Symptoms

• 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.
• You get a critical error message or the virtual machine does not boot because of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Cause

• Windows OS installed in this virtual machine is corrupted.
• A Mac OS X-related issue (lack of free disk space, wrong permissions on Parallels Desktop files).
• A Parallels Desktop issue.

Resolution

Before trying 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

Parallels Desktop gives me an error message when I start my virtual machine, or nothing happens.

• You cannot start your virtual machine because of the error message “hdd file is missing, corrupted, or used by other application” appears on virtual machine startup. See KB 4680.

• You cannot start your virtual machine because of this error: ”Your virtual machine may run slow because virtualization support is disabled on your Mac.” See KB 111693.

• You cannot start your virtual machine because of permissions issues, and you see the error message: “Access denied: you do not have enough rights to use this virtual machine.” See KB 5796.

• After you upgrade Parallels Desktop for Mac, your virtual machine fails to start in Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard with the following error message: “Critical error when starting virtual machine on Mac OS X.” See 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.

My Windows does not boot - it is stuck but I do not get an error message dialogue

• 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. Contact Microsoft for assistance: support.microsoft.com/kb/129845.