I am stuck on a black screen of death every time I try to open Parallels. About a week ago I "upgraded" to 3188. All was fine untill two days ago, when, without any apparent changes, all ground to a halt. Parallels "Support" finally responded with the following: "Many problems are caused by improper Parallels Tools version. "Try to uninstall Parallels Tools in Guest Windows and install it again: 1)To uninstall Parallels Tools go in guest Os WindowsXP to Start->ControlPanel->Add/remove Programs->Select ParallelsTools Then follow previous instruction. 2) Reboot you Windows as you normally do. 3) While Windows is running, install Parallels Tools again (on your Mac desktop go to the Actions menu on the top and choose "Install Parallels Tools..." The installation Wizard will pop-up in Windows and lead you through the process). 4) Reboot Windows again. "If this will not help then uninstall both Tools and Parallels, then install them again. Your VMs will remain intact. "If the problem continues then do not hesitate to contact us again." However, I am unable to uninstall Parallels Tools because I can not get to a guest OS WinXP window. While trying to boot into WinXP, the dos login codes window freezes and asks if I want to open in Safe Mode but then does not let me open in Safe Mode, but restarts and gets me to the same black screen again re: Safer Mode, etc. Loops over again. I did uninstall and reinstall Parallels 3188 but unless someone can tell me how to uninstall Tools without being able to boot to a Windows OS screen, I'm stuck. I always get stuck at the "black screen of death". So - all wondrous and helpful Forum community - what do you suggest? Thanks in advance. P.S. I have Quicken for Windows data within the VM that I have to get to to do my taxes!! Is there any way to access a .qdf file within Windows from the Mac OS Finder, etc (without having to get in to Windows first)?
To access the data in the VM if you are unable to fix it you can try this option. You can backup the HDD on the Mac OS X side simply by copying the HDD file to some safe place. By default these file are stored on MacHD - Users - - Library - Parallels - folder. You can check the path for your particular VM by launching Parallels Desktop for Mac and checking File Location path for the selected VM. Start Parallels Desktop. Select New in the File menu. OS Installation Assistant starts. Select the Typical OS installation mode. Click the Next button to continue. Follow prompts to create a new Virtual Machine, and install windows Install Parallels Tools, Open the virtual machine, but do not power it on. Or stop the virtual machine if it is running. Select Edit-> Virtual Machine from the menu or click any device link on the Configuration Page. Configuration Editor opens. In the lower left part of the Configuration Editor window click the Add button. The Add Hardware Assistant opens and displays the list of virtual hardware that can be added to this virtual machine In the Available Hardware list, select Hard Disk. Click Next. In the next dialog there are the following three options: ?? Create a new virtual disk image. ?? Use an existing virtual hard disk image. ?? Use Boot Camp Select Use an existing virtual hard disk image. option and click Next. specify the name and location of an existing HDD image file that you want to use. Use the Browse [...] button to locate the file or type its pathname directly into the field. Click Finish. Start windows Drive should show up as a drive letter.
