Just installed Parallels can't use Bootcamp

D

dekard

Junior Member
Why can't I use my bootcamp partition? I get this error:

Error: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)

VMware Fusion 4 sees it fine, was going to purchase Parallels because I seen reviews are better for it, but not if I can't get my bootcamp to be seen in Parallels without reinstallation.

Wonder why my bootcamp partition works great, and VMWare can see it but Parallels cant.
 
How did you go try to run Windows in Parallels? The correct way is to select "file/new" from the menu and then to click on the BootCamp picture then continue.

This will set up your virtual machine with what is required to boot from your BootCamp partition. The virtual machine file has things like drivers, etc. and points to the BootCamp disk for Windows. It does not copy everything and is not very large.
 
Yup did file/new and clicked on the Windows Boot camp logo in the top right of the screen says "Use Windows from Boot Camp"

I wonder if it has anything to do with having to have used VMWare fusion to manage bootcamp as a vmware slice previously.

Wasn't happy with VMWare and was wanting to try out Parallels, but I'm not wanting to reinstall bootcamp..again..
 
The first error is "A disk Configuration error has occured. Make sure you have read/write permissions for the disk."

And under more details I get the error:

vrror: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)
Path: '/Users/jeremylindstrom/Documents/Parallels/My Boot Camp.pvm/APPLE SSD TS256C (disk0).hdd'
 
Same issue

I'm getting the exact same error, running Parallels 7 on OS 10.6.8, bootcamp partition is Windows 32-bit.

Only difference for me, from what I can see, is that the option File>Import Boot Camp is grayed out for me. I get the error by going into the virtual machine configuration>hardware>Hard Disk 1>Source and select the option I have under Boot Camp Partitions there - Hitachi HTS545032B9SA02 (Disk0) - that's when the error shows up, same as yours.

Have you found a solution?
 
Did some further poking around in the forums, but solutions look sufficiently complicated that if you've had luck in VMWare, I'll just give that a shot.
 
I had this same issue and also switched to Fusion, which was able to use my Boot Camp partition. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the Windows 7 activation to stick when switching between Boot Camp and Fusion, so I decided to try Parallels again.

After some research, I determined that the problem in Parallels was due to the hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme used for Boot Camp. When installing Windows 7, it did not like the partition that OS X had created, so I deleted it and recreated it in the Windows 7 installer. Unfortunately, Windows 7 does not recognize GPT/MBR hybrid partition schemes and it ended up overwriting a reserved 128M part of the drive. This caused the GPT and MBR partition tables to be out of sync, which in turn causes the error when trying to use the Boot Camp partition in Parallels.

If you search, there are lots of posts about using gdisk or other low level utilities to fix this sync issue, but these can be complicated and there is a very real risk of losing your data if you make a mistake. In the end, I purchased iPartition and used it to shrink my Windows partition by 128M. Writing this change synced up the two partition schemes and Parallels was now able to use my Boot Camp partition with no errors.

I hope this helps,

Pete
 
marria85, stop posting the same irrelevant and outdated information in threads.


PStorkey is right, the problem is the partition descriptors are out of sync.
Always use Bootcamp assistant to partition the hard disk (it's the only tool that creates the needed hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme, unless iPartition also knows how to this), this includes resizing.

The fact that Fusion can use it it just hides a real issue that will pop up later, specially if you upgrade to Lion (you might lose access to the Windows partition if and when you upgrade, I'm not kidding).

I would back up Windows to an external drive, use bootcamp assistant to delete the windows partition, recreate it and reinstall Windows, and them move the backup in.
 
Specimen said:
unless iPartition also knows how to this
Click to expand...

I'm fairly certain that iPartition correctly synced/recreated the hybrid GPT/MBR partition tables.

Before the sync, running sudo gpt -r show -l /dev/disk0 would give me the following errors:

gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: error: bogus map

After using iPartition to resize the Windows 7 partition, the command now displays the correct partition information.

Pete
 
Hello guys,

Actually error

Error: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)

means that GPT and MBR partitions are not synced and PStorkey is right - the only right solution here is to reinstall Windows partition from the scratch. I suggest to get rid of all Windows files (backup them beforehand) and make fure there is not MBR partitons left - use Boot camp assistant and check with the Disk Utility.

Our Development team always suggests reinstallation in this case as there is no other possible solution and Parallels cannot read out to tables in case if they are not synced
 
dekard, because VMWare ignores and hides the error, you decide what's the best approach.
 
Well the best approach would be the one that lets me get to my BootCamp without having me to reinstall it. :)
 
Windows uses the MBR. Mac uses the GPT. If the MBR has a partition that overlaps another partition in the GPT, then Windows could corrupt the partition in the GPT.

The MBR can contain only 4 partitions. The GPT may contain more. If you use a partitioning utility in Windows, then it may overwrite space used by partitions in the GPT causing corruption in the file system (list of files) or file data (contents of files).

Some MBR/GPT differences are benign or can be easily fixed. Other MBR/GPT differences might require you to repartition/reinstall. The only way to tell is to list the partitions in each (using the fdisk and gpt or gdisk commands) and compare.

Parallels gives the error "PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL" to protect your partitions from further damage by Windows.

I use iPartition for Boot Camp disks to keep the MBR/GPT in sync, create new partitions, or resize partitions. I use fdisk or gdisk to correct differences manually. Boot Camp Assistant is too limiting. It only allows one Boot Camp partition on a disk that hasn't been partitioned too much already.
 
I agree that you point out the reason why it fails correctly. I would rather expect a work around such as sync gpt and mbr.

It is frustrating to re install windows. It is not just windows but hundreds of apps to be re installed and I need to run for license information again.

Any workarounds apart from smart re-installation idea to fix this error?
 
Unfortunately no.

We have even contacted developers with this issue and they were trying to figure out what can be done - so they didn't come out with any solution but only to reinstall Boot Camp
 
An automatic sync of the GPT and MBR could be dangerous depending on the differences between them. It is better to fix them manually with fdisk and gdisk command line tools. If you can fix them, then you probably won't need to reinstall Boot Camp and Windows.
 
I've just tried to synch the GPT and MBR successfully using the partition tools of reFIT (freeware). Once reFIT is installed, and 2 reboots later, pressing the Option Key brings up the reFIT menu (it replaces MacOSX multi boot menu). The partition tools are under the main menu.

From the above mentioned frustrating error message when trying to import BootCamp, I went to a perfectly working BootCamp Win7 within Parallels 7, no issues.

As mentioned earlier, this is definitely not for the faint-hearted, since messing around with your GPT/MBR could seriously jeopardize your system. But in my case, I had just performed a clean Lion install + Bootcamp onto a new (bigger) hard disk and had the previous hard disk as back up if needed.

Try it at your own risk - and definitely back up your stuff prior to taking the plunge.
 
I tried the iPartition solution by decreasing the bootcamp partition just a little bit but it says:
"iPartition was unable to get write access to the device “Hitachi ” (disk0). This may mean the device is write protected, that you do not have permission to access it, or that it is in use by something else."

Don't think that anything is using it.
 
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