Troubleshooting Boot Camp Partition Startup Issues in VMware Fusion

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the steps to follow when you are unable to start your Boot Camp partition in VMware Fusion.

For general information about Boot Camp, see Working with VMware Fusion and Boot Camp partitions

For the general procedure for starting a Boot Camp partition in Fusion, see Launching your Boot Camp partition in VMware Fusion

If you are unable to power on a Boot Camp virtual machine in Fusion 6 after an upgrade from Fusion 5, see Troubleshooting Fusion virtual machine startup issues

Symptoms:

• You cannot start your Boot Camp partition in Fusion.
• You see one of these error messages:
   
  • Boot Camp partition preprocessing failed.
  • You may not be able to boot your Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine.
  • Could not create the virtual disk for your Boot Camp virtual machine.
  • Could not create the virtual machine for your Boot Camp partition.
  • A failure occurred during preprocessing: An unknown error occurred.
  • This operation is unavailable because the Boot Camp partition could not be found.

Resolution

Each step below provides instructions and a link to a document for performing the step and taking corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and to identify the proper resolution. They are also ordered in the most appropriate sequence to minimize data loss. After completing each step, try starting the Boot Camp partition in Fusion again. Work through each troubleshooting step in order, and do not skip a step.

To troubleshoot a Boot Camp partition that does not power on:
 

1. Try deleting the metadata Fusion created for the Boot Camp partition. For more information, see A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error
    
2. Restart your Mac.
    
3. Make sure you have the appropriate permissions both to open (that is, read) and to write to your Boot Camp metadata. For more information, see Investigating permissions for Fusion virtual machines
    
4. Check that all of Fusion's services are running. For more information, see Determining the status of VMware Fusion's host services
    
5. Check that you have enough free disk space to run a virtual machine. For more information, see Verifying sufficient disk space for a VMware Fusion virtual machine
    
6. Re-install the latest available version of Fusion. For more information, see Downloading and installing VMware Fusion
    
7. Make sure there are no file system errors on your Mac. For more information, see Performing a disk repair in Mac OS .
    
8. Confirm that your Mac's hard disk does not have any bad sectors by running an Apple Hardware Test. For more information, see the Apple Knowledge Base article, Using Apple Hardware Test
9. Remove and re-create your Boot Camp partition. For more information, see the Boot Camp Installation Guide on the Apple Boot Camp Support page.
   
   Warning: As part of this process, you are required to format your Windows partition. This deletes all files and programs. Be sure you have backups of anything you wish to save.

If the issue continues to exist after trying the steps in this article:

• Collect the VMware Support information. For more information, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware Fusion.
• File a support request with VMware Technical Support. For more information on filing a Support Request, see Creating and managing Broadcom support cases

Additional Information