two questions.
1) can the configuration file be fixed to point at the right file with the correct type (NTFS)? (if this is to advanced for me, can it be done with a vmware support call? I'd rather do that then spend the rest of my weekend reinstalling software)
2) If not, I don't follow the workflow you are suggesting for reinstalling correctly.
Here are the steps I could do
remove bootcamp partition
expand os x partition to be full size of hard disk
re-run bootcamp assistent
at that point, the partitions are created. how can I change partition to NTFS? If I boot off a windows 8 DVD natively I think I will have same options I had previously which did not allow me to change partition type.