Has Parallels Broken My Bootcamp Partition?

Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Hi guys,

I've recently been testing out a copy of Parallels on my Mac because I wanted to have access to games that I have installed on Bootcamp running Windows 10 without having to keep rebooting between the two operating systems. There have been some minor issues throughout testing (I've had to reinstall Parallels and re-set up the Bootcamp VM a couple of times), though with that said I had no problems for about a week or two. Until now that is.

I set my Mac to boot into Windows Bootcamp this morning (via the Settings section within Mac OS) however upon restarting I'm greeted with a black background with just the words "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". Pressing anything on the keyboard does nothing meaning the only thing i can do is turn the computer off and hold Alt to bring up the Mac boot menu.

When I do this however I do not see my Bootcamp drive (just the Mac OS drive and the recovery partition). I choose to boot into Mac OS and upon doing so, I can see the Bootcamp drive in finder and Disk Utility, so it is definitely there. I can even use Parallels to boot into Windows with no problems.

I assume that the Windows Boot record has been damaged somehow by Parallels. I have tried running windows recovery and using CHKDSK command to repair the disk from regular boot, not from within Parallels boot (it identifies the disk successfully however doesn't report any problems with the disk itself or anything else that is obviously wrong), however this doesn't seem to fix the issue.

I'm not actually at this computer at the moment and might not be until tomorrow however I was wondering if anyone has any clues as to fixing this issue that I might be able to try before going through the process of restoring the Windows 10 image. I'd be curious to learn if anyone might have had this problem or whether it would be a safer bet for me to install a separate VM for Parallels.

Due to some of the minor (and now major) issues I've been having with Parallels, I was also contemplating trialling VMWare Fusion. Obviously I'd like to somehow fix this issue first, however would be open to any suggestions regarding alternatives to Parallels.

Kind regards,
Matt
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I've seen this before when trying to install a VM whenever a Boot Camp partition already existed. What has likely happened is that the Windows 10 boot sector has been corrupted or possibly overwritten. This usually means removing the Boot Camp partition with the Boot Camp Assistant and then reinstalling Windows.

I don't believe it will matter if you try VMWare Fusion, however, if it's a free trial version it can't hurt to try. You need to make up your mind about running Windows; either from a VM or dual boot, but not from both. I know that some folks have it both ways and it works for awhile but eventually you'll run into trouble doing it that way.
 
OP
N
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Thank you for the words of warning.

Thats a shame knowing that it can be prone to issues doing it this way. I did initially try using a separate VM and for the most part that appeared to be much more stable so I might give that another test run. At the expense of using up additional disk space, I think I'd much prefer to keep two partitions: one for running games at full performance, the other for sheer convenience.

Luckily I did manage to resolve the boot issue on this occasion via Windows 10 recovery. I cant remember the exact wording, but theres an option under the Troubleshooting section specifically for fixing Windows boot problems. After a few seconds of clicking that, my Mac restarted and Windows was up and running again.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Okay, good to hear you're back up running again. If you have games to run in Windows, they do run best from real Windows and not from a Windows VM. There are various boot menus that you can experiment with that might make the experience of having to reboot much easier. You didn't mention which version of macOS you're running but a word of caution if you're running Mojave. Mojave will change the format of your hard drive or SSD to the newer Apple file system (APFS) and as far as I'm aware, the current versions of boot menu software is not compatible with it.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top