Hi JGVP:
I understand your frustration. Parallels is basically unstable and was dumped by me in favor of Fusion. Fusion support is non-existent. You have to figure it out by yourself or with the help of other users. Makes you wonder why you should pay for Fusion when support is not provided. If you read their promotional literature it is basically a joke. They ramble on almost as though they are convincing themselves how good their product is and how good they are. Reminds me of a used car salesman's musings.
Fusion offers no support, even for the first 30 day evaluation copy. Basically, VM ware cannot be bothered helping anybody evaluate their product. The Beta version of Fusion 2 actually worked. The Beta version created a Virtual Machine fine, then proceeded to load WinXP off either a disk image or the CD. BUT, the release following the Beta version does not work correctly during the installation process. It will create the VM, but does not proceed to load WinXP correctly. You will get an error message that states either the disk image is non-selectable or the CD drive is reported as missing. Quite by accident, I was trying many things, then I got lucky and was able to install WinXP. Here is the only procedure which I have found to work:
1. Create the Virtual Machine ('VM') for WinXP, and choose the Virtual HD size you want. The default 20 GB can be increased or decreased. You should be able to select a Virtual HD size from 0.1 GB to several hundred GB. You do not have to accept the default. Keep in mind, WinXP requires approx. 1.5 GB for itself, so you will need space for your other stuff. I remember in the old days when I put WinXP on an 10 GB hard drive, but you can try smaller if you like. WARNING: THERE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE ANY WAY TO MODIFY THE VIRTUAL HD SIZE AFTER YOU HAVE CREATED THE MACHINE AND STARTED USING IT. So choose the appropriate size from the beginning. (If somebody knows how to modify the VHD size, please let me know). Remember the folder location in which you put your VM. Personally I use a folder like Home/Virtual/Fusion/WinXP.
2. Follow the steps to create the VM until it comes time to load WinXP from CD. Remember to enable read/write support along the way and read all the other drop-down items.
3. Observe the error message and the fact that you will get stuck at this point when it comes time to load WinXP. Without any support from VMware, they will not be able to fix this bug because there is no way to report bugs to them. Quit at this point. The VM you have created will still exist. "Stupid is as stupid does" - Forrest Gump.
4. NOW, in a separate operation, you can quit the Fusion application if you wish and start it again. Your created VM will still exist. By the way, the Fusion dialog box lists all the machines which you have created and they are stored in the folder you used upon creation. The file names will be something like "Windows XP Professional . vmwarevm" in the folder. If you need to delete some VM's you may have created by accident, simply delete them from this folder and they will disappear from the dialog box. The Fusion dialog box provides no way to delete virtual machines, only to create, download, and run. Go figure!
5. From the Fusion dialog box, highlight the VM and click RUN.
6. Now VM will prompt you for your WinXP CD or disk image (if not already in the CD drive), and the loading process will work correctly.
7. Once your WinXP is running, don't forget to install the VMware tools, as indicated by the message which may appear along the bottom of the DOS-like box you see during installation.
8. When you Fusion VM is running, it may take control of some peripherals such as CD/DVD, USB ports etc. Remember that the iMac has only one CD/DVD drive so the question becomes, "who is in control of the CD?". The control feature is found in the settings dialog, either at the top of the WinXP "window" or the Fusion dialog box from which you ran the VM. Each of the hardware devices has a check box which allows the VM to take control of the hardware instead of the Mac taking control of the hardware. You may need to modify these settings as you proceed with your computing. Sometimes you may switch to Mac and want it to use the CD, then later you may jump back to WinXP and want it to use the CD. You will have to change the settings on the fly as required.
9. Normally you don't have to shut down WinXP when you wish to close Fusion. Simply suspend the VM then quit the Fusion application.
Overall, you will find Fusion works better, and more conveniently, than Parallels. Getting focus in and out of Parallels is a pain. With fusion, the operation is intuitive. You click in the WinXP window once, and you have focus in there. To get back to Mac, you click on the desktop and you are there. I don't understand why Parallels has special keystrokes to change focus. Shall I quote Forrest Gump again?
If you need any more help, either skype me at garry.anderson or email me directly (garryanderson@shaw.ca).
Good luck.
Garry.
P.S. Have you considered buying a larger HD and having your existing HD cloned to the larger drive so you can basically up-size your HD with everything still working? A 500 GB HD is only about $180 so it is a very affordable upgrade (not through Apple but through a repair center, or do-it-yourself).
