VERY WEIRD: I actually WANT to boot directly to Windows, but can't.

[SquareBottle]

Like many others, I found it challenging to make my computer stop booting directly into Windows. I was thrilled when I eventually got it to boot to Chimera, and presented me with the options to boot into Mavericks, Windows, or Gentoo Linux.

Fast forward to now. I'm trying to install the recently released Windows 8.1 Update, and nothing has worked. I eventually read some comment somewhere that amounted to, "I needed to boot directly into Windows instead of from HFS+, and then it was smooth." Bingo! I just need to temporarily change the boot order so that it goes straight to Windows again. Easy, right?

Wrong. No matter how I change the boot order in my BIOS, it goes to Chimera. I'm completely baffled.

 

[RehabMan]

Like many others, I found it challenging to make my computer stop booting directly into Windows. I was thrilled when I eventually got it to boot to Chimera, and presented me with the options to boot into Mavericks, Windows, or Gentoo Linux.

Fast forward to now. I'm trying to install the recently released Windows 8.1 Update, and nothing has worked. I eventually read some comment somewhere that amounted to, "I needed to boot directly into Windows instead of from HFS+, and then it was smooth." Bingo! I just need to temporarily change the boot order so that it goes straight to Windows again. Easy, right?

Wrong. No matter how I change the boot order in my BIOS, it goes to Chimera. I'm completely baffled.

If you have Windows installed on a separate drive from OS X, remove or disconnect the OS X drive. Then work on booting Windows standalone.

 

[linjames]

If this is a single drive with multiple partitions then you will have to make the windows partition active.
If the windows boot loader is broken then you might have to gptsync on a live linux usb.