This article might be helpful in the following cases:

• Your Windows virtual machine (or another OS) no longer boots, and you cannot start it.
• You get an error message when you try to start your virtual machine (VM).
• You get a critical error message, or the virtual machine does not boot because of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Note: if your virtual machine is stuck with a black screen, follow the steps from KB 123094.

Cause

• Opearating system is corrupted.
• A macOS-related issue (lack of free disk space, wrong permissions on Parallels Desktop files).
• A Parallels Desktop issue.

Resolution

Before trying the solutions described here, we recommend that you search for a solution with the error message you get when you start your virtual machine: kb.parallels.com.

Error message on the startup of the VM or nothing happens

• If you get the “Access denied: you do not have enough rights to use this virtual machine” error message check KB 5796.If you get the “hdd file is missing, corrupted, or used by other application” error message check KB 4680.

• If you get the ”Your virtual machine may run slow because virtualization support is disabled on your Mac” error message check KB 111693.

• If you get the “Critical error when starting virtual machine on macOS” error message check KB 9231.

• You cannot start the virtual machine because the Mac hard drive has errors. An error occurred while accessing the hard disk: PRL_ERR_DISK_READ_FAILED(820021029),errno=5 (input/output error). See KB 112140 for more details.

Windows does not boot - it is stuck with no error message

• Your Windows virtual machine is stuck at this stage: “A disk read error occurred when starting Virtual Machine.” See KB 112869.

• Windows is stuck at “Trying to boot from SATA drive...” See KB 113342.

Windows boots with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

Such errors are hardware- or driver-related, causing the virtual machine to stop responding in order to prevent damage to the hardware or data. Check this Microsoft page to get it fixed.