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cbk1994 · Aug 5, 2007, 09:03 PM

I have a MacBook Pro 15", 2 GB RAM, 2.33 GHz processor.

I partitioned my hard drive so I can run Boot Camp. I have never really had any problems with Boot Camp, but I just bought Parallels because the feature list said I could run Parallels off of the Boot Camp partition.

So, I got it to run it, right? Not really.

When I booted up the VM for the first time, it gave me a warning which said something like 'Parallels Tools in installing. Do not perform any operations'. So, I waited for about half an hour. Nothing had happened, so I shut off the VM, and booted it back up. This time it still said that (only this time it was initiating). It cleared after ~3 minutes, and XP informed me that I now had to validate Windows because I had significant hardware changes. Imagine that.

However, when I tryed to validate it, I couldn't use my mouse, or my keyboard. The mouse wouldn't move, etc. I hit CTRL + ALT to try to get out, and nothing happened. I hit the force quit combo, and nothing happened. My computer was fully and truly frozen. So, I held down the power button and it shut down. I booted Boot Camp, and I got something that said "Choose a configuration: Parallels Configuration" and then another one I didn't get a chance to read. After about a second, it selected Parallels for me, and then it went on to inform me I had a broken hal.dll file and to replace it. Yay.

I don't have my Windows XP disc at the moment (we're moving, and in temp housing. All my discs are in storage, but I have my code saved ... the disc was a slipstreamed SP2), so I got the hal.dll file from dll-files.com, and put it in WINDOWS/system32 and WINDOWS/system, as the Windows XP Tips & Tricks forum told me to do.

I booted it back up, still hal.dll problems.

Can someone please help me get this back to the way it was before Parallels? I don't have access to my XP disc for about 2 months, and I really need XP for my work.

Thanks so much!
Chris K.

Mojo-ike · Aug 6, 2007, 01:13 PM

the same thing happened to me. i thought i was going to have to re-install everything on the windows partition. the solution for ME was to boot into windows (boot camp) and select the standard, NOT-parallels configuration. it has been my experience that i only see the parallels option in the boot menu (in boot camp mode) if parallels didnt shut down correctly.

after that i got in to windows, everything looked good. so i uninstalled the parallels software (from within windows), rebooted back into macos and tried using parallels again.

parallels and fusion both have their problems for me. and this was the only problem that i had with parallels.

cbk1994 · Aug 6, 2007, 01:38 PM

I have tried this, but the only thing that happens both on Boot Camp and Parallels is it informs me that I have missing required DLL files.

ghporter · Aug 6, 2007, 06:40 PM

A lot of people have noted that Parallels does "things" to their Windows installs. I'd try booting into Windows natively, and selecting "Safe Mode" (directions here. Choose plain old Safe Mode and see whether you can get your work done through that. For the most part Safe Mode uses the simplest and most native built-in drivers for hardware, and far fewer DLLs, so hopefully this will sidestep the missing/corrupt files in your installation.

You also may be able to repair your installation if you can boot into Safe Mode's command line version. You'll have to install the Recovery Console (which is already on your drive) to do the actual repairs. Read here for instructions.

Spliff · Aug 7, 2007, 03:24 PM

Parallels has twice ruined my boot camp partition by altering the boot.ini file and replacing HAL.dll and other files. VMFusion doesn't do this, so I've switched to VMWare's Fusion.

Parallels currently doesn't have a restore feature that will remove the changes it makes to your Windows install. They say they are working on a utility to provide this functionality, but gave no timeline. Until that utility ships with Parallels, I'm not going to risk using it again.

biz2501 · Aug 22, 2007, 05:56 PM

I just had my boot camp partition messed up by parallels. I installed parallels, selected the 'my boot camp' virtual machine, as suggested by the dialog. I tried to run the virtual machine and it said "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check both path and disk hardware...".etc
Trying to stop the VM gave me warnigs about data loss, but I had to stop it to perform reboot. After that, the XP partition never accepted to reboot, even in safe mode.
D.

NOTE: my boot camp xp was NTFS.
ATTENTION: parallels does not support XP hibernate!!

MACBOOKPRO 2.2Ghz, 2Gb, Tiger 10.4.10

ghporter · Aug 22, 2007, 06:50 PM

Have you tried booting from the Windows install disc and repairing the installation? Either with the Recovery Console or a full "repair" install?

badidea · Sep 3, 2007, 10:07 AM

I had this hal.dll error twice so far.

If you google for "hal.dll" you get quite a lot of hits pointing to hardware errors on native windows systems - since I got this problem (just as yourself) without adding any new hardware, I figured out that something messed up my bootcamp partition...

The only solution I found was to re-partion the HD with Bootcamp and re-install everything! Sorry!

Cold Warrior · Sep 3, 2007, 11:06 AM

Same here. Parallels hosed my Boot Camp partition, and I had to reinstall Windows. For a while I then maintained a 'pure' boot camp and a Parallels virtual machine. That obviously got to be cumbersome, so I tried VMWare's Fusion. So far, so good, running it right from the boot camp partition.

Allama · Nov 20, 2007, 05:38 AM

I found this from another source, but here it is: I have fixed the errors so it is mine as well.

Thanks to endership for the procedure. For people who were getting the hal.dll missing file error message or for those who are wondering about the right way to install Windows XP SP2 with Bootcamp, here is the steps you have to follow.

1) First, get an original Windows XP SP2 cd and be sure that your CD is bootable and that you can access the recovery console in a repair function (not all the cds got the function, so be careful).

2)After, you go in Apple applications, utilities and you click on the boot camp assistant

3)If you got a Windows partition already created that is not working, resulting from a bad installation of Windows with bootcamp, just merge the two partitions (windows and mac os x) using the restore function.

4)Use 32 Go for Windows (default option) and be sure that your Windows cd is in the drive and launch the installation.

Computer will reboot in the installation program after that all the drivers has been loaded (the blue screen lasting about 5 minutes).

5)Once your are in the installation menu, just select the option that takes you to the repair console.

6)You will get a C: command line, sort of MS-DOS. Like mentionned enderfish, type "diskpart" to visualize the partitions created and be sure that the c: drive is labeled "bootcamp". Just return to repair console in the c: command line.

7)type the following command line:

FORMAT c: /Q /FS:NTFS

You will get a quick format of the c: drive in the NTFS file system. It will also probably work in FAT32, but I've never tried.

8)After that the format has been done, hit the POWER button to reboot.

9)You will be back in the installation menu; you'll also have to wait once again during 5 minutes for the drivers loading process.

10)Once you get in the installation blue screen, just choose the partition that has been created and choose to let the file system intact.

11)Windows XP will be copying install files on the HD, install Windows XP SP2.

12)Once, the installation is done and you entered in Windows (if you followed the instructions carefully), insert in the cd drive, the Leopard CD and install Windows drivers.

13)Reboot

14)Enjoy!

Spliff · Nov 20, 2007, 12:06 PM

Allama,

That's not really a "fix." It's an "erase and reinstall." Doesn't merging the two partitions with Boot Camp Assistant destroy the Windows partition?

ghporter · Nov 20, 2007, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Spliff

Allama,

That's not really a "fix." It's an "erase and reinstall." Doesn't merging the two partitions with Boot Camp Assistant destroy the Windows partition?

Yes it will. Completely. But maybe that's not a bad thing, since an NTFS partition can get really seriously hosed and starting over is sometimes the only way to be SURE you've fixed it.

Spliff · Nov 20, 2007, 08:21 PM

Speaking of NTSF, is better to format the boot camp partition as NTSF, or is FAT-32 sufficient? I just use boot camp for games.

Originally Posted by ghporter

Yes it will. Completely. But maybe that's not a bad thing, since an NTFS partition can get really seriously hosed and starting over is sometimes the only way to be SURE you've fixed it.

ghporter · Nov 20, 2007, 09:09 PM

NTFS is MUCH more robust than FAT32. It isn't quite as advanced as HFS+, but it is darn good for Windows. I have both of my Intel Macs' Windows partitions formatted with NTFS. OS X can READ NTFS without any problem, so it's not like you "need" FAT32 to access the Windows files from OS X. And with a bit of fiddling, you can plug in a bit of software and OS X will also WRITE to an NTFS partition.

The only thing about NTFS is that it's sensitive to problems during a delayed write. Windows (most flavors) defaults to delayed writes to keep things "snappy," and if you have a power failure during one of those delays or the write itself, bad things could happen. Using an UPS prevents this-and of course an UPS protects your computer from all sorts of other problems, so it's a good idea to have one anyway.