Virtual Machine from BootCamp won't work

Killerbob · Jul 18, 2014

I have the nMP, created a BootCamp partition, installed Win8.1, and cloned this to an external SSD. Following that I blew away the BootCamp Partition. I now am able to boot from the external SSD into Win8.1 just fine, and it all works.

However, now I want to create a Virtual Machine in Parallels 8, using that Win8.1 installation on my external SSD, and thinking I can do this as I would from a Bootcamp installation, I find it doesn't work. Why not??? And, if this is some stupid limitation, how do I go about creating a Virtual Machine from that Win8.1 installation?

Thanks in advance!

mavidal · Jul 19, 2014

Try adding the SSD as a boot camp image to your VM list, that is what I did with a windows hard drive I put in my Mac pro and it brought it right up.

Killerbob · Jul 19, 2014

I tried following the directions on the Parallels support site, and it totally screwed up the Windows installation. It kind of finished, and then when I tried to boot into bootcamp, it was missing system files, and I had to restore from WinClone. I guess it is not meant to be...

Killerbob · Jul 19, 2014

I just tried again and get errors:

1) Upgrading “virtual machine”. - Preparing to configure your virtual machine
2) Goes into command and says
No boot device is available, press Enter to continue
Trying to boot from SATA drive 1

There is no operating system installed in this virtual machine

Then I stop. The Windows installation is on SATA1:0, and it should work. It sees it, but alas...

mavidal · Jul 21, 2014

Set your drive type in the vm to ide, not stata.

Killerbob · Jul 21, 2014

I get the same error when selecting IDE...

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0
CLIENT MAC ADDR: XX XX XX XX XX XX GUID: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
PXE-E53: No boot filename received

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.

No noot device is available, press Enter to continue

mavidal · Jul 22, 2014

PXE-MOF is a boot error trying to boot from the lan interface. IT seems as if your system does not see the physical hard drive. Only thing that I can think of, and sorry but I don't have the answer is that maybe you need to use some sort of boot flag setting in the hard drive configuration of the vm.

Abuliasavant · Jul 28, 2014

Killerbob said:
I just tried again and get errors:

1) Upgrading “virtual machine”. - Preparing to configure your virtual machine
2) Goes into command and says
No boot device is available, press Enter to continue
Trying to boot from SATA drive 1

There is no operating system installed in this virtual machine

Then I stop. The Windows installation is on SATA1:0, and it should work. It sees it, but alas...

I have the exact same issue on a nMP with Boot Camp installed on an external LaCie Thunderbolt SSD. Windows 8.1 is installed and works fine via Boot Camp, however I cannot make Parallels boot off the same Boot Camp partition. Even after the failed migration the Windows 8.1 install still works fine (I can boot into it as per a normal Boot Camp installation).

Any thoughts?

Abuliasavant · Aug 14, 2014

So no one has gotten Parallels to work with a Boot Camp external drive? Should this be submitted as a bug?

marat_t · Aug 19, 2014

Abuliasavant,

Please check your private messages

Abuliasavant · Aug 19, 2014

Marat sent me some instructions for compiling data to look at this issue. As part of the instructions was setting up a custom VM with EFI enabled versus having Parallels auto-detect. Creating the VM this way worked! Offhand I'm not sure what the difference is between my other attempts, but if I had to guess it was the EFI setting on the Boot Order menu. It's somewhat hidden; there's a good chance I missed that before.

In any case, the VM works in OS X and I can still boot directly into the drive under Boot Camp.

Here are the specific instructions provided:

5. Create an empty VM and connect Boot Camp partition:

5.1 In Parallels Desktop menu bar: File > New > Choose 'Install Windows or another...' and click 'Continue' > choose 'Locate Manually', in the bottom left corner check 'Continue without a source', choose the type of OS, click 'OK', click 'Continue' > Choose the VM view style and click 'Continue'.

5.2 In the 'Name and Location' window check 'Customize settings before installation' and click continue.

5.3 In the appeared Configuration window choose Hardware > Boot order.

5.4 If the result of the second step is 'EFI', the check 'Use EFI Boot'. If the result is BIOS then leave the box unchecked.

5.5 Switch to Hard Disk 1.

5.6 Navigate the Source to the Boot Camp partition and click 'Edit Partitions', take a **screenshot** and check the the BootCamp patition and, for EFI, bootable partition (its size is 0.2 GB) boxes.

5.7 Close the configuration and click 'Continue' to create VM.