Cannot create Bootcamp based VM: PRL_ERR_DISK_FILE_OPEN_ERROR (0x80021014)

Symptoms

Cannot create Bootcamp based virtual machine: Failed to configure the Boot Camp partition's hard disk.

A disk configuration error has occurred:

  PRL_ERR_DISK_FILE_OPEN_ERROR (0x80021014)

Make sure that you have read/write permissions for the disk.

  '/Users/<username>/Documents/Parallels/My Boot Camp.pvm/<name_off_hdd>.hdd'

Cause

Bootcamp disk is used by some process/subsystem on your Mac. This is either filesystem driver or another process like spotlight.

Resolution

1. Check the list with partitions:

   • Launch Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type in:

     diskutil list
     

2. Check which disk is used by Bootcamp. At this example it's disk0s4:

    Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 101.8 GB disk0s4 
   

3. Try to unmount the disk:

   • Execute the following command in the Terminal:

     sudo umount /dev/disk0s4  
     

   If disk unmounts successfully, please try to create Bootcamp based virtual machine again.

   If not, please check which process uses the disk:

   • In the Terminal window, please execute the following command:

     sudo lsof | grep BOOTCAMP
     

4. Check the process in the output of the command, e.g:

    test     1359   root    8r    DIR    1.4    2709   /Volumes/BOOTCAMP
   

5. Try to stop/force quit this process (in the example the disk is used by the process 1359. In order to stop the process execute the following command):

     kill 1359
   

6. Create Bootcamp based virtual machine again.