"Missing Operating System": Parallels might have killed my Windows 10 Bootcamp install?

I have had Windows 7 Professional installed on it's own HDD in my Mac Pro and was able to boot up into it or access it from Parallels 10 depending on what I needed to do. Well, I just got an Oculus Quest and in order to use it I had to upgrade to Windows 10 which I did last night. I booted up in Windows 7 and went through their free upgrade process (which technically expired years ago but still works). Anyway, that went off without a hitch and I booted into Windows 10 several times.


This morning, I booted back up into Mojave and then tried to access my Bootcamp install through Parallels. This might have been a mistake, but instead of creating a new virtual machine, I just tried opening my previous virtual machine and got a "missing operating system" error. I shut that down and tried to go through the process to create a new virtual machine, but got the same "missing operating system" error. Now, even when I try to boot into Windows 10, I get the "missing operating system" error. Did Parallels somehow kill my Windows 10 install? Is there a way to fix it without reinstalling?

Mac Pro

Posted on Jul 5, 2020 10:28 AM

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9 replies

Jul 5, 2020 10:56 AM in response to chiefglowstone

  • My recommendation is to uninstall Parallels 10. I assume you have the original installer and license very well preserved and documented somewhere else.
  • From macOS Terminal, post the output of
    • sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1s2 count=1 2>/dev/null | hexdump -C (This will show us the NTFS header)
    • sudo fdisk /dev/disk1 (This will show us the MBR, if any)
    • Are you able to see Windows files in macOS Finder?

Jul 5, 2020 10:58 PM in response to Loner T

Thanks, I ran /fixMBR and then ran into trouble with /fixBoot when I got an "access is denied" error. I made a new bootable USB with an older version of W10 and was able to do /fixBoot, but it still booted up to a "missing operating system" message. Some people have said that if /fixMBR and /fixBoot don't work, then I should try to fix the EFI bootloader, but there doesn't seem to be an \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ folder on the EFI partition.

Jul 5, 2020 10:49 AM in response to Loner T

Hi, Loner T! Thanks for your response, I saw that you have been able to help several other people.


I'm using a MacPro5,1 (2009). I did not change the disk layout/partitioning scheme in any way. All I did was update to Windows 10 from within my previous Windows 7 install, and then later try to open my Boot Camp virtual machine using Parallels (version 10.1.4) which had worked with Windows 7 just before the Windows 10 update. Your assumption is correct, that was my first attempt to boot the W10-upgraded-from-W7 BC installation using Parallels. Now that I look it up, the Parallels website says "Parallels Desktop 10 is a end of life product and it is no longer supported. It is not compatible with the latest Windows 10 build. You can try installing Parallels Desktop 13 trial and create a virtual machine." Stupid of me not to check before using it, but I don't know why trying to run it would have corrupted my W10 install.


Here's my diskutil list. My Mojave install is on "Macintosh SSD", the Windows install is on "BOOTCAMP", and "6 TB WD RED" is being used for storage and backups.


/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER

  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            *6.0 TB   disk0

  1:            EFI EFI           209.7 MB  disk0s1

  2:     Apple_CoreStorage 6 TB WD RED       6.0 TB   disk0s2

  3:         Apple_Boot Boot OS X        134.2 MB  disk0s3


/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER

  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            *1.0 TB   disk1

  1:            EFI EFI           209.7 MB  disk1s1

  2:    Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP        1000.0 GB disk1s2


/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER

  0:         Apple_HFS 6 TB WD RED      +6.0 TB   disk2

                 Logical Volume on disk0s2

                 D3785C12-CD40-45A3-B2E8-945811803CC2

                 Unencrypted


/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER

  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            *960.2 GB  disk3

  1:            EFI EFI           209.7 MB  disk3s1

  2:         Apple_APFS Container disk4     960.0 GB  disk3s2


/dev/disk4 (synthesized):

  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER

  0:   APFS Container Scheme -           +960.0 GB  disk4

                 Physical Store disk3s2

  1:        APFS Volume Macintosh SSD      660.7 GB  disk4s1

  2:        APFS Volume Preboot         22.9 MB  disk4s2

  3:        APFS Volume Recovery        510.1 MB  disk4s3

  4:        APFS Volume VM           20.5 KB  disk4s4

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"Missing Operating System": Parallels might have killed my Windows 10 Bootcamp install?

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