Window XP Installation Fails

When I attempt to install Windows XP Professional (In Parallels or Boot Camp) I receive the following error message (I'm providing an abridged version of the message for brevity):

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

Additionally, when the installation begins I don't see the usual Windows Installation screens that appear in the setup guide books. I get a blue screen with the words, "Windows Setup" in the upper left corner of the screen and along a status line at the bottom of the screen various messages flash by as components appear to be retrieved from the CD. It is after these messages stop and the computer tries to restart that i get the error message above.

Again, this happens both with Parallels and Boot Camp. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

Probably a bad install disc.

Have you tried a different one?

 

I wish it was a bad install disk

I tested the Windows XP install disk in a Dell laptop and it operates perfectly.

Must be something with my MacBook Pro.

 

That has come up before on the forums. Try installing off an ISO image of the disk.

Follow these directions to make a .cdr image. Rename the .cdr to .iso. Point Parallels at that image to use as the CD drive (see the Parallels manual for how to do this).

 

Disk Image Fails

Disk Utilities can't complete the creation of a disk image from the Windows XP installation CD. I get an error message something to the effect that there is an input/output error.

Any other suggestions?

 

Probably your disk is corrupted. Try to clean its working surface with dry cloth and try again.

 

Still Having Problems

I cleaned the disk and still received the same input/ output error message at the end of the "burn." I was successful in creating the .iso file using Parallels Image Tools. However, when I run the VM it can't find the boot file from the disk image. I changed the VM configuration to boot from teh disk image and selected the location but I just get the same error message, "no boot device available, press Enter to continue."

I don't know if this helps but when i first installed Parallels, the only version I had of Windows was Windows 98 and an upgrade disk for XP. Windows 98 loaded perfectly into the VM but the upgrade within the VM to XP didn't work. I then went out and purchaed a new Windows XP Professional full version install disk. This is th edisk I'm currently having the problems with. I don't understand why I could load 98 but not XP.

 

Thanks dude!

I had what I think was the same problem: installing Windows would blue screen but Parallels was shutting the session down too fast to see the message.

Creating an .iso of the XP install disc fixed the problem.

 

It worked!!!

I had the very same problem. The install would freeze after the set up loading blue screen.

I made the CDR, renamed it to ISO then successfully installed. I was using a WinXP upgrade. I will note that you will have to "disconnect" the image file and mount your CD drive to verify the upgrade with an older window's disk. Once that is done, disconnect again and mount your image file...this is all done by clicking the DISK icon on the parallels window.

Cheers!

Adam