Boot Camp partition - "No boot device"

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by loneguitarist, Jun 20, 2007.

  1. loneguitarist

    loneguitarist Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    Hi everyone - I've looked for information on this and found nothing so I'll see if any of you guys can help me.

    I've installed windows xp on my Macbook Pro with boot camp, and I've installed parallels, I open it, it shows "My boot camp" as a virtual machine, it shows the windows xp logo and has the memory and everything else etc. preconfigured, yet when I start the VM, it says no OS is installed. It asks for my password and unmounts the Windows xp HD in osx, but then just says there is no boot device.

    Can anyone help me? :confused:

    Thanks
     
  2. farshad

    farshad Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    This happens to me as well. I have Parallels 3.0 (build 4128) running on Leopard. I installed Vista on Boot Camp, and it works great under boot camp. However, the Parallels machine doesn't seem to find the hard drive.

    I even tried editing the PVS file to read:

    Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp;disk0s3
    (it was: Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp)

    Diskutil reports:
    arshad-tayyebs-macbook:VistaBC2 arshad$ diskutil list
    /dev/disk0
    #: type name size identifier
    0: GUID_partition_scheme *149.1 GB disk0
    1: EFI 200.0 MB disk0s1
    2: Apple_HFS Spotty 117.0 GB disk0s2
    3: Microsoft Basic Data 31.7 GB disk0s3

    And of course, the Boot Camp partition won't mount on Mac OS X, because it's NTFS, I assume (is that the problem? I could not install Vista on FAT32, so I think I have to use NTFS). Also, I did make sure to choose "Microsoft Vista" in the OS type.

    Any ideas?
     
  3. brkirch

    brkirch Pro

    Messages:
    415
    Even if your Boot Camp partition is NTFS it should at least mount in Mac OS X (NTFS mounts, but is read-only). If it does not mount then there is likely a problem with the partition, try running chkdsk in Windows.

    If the disk does mount but isn't recognized by Parallels as a Boot Camp partition you may need to setup a custom Boot Camp configuration as described in this thread. I've also made this script to automate the setup process. If you have multiple disks in your computer I would recommend telling the script not to launch Parallels when asked, and then adding the script to your login items.

    What is the exact error message that it displays? Does it actually say no OS is installed or does it display the error message 'Unable to open disk image Boot Camp'?
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2007
  4. loneguitarist

    loneguitarist Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    It says there is no operating system installed. What exactly does your script do - automate the setup of the boot camp virtualization? Or copy the boot camp partition to a VM image?

    thanks

     
  5. loneguitarist

    loneguitarist Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    I've tried your script now and I'm still getting the same messages. I can boot into an Ubuntu liveCD from Parallels so I know it is working, but I just can't boot from my boot camp installation. My drive is formatted to the HFS Mac Partition, NTFS Bootcamp partition, and a FAT32 Partition so i can swap files beteween the OSes whether I'm booted into Windows or Mac.
     
  6. loneguitarist

    loneguitarist Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    Any Ideas on this?

    Any ideas on this? I'd really rather not have to install a virtual copy of windows as well as the Boot Camp one which I know I will use.

    It obviously finds my boot camp partition, because it asks for my password and then unmounts it from OSX, but then it claims there is no operating system installed!

    :(
     
  7. s_kollipara

    s_kollipara Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    I have the exact same problem. Does anyone have a solution for this?
     
  8. loneguitarist

    loneguitarist Bit poster

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    You and I could compare systems to see if there is some common factor that could be messing it up for us - what's your setup?
     
  9. koolaidman

    koolaidman Member

    Messages:
    21
    multiple partitions

    loneguitarist -

    Your problem is that you have more than 2 partitions on your drive. Currently Parallels does not support booting a Boot Camp partition when you have 3 or more partitions. No idea why, it just can't handle it at this point.

    In fact, as I mentioned in another thread, it even seems to have trouble booting from a Boot Camp partition when an external hard drive is connected. (not that this affects your current situation).

    If you need to exchange files between NTFS and OSX when the virtual machine is off, you can use Parallels Explorer - it's a bit buggy for now but I have gotten it to work.
     
  10. s_kollipara

    s_kollipara Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    I have VMware Fusion already installed and working with the Boot Camp partition on my machine.

    I only have one partition with Boot Camp on it but I still get the same error message as loneguitarist.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2007

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