- Joined
- Oct 5, 2011
- Messages
- 32
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
- CPU
- Intel i5 2500K
- Graphics
- Radeon HD 6870
- Mac
- Classic Mac
- Mobile Phone
So after much trial and error I've finally managed to boot my Windows 7 installation from a separate drive as a bootcamp in OS X using Parallels.
The main reason for doing so is that you can't install graphics drivers on a Parallels virtual installation of Windows, which is a nightmare when trying to play new games that require Direct X to work properly with GPU drivers.
If anybody is trying to do this and is stuck getting the 'missing operating system' or 'boot mgr missing' error put a post on here and I'll help you out!
It'd take way too long to reset everything and take pictures to create a guide, maybe I could do that in the near future though.
EDIT: If you'd like to try this then I've put some basic instructions I quickly jotted down below. This may not be the fix for you though, if you get stuck after doing this then please drop me a message and I'm sure I could help you fix it.
Instructions:
1. Install virtual machine - Bootcamp if you have Windows on a separate HDD, do not run it. Shut Parallels.
2. Go to Parallels folder and right click -> show package contents on your boot camp.pvm
3. Right click the HDD name (disk#).hdd and show package contents.
4. Open up a Terminal, type "fdisk -e " (note there is a space after e) and drag the PhysicalMbr.hds file into the terminal window and press enter
5. Type "print" and you should see a list of the MBR contents, you will see your partitions of that drive. The partition with a * at the front is the active one, you should change the active partition to the smallest partition which will be your system reserved partition, if it isn't already. Do this by typing "flag #" the # being the number next to your actual system drive for Windows, in my case 1 was the reserved, 2 was the system disk (system will be largest).
6. Type "quit" to save and exit.
7. Open Parallels, check if it will now work.
The main reason for doing so is that you can't install graphics drivers on a Parallels virtual installation of Windows, which is a nightmare when trying to play new games that require Direct X to work properly with GPU drivers.
If anybody is trying to do this and is stuck getting the 'missing operating system' or 'boot mgr missing' error put a post on here and I'll help you out!
It'd take way too long to reset everything and take pictures to create a guide, maybe I could do that in the near future though.
EDIT: If you'd like to try this then I've put some basic instructions I quickly jotted down below. This may not be the fix for you though, if you get stuck after doing this then please drop me a message and I'm sure I could help you fix it.
Instructions:
1. Install virtual machine - Bootcamp if you have Windows on a separate HDD, do not run it. Shut Parallels.
2. Go to Parallels folder and right click -> show package contents on your boot camp.pvm
3. Right click the HDD name (disk#).hdd and show package contents.
4. Open up a Terminal, type "fdisk -e " (note there is a space after e) and drag the PhysicalMbr.hds file into the terminal window and press enter
5. Type "print" and you should see a list of the MBR contents, you will see your partitions of that drive. The partition with a * at the front is the active one, you should change the active partition to the smallest partition which will be your system reserved partition, if it isn't already. Do this by typing "flag #" the # being the number next to your actual system drive for Windows, in my case 1 was the reserved, 2 was the system disk (system will be largest).
6. Type "quit" to save and exit.
7. Open Parallels, check if it will now work.