Boot Camp: Windows on Mac

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Okay, so I've had my MacBook for about a year. I loooove it, but decided that it would be beneficial to have Windows too, so I had it installed by the computer guy at my mom's work.

The problem is that he installed Windows XP with service pack 1 instead of sp2. I didn't know the difference, and neither did he, but every apple manual/support I've checked has said "do NOT install sp1 and try to upgrade"

So now, I can't get anything to really work on the windows partition of my MacBook. I was wondering.. if I just purchased the upgrade to windows vista and installed it, would it fix it? Or would I, for some reason, not be able to do this? The only reason I am wary is because everything I've read has been so adamant about not installing sp1 then upgrading.
But I'm kind of stuck... so I don't know what to do.

I would sooooo appreciate any help or advice! Thanks!
 
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NOTE: Nothing to do with Notebook hardware. Moved to appropriate software forum.
 

chscag

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Don't attempt to upgrade Windows XP SP1 to Vista from within the Boot Camp partition. Instead, boot the machine to OS X, run the Boot Camp assistant, select create partition, select restore. That will restore the entire hard drive back to OS X.

Start over and create a new Boot Camp partition. Install Vista. Remember that Vista must be installed on a partition formatted to NTFS.

Regards.
 
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The problem is that he installed Windows XP with service pack 1 instead of sp2. I didn't know the difference, and neither did he, but every apple manual/support I've checked has said "do NOT install sp1 and try to upgrade"
Between XP SP1 and XP SP2 Microsoft made some pretty drastic changes under the hood involving security and other things. It's so drastic yet so crucial that many apps that came out since then require SP2.

You can either blow out the Boot Camp partition and re-do it (SP2 or better yet SP3 can be slipstreamed into any XP installation CD image) or install Vista if you feel that would be better for you.

(How can a "computer guy" not know the most fundamental differences between XP SP1 and SP2? In OS X terms, it would be like not knowing the differences between OS X 10.2 and 10.5)
 

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