but got tangled up in it all, one thing after another (finally seeing that FAT32 can't be increased and throwing up my arms).

Now I'm not even sure if I want/need 20G of partition rather than 8. After all, I don't intend to do gaming, nor do I intend to work with big video/multimedia files.

Soooo, assuming it's what I need to do at this point, just how do I uninstall windows and start over with Parallels? Maybe I don't even need to do this, but after copying and renaming extra HDDs and such, I'm not sure of anything any more, in terms of what file's where.

Sad.

 

Why don't you just use "convert d: /fs:ntfs" in a command prompt before starting diskpart to expand the filesystem? (this of course assumes that you have no CD and only one harddisk image - otherwise you need to use a different drive letter)

I did this today and it worked flawlessly.

/D

 

Because by now I've tried to revert back to the original, I have 4 different HDDs and 3 PVSs floating around in the Parallels folder, when I try to boot back on to XP I get the error message saying no boot device available. I was told to just "convert d:/fs:ntfs" in a command (but not to do it before starting diskpart, so it didn't function). Everyone here, as kind as you are, seem to be experienced windows users and/or programmers, so you know all about commands and such. I'm not, so it's all painfully slow for me. I thought I could simply remove some of the HDDs and get back to the start again, began to empty my trash and the trash emptying froze up, I had to force a shut down. I'm afraid now if I trash one of these HDDs it will swallow up a corner (20Gs? 10Gs?) of my hard drive. I'd pay for help, but the tech support for Parallels is, well, still working on the betas, so not really available. Frustrating! (but thanks for the suggestions, anyway, dirk)

 

.
Dirk,

In the Linux version the "VM" menu in Parallels has an item "Delete VM...". Hopefuly this is the same in the Mac version as it seems to me that would be helpful for you.
.

 

I've got windows XP SP2 installed in a 4 G drive image. I've also got MS Office installed, Firefox, REALbasic, db Reports, some flight planning software, Apple's Bonjour (for printing to shared printers on my Mac's), Winzip, etc....and I still have about 2 G free space! I've turned on Windows File Sharing on the Mac and then used XP's "Tools" --> "Map to Newtork Drive" to make permanent connections to the shared folders on my Mac side. This way, all my key data remains on the Mac and I have as much space as I need, while keeping the XP dirve image small. It's been working great this way.

On the flip side, I believe that Parallels supports up to 4 hard drive images, so if you feel its necessary to have dedicatged drive images for your PC stuff, you can make a new image and configure Parallels to us 2, 3 or 4 additional drive images of whatever size you want.

Like you, I've got my XP drive image set to FAT32. Since I've already got pretty much all the applications I'll ever need installed and have 50% free space remaining, I'm not worried about expanding the drive image. A 20 G drive seems prety big to me for someone using a Mac as their primary system, but I guess it depends on what your needs are. My needs were to supplement the Mac, thus I needed XP for some specialized software plus MS Office (primarily for MS Access). I work most of the time on OS X, using native apps where ever possible.

Anyways, my main point was that by using Windows File Sharing on the Mac and mapping to those folders from Parallels XP image, you have ful flex space for your needs without having to resort to growing your drive. Does this make sense?

 

I think it makes sense, Pubguy, and thanks. What I'm unclear about, among other things, is whether these HDD files/images actually consume hard drive space, or do they just use the space as or when they need it. I'm sort of stuck in the water until a Parallels tech support comes to help (I went ahead with pre-pay, in case this was a sticking point before they assist) because I can't even boot the VM now--don't know which HDD image is the right one or what folder it (and the PVS file--which one?) should be--I get the error message, no bootable drive.

And although I believe that one should learn the language, or some of it, of the foreign country one goes to visit--in this case, Windows--I also think the Parallels guide could be written more clearly and concisely. Yes, I dove into the beta6 with too little prep, and got impatient as I went along, so I get most of the blame for my own stuckness, but if they want to appeal to the majority of Macusers, I think they'll want to refine it somewhat. An example: the first question I had was when, how, and where do I install the guest os? I understand that Parallels is configured for a multitude of guest os, but at least with Windows XP, there was no hint of help. At least with Boot Camp it was as clear as day; the install was a cinch. Since it may well be that the XP will be the most prevelant guest os installed on the Macs (yes? no? maybe?), perhaps this could be the model used in the user guide.

Here's the image of my current state of mess. Perhaps there's a simple way to clean it all up, but I hesitate to simply dump them all in the trash and press "empty trash."

 

Oops, repost of image:

 

If you really want to start over, just delete the VM -- there is a menu item for it in PW. This will take care of cleaning up files. Take a careful look at the list of files it shows -- most will be checked by default, but PW might not delete an HDD partition that it thinks it doesn't own.

At the end of the day, a VM is just a big bunch of Mac OS X files -- a fancy document, if you will. Nothing "magic" except when PW is running.


--Tim

 

This worked, Tim, in effectively removing the extra files, thanks.

But, still getting the error message that there's no boot device availble. From the user guide: ...stop the guest os, correct the config of your floppy or the corresponding IDE drive, and try to start again. Not clear what this means, alas.

 

The file size you specificy when you create the drive image is the maximum it will grow to. As you add and delete files, this space may grow on you taking up more space on the Mac size of things. The tools that get installed allow you to periodically "shrink" this back.

From looking at the file sizes you posted, it looks like the largest VM was 1.4 G. So, it doesn't appreared that you installed too much stuff into XP. That being the case, I would create a new virtual machine, let it select the default sizes. When you create the new VM, you need to change the boot options so that it boots first from the CD. This way, you insert the CD first, then start the VM, that should automatically start the XP install again for you. Like I said before, for my particular use, I find the default size of 4 G more than enough since when I have everything installed and configured, it only took up about 2 G which leaves me plenty of room if I decide to install additional programs.

So, I would recommend starting fresh. One other thing to keep in mind, once you have your base system installed be sure to install the Parallels tools (available from an option on the menu bar, then install your other programs. When finished, run DEFRAG on the drive image from within XP (right-click on the drive, select Properties, and then select the DEFREAG option). Once you complete that, right-click on the Parallels Tools icon in the system tray (on the right side of the windows task bar on the bottom of the screen). Select the option to shrink the drive (I don't have PW up in front of me right now, so I don't remember exactly what its called). At that point, you have a fully configure and optimized Windows virtual machine. Now, shut down Windows (not suspend). Locate your PW configuration file and the newly created drive image. Select them both in Finder and the select "Create Archive" from the file menu. This will create a ZIP file of your fully configured and operational drive image. You can safely experiment with the VM after this, and if it gets screwed up, delete it and then double-click on the ZIP file to extract your known good configuration.

 

Thanks, PubGuy. I've followed your instructions and am now up and running again. I've not been able to locate any tab in the properties window for the hard drive that mentions defrag, though.

For now, though, no matter. I thank you for the explanation that got me back up again. For some reason I could understand your instrucitons more than previous help offered. I owe you a beer.

PM

 

Try creating a new VM, using recommended defaults. Then, do one of the following:

1. If you have a bootable CD (e.g. retail Windows XP), insert it and power on the VM. It should boot fromt he CD.

2. If you have an ISO or CDR image file of a CD, click the "Edit" button (at the bottom of the screen), then choose the "CD/DVD ROM" item from the Resource column. In the "Emulation" box on the right, click "Use image file" and then click the ellipsis ("...") button to locate the image file. Clcik OK to save the changes and power on the VM. It should boot from the ISO/CDR image.

3. If you have a floppy disk image, you need to do three things: (a) edit the "Floppy" resource using a similar approach to #2 above to choose the floppy disk image (FDD or VFD file). (b) In the same edit panel choose the "Enabled" and "Connect at Startup" options. (c) in the "Options" resource, under "Booting Options", choose "Floppy, Hard Disk, CD-ROM". Power up the VM and it should boot from the floppy image.

--TIm