Unable to create a Boot Camp virtual machine

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You have Windows running on the Boot Camp partition of your Mac. All attempts to create a virtual machine that boots from Boot Camp fail with the following error message:

    The disk partitions in Windows Boot Camp are not the same as in Mac OS.


    Error: PRL_ERR_DISK_GPT_MBR_NOT_EQUAL (0x80021065)


  1. Delete your current Virtual Machine based on Boot Camp partition

  2. Open Finder, go to Applications folder -> Utilities. Launch Disk Utility

  3. In Disk Utility click on your Mac Hard Disk and then press Repair Disk button.

  4. Now start Parallels Desktop and create a new Virtual Machine based on your existing Boot Camp partition

If the solution above does not help:

  1. Burn the latest rEFIt image to a USB stick or DVD disk.
  2. Boot your Mac from this USB stick or DVD disk, run 'gptsync' from the EFI shell (read more at rEFIt website).
  3. gptsync will recognise that the GPT and MBR tables are misaligned and prompt to adjust the MBR.
  4. Please confirm the MBR adjustment and restart you computer.

Alternative solution:

Reinstall Windows on the Boot Camp partition. For the detailed instructions on how to do this, please refer to http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3986


The MBR partition table of Boot Camp is different from the GUID partition table (GPT) of Mac OS X. This difference prevents from working with Boot Camp in Parallels Desktop.

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