BootCamp, upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1...Can no longer run Windows in a VM....WTH?

I am running a Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro. It is currently running OSX Mountain Lion (all updates installed).

Prior to my issue, I had Windows 8 installed via Boot Camp, and I had Parallels 8 configured to run my VM from my Boot Camp partition. A few hours ago, I booted into Windows 8 directly to upgrade to Windows 8.1, which the upgrade completed with no errors. I can boot into Windows 8.1 directly just fine. However, when I tried to boot into my Windows partition via Parallels, I got a bunch of weird errors: something along the lines of the partitions in Boot Camp are not the same as OSX; getting a screen shot was not the first thing that went through my mind, as I was a little pissed off about the fact that I could no longer boot into my Windows partition through Parallels.

My first plan of action was to upgrade to Parallels 9, thinking that would do the trick. It didn't. I ended up deleting my files related to that virtual machine. I uninstalled Tuxera NTFS (since I know from experience in previous versions that having it installed doesn't allow Parallels to detect the Boot Camp partition) and tried to recreate the virtual machine, but the option was not there.

Next, I went into Disk Utility and repaired my disk, tried to create the VM without an image, and when time came to configure the VM, I set it up to where the hard drive being used would be on my Boot Camp partition, but that did not work either. Instead, I got a Missing Operating System error.

I have no idea what the hell is going on, and I could not find resolution on any of the existing posts. I also don't have time to sift through pages and pages of solutions, as I am a student with a very demanding schedule. I just want to get my VM to work, plain and simple.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated

 

Do the repair disk using Disk Utility on the drive not the volume.
Had same issue and the repair on the drive fixed the GPT/MBR
mapping/alignment issue that resulted from the 8.1 upgrade.

 

Works for me. Oddly, the first time I did the upgrade, had the problem, and tried Disk Utility, I had no luck. The 2nd time, it worked fine. My upgrade procedure ended up being:

- Change startup disk to Boot Camp partition & reboot into Windows.
- Perform the 8.1 upgrade (it will reboot 3-4 times doing the upgrade).
- Test your newly upgraded Windows, then use the Boot Camp control panel to switch your boot drive back to OSX.
- Once in OSX, (or from the Recovery partition, or a separate boot disk), run disk utility and repair the ENTIRE hard drive--not your individual partitions.

After that, Parallels 8 launched and booted my Boot Camp VM just fine (albeit complaining about an unsupported version being installed.)

Best,
Brad

 

I did it on the drive last time, but it did not work.

Anyways, I did it again after upgrading to Mavericks (although I highly doubt upgrading to Mavericks was what caused it to work), and it works now. Thank you.

 

Thank you both. It's funny how when I did that the first time around, it didn't work. Now it does. I figure it's best to just accept it for what it is.