Machine learning means Smarter Cybersecurity™ Solutions.
As technology continues to advance, managing and analyzing massive data sets just can’t be accomplished by humans alone. It requires huge amounts of memory and storage, as well as the high-speed power of the cloud.
Course Of The Month
2 days, left to enrollBecome a Premium Member and unlock a new, free course in leading technologies each month.
Solved
Windows could not start on a parallels desktop VM on a Mac (and I can't get windows repair to run)
Posted on 2012-12-22
I am running Parallels Desktop 6 on my Mac Book Pro. I have a windows xp vm that all of a sudden is giving me the following message upon start up:
windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\s
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup cd-rom
select 'r' at the first screen to start repair
I have inserted the xp start up disk and get into the repair screen by hitting r. It comes up to the following prompt: (screen shot #1)
1: C:\windows
which windows installation would you like to log onto (to cancel, press ENTER):
It won't let me arrow up to highlight the 1 or let me type in a 1. If you notice in the screenshot, towards the bottom of the screen it says:
to select non-default keyboard layout press ENTER now (5)
I have tried hitting enter, return, alt-enter a number of combinations but I can't get a keyboard layout to come up that would then hopefully allow me to enter in the number of the windows installation I want. I googled this and it should allow me to select a layout. I have hooked up a PC USB keyboard to teh Mac in hopes of it working better with the VM but it behaves the same. I hit enter and then it cancels the repair and then blue screens with a registry error.
So I need some big time advice on what to try next? i have spent numerous hours researching this but haven't found anything that works. Any and all advice would be appreciated!
Thanks!
John
Screen-shot-2012-12-22-at-8.32.1.png
windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\s
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup cd-rom
select 'r' at the first screen to start repair
I have inserted the xp start up disk and get into the repair screen by hitting r. It comes up to the following prompt: (screen shot #1)
1: C:\windows
which windows installation would you like to log onto (to cancel, press ENTER):
It won't let me arrow up to highlight the 1 or let me type in a 1. If you notice in the screenshot, towards the bottom of the screen it says:
to select non-default keyboard layout press ENTER now (5)
I have tried hitting enter, return, alt-enter a number of combinations but I can't get a keyboard layout to come up that would then hopefully allow me to enter in the number of the windows installation I want. I googled this and it should allow me to select a layout. I have hooked up a PC USB keyboard to teh Mac in hopes of it working better with the VM but it behaves the same. I hit enter and then it cancels the repair and then blue screens with a registry error.
So I need some big time advice on what to try next? i have spent numerous hours researching this but haven't found anything that works. Any and all advice would be appreciated!
Thanks!
John
Screen-shot-2012-12-22-at-8.32.1.png
[X]
Welcome to Experts Exchange
Add your voice to the tech community where 5M+ people just like you are talking about what matters.
- Help others & share knowledge
- Earn cash & points
- Learn & ask questions
-
4
5 Comments
Active today
it would appear either the registry or disk is corrupted.
can you start in Safe Mode, or Load Last Know Good Configuration?
can you start in Safe Mode, or Load Last Know Good Configuration?
I tried load last good configuration once and it didn't work. I haven't been able to get the menu to select safe mode to come again. Can't get f8 pressed fast enough before it goes to the original message I posted. I didn't know if there was a trick to get parallels to bring up this menu or slow down the boot up window to allow me pressing f8. Haven't found anything yet.
Since this is a registry error, would safe mode even work?
Since this is a registry error, would safe mode even work?
Just came across another option I am going to try. Creating a new vm and then mounting the old vm file to the new vm as a second hard drive. I should then be able to recover the files that I need. I will give it a shot and see how it goes. Would still welcome any other options.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Was just able to fix this. Followed these steps to fix:
1. Created new VM
2. Added old HDD as hard drive #2.
3. copy e:\windows\repair\system e:\windows\system32\config
copy e:\windows\repair\software
copy e:\windows\repair\sam e:\windows\system32\config
copy e:\windows\repair\security
copy e:\windows\repair\default e:\windows\system32\config
4. Shut down the new VM
5. Restarted the old VM and voila, it started up!!!
Man am I breathing easier now! Hopefully this may help someone else in the future.
1. Created new VM
2. Added old HDD as hard drive #2.
3. copy e:\windows\repair\system e:\windows\system32\config
copy e:\windows\repair\software
copy e:\windows\repair\sam e:\windows\system32\config
copy e:\windows\repair\security
copy e:\windows\repair\default e:\windows\system32\config
4. Shut down the new VM
5. Restarted the old VM and voila, it started up!!!
Man am I breathing easier now! Hopefully this may help someone else in the future.
Featured Post
Question has a verified solution.
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please ask a related question
Will try to explain how to use the VMware feature TAGs in the VMs and create Veeam Backup Jobs using TAGs. Since this article is too long, I will create second article for the Veeam tasks.
What if you have to shut down the entire Citrix infrastructure for hardware maintenance, software upgrades or "the unknown"? I developed this plan for "the unknown" and hope that it helps you as well. This article explains how to properly shut down …
How to install and configure Citrix XenApp 6.5 - Part 1. In this video tutorial we have explained step by step installation of Citrix XenApp 6.5 Server on Windows Server 2008 R2 is explained in this video.
We have explained the difference between…
Two types of users will appreciate AOMEI Backupper Pro:
1 - Those with PCIe drives (and haven't found cloning software that works on them).
2 - Those who want a fast clone of their boot drive (no re-boots needed) and it can clone your drive wh…
Suggested Courses
717 members asked questions and received personalized solutions in the past 7 days.
Join the community of 500,000 technology professionals and ask your questions.