[vespina]

I have been using Parallels 3.0 5582 since a few months ago, to run a WindowsXP SP2 in a VM with 512 MB RAM. This VM has three virtual hard disks:

C: System
E: Source code
F: Data

I use this VM as part of my normal work every day, and everything works fine... except that if Parallels ends abnormally (because a Force Quit or a powerdown), many times I end with a BSOD and a message that says UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE, followed by a soft-reset.

I had readed all about this problem in MacNN forums and the web, and tried the CHKDSK /F and a number of other fixes, and none had worked for me. After the first time it happend, I reinstalled WindowsXP SP2 and all my programs, made a DVD backup of the virtual hard disk, so now everytime I ended with a corrupted system disk, I just have to restore my backup and I'm back to bussines in 30min or so.

But this is just a temporary solution. What I would like to know is:

a) Can this error be avoided?
b) This problem happens just in Parallels or in VMWare as well?
c) Is a UPS my only solution?

Thanks for your help.

Victor Espina

P.S.: I'm running Parallels in a iMac Alumn (mid 2007) with 3 GB RAM and Leopard 10.5.2

[Atheist]

My partner uses Parallels daily and hasn't experienced this. Kernel Panics and Force Quits haven't caused corrupted disk images.

Looks like there is a new version (build 5600) of Parallels Desktop as of 9 May. Maybe it'll fix you're problem.

[ibook_steve]

Windows is annoying, but you should not be getting so many BSODs or corrupted disks. Are you saying this only happens when you shut down the VM (you are using Windows "Shut Down" to shut down and not just quitting Parallels, right?) or at other times? What programs are you using? Why are you force quitting Parallels? Any more details you can provide would be helpful.

Steve

[vespina]

Steve.

Problem appears only after an abnormal termination of the Parallels process. Most of the time it happens due to a power failure (the city were I lived had severe generation and distribution problems), but it can happen also if I force quit the process (because it get nonresponsive).

If I shutdown Windows normally or by the Parallels power-off button, everything works fine.

[ibook_steve]

For the power problems, there's obviously nothing you can do other than have a UPS, as you mentioned. As for you having to force quit Parallels, is this really happening a lot? Are you getting the spinning wheel? Is Windows frozen or is it Parallels? You shouldn't have to be force quitting an application so much.

Steve

[mduell]

Why aren't you using the latest Parallels?

[vespina]

Current version of Paralles Desktop 3.0 es Build 5600. This version has a severe bug with the network sharing, so I had to downgrade to 5584. I hadn't updated to 5584 before because in the release notes there was no mention to this bug, and I didn't want to screw something that was working ok.

Anyway, after my failed update to 5600, I now installed the 5584 version and everything is working ok. But as I said, there is no evidence that this version will fix the corruption problem.

[vespina]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

For the power problems, there's obviously nothing you can do other than have a UPS, as you mentioned. As for you having to force quit Parallels, is this really happening a lot? Are you getting the spinning wheel? Is Windows frozen or is it Parallels? You shouldn't have to be force quitting an application so much.

Steve

Maybe you are right, but I think that getting the system disk corrupted at the point that there is no way to recover it doesn't speak well about the reliability of Parallels, so I'm wondering if there is some way to avoid this.

About the force quit, it just happend once, so it's not a problem to really. I just pointed at it as an alternative way tio produce the problem (althoung doesn't happen everty time you force quite the app).