04-05-2011, 04:01 PM

I have an imac with snow leopard osx and today tried to run bootcamp to get windows os on it.

Not mac savy at all - I'm a long time windows user and very new to mac but wanted to try mac with windows which I need for work.

Ran Bootcamp assistant, had correct new windows xp cd, not sure what happened as regards partitioning drives -can't rememebr now but think I tried to create a very large windows drive which would have taken over 50% of the drive space ( maybe 60-7o-%)....got into trouble after it formatted the hard drive....had to repeat that step, involved deleting a drive and then re-creating or partitioning another drive ...not sure what on earth happened or what I've done.

In the end got a blue screen error message saying I had to switch off the comp; kept switching off but when I switched back on it would apparently start up windows and then go to the same blue screen error.

Tried the command (?) key after searching the net so I could go to mac hard drive but every time I select mac hard drive it says I need to switch off and back on - I do that, and then I'm back to the windows blue error screen, and then if I restart and go back to mac hard drive on start up by pressing the command key, it tells me to switch off again!

Can anyone help? Would be really grateful, thanks.

04-05-2011, 06:17 PM

Try a search of the forums:-


Mac-Forums.com - Search Results

04-05-2011, 07:49 PM

Moved to correct forum.

@Sabrina2000

Reboot and hold down the OPTION key as soon as you hear the chime. Select your MacIntosh HD to boot from. Once back in OS X, open the Boot Camp assistant, go to create partition, select restore. That will remove the BC partition and get everything back to normal. When you feel up to it, you can attempt to reinstall Windows. Only this time select a smaller partition.

04-06-2011, 05:38 PM

Hi chscag, the trouble is that when I hold down the options key and select Mac HD I then immediately get a message saying I need to restart the computer - it doesn't actually go to the mac HD. When I restart I'm back to square 1 - either it goes to the blue error screen or if I select the options key I'm back to the mac HD option but when I select it I'm told I have to first re-start the comp.....thanks for considering - could still do with some help as I'm totally stuck !

THIS IS THE ERROR MESSAGE I AM GETTING NO MATTER WHAT I DO :

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.......check to be sure you ahve adequate disk space......

Tech Info: ***STOP :
0 x0000008E(0x C0000005, 0 x80635423, 0 x F7606894, 0 x 00000000)
_________________
The win xp cd is stuck in the drive and I don't know what to do next.

When I set up the partiion space I selected a huge chunk for windows as I want to be running windows most of the time ( particular software I need to run) and will use mac side for occasional basic internet surfing.

PLEASE HELP !

04-10-2011, 11:38 AM

Please - can anyone help?? Thanks

THE MESSAGE I GET WHEN I SELEECT BOOT FROM MAC HARD DRIVE IS : YOU NEED TO RESTART YOUR COMPUTER; HOLD DOWN THE POWER BUTTON UNTIL IT TURNS OFF AND THEN PRESS THE POWER BUTTON AGAIN.

When I do that I'm back to the blue error screen.....I'm just going around in circles here and frantic now that I've totally messed up a new imac.....also the cd is stuck in there...what do I do Somebody please!!!

OK, WELL I JUST MANAGED TO GET THE CD OUT , BUT NOW WHEN I START THE COMP I GET THE SAME MESSAGE I WAS GETTING WHEN I TRIED TO GO INTO MAC HD - YOU NEED TO RESTART YOUR COMP !! WHERE DOES IT END\???

04-10-2011, 06:01 PM

Completely corrupted. Can you boot from the OS X install disc, erase and format the drive Mac OS Extended (Journalled), GUID set up under partitioning and do a clean install of OS X.

04-11-2011, 07:12 AM

ok will try that, thanks, but not sure how to erase and format - will the os x instal cd not just overwrite everything and set it up as new? woudl really appreciate step by step instructions as a) I'm an absolute dumbster as regards computers and b) I've already messed up so bad, just dont want to risk compounding the problems and making it all worse by not knowing what on earth I'm doing. thanks

04-11-2011, 07:58 AM

Since you are running Snow Leopard, Hold down the C key after the Startup Sound with the Snow Leopard DVD in the drive. When it gets to the install screen, look up top and click on Utilities. Click on Disk Utility and when it opens, click on the hard drive in the left windows and on the Partition Tab. Change "Current" to 1 Partition and then click Options and be sure GUID Partition Table is checked. Then click Apply. When it's finished, exit the Disk utility and continue with the install.

It sounds like your OSX partition got damaged somehow while you were using Bootcamp or formatting the partition in Windows. It could have been your extremely large Windows partition that messed things up like was said already.

Keep us posted.

When you want to install Windows again I would suggest a partition no more than 1/2 the drive and when you get into the Windows installer and format the partition NTFS be SURE you have the Bootcamp Partition selected!

04-13-2011, 07:29 AM

Thank you soooooo much - i will try that and let you know what happens.....

04-13-2011, 07:57 AM

On top of what's been said..... only use the Bootcamp wizard to partition. Don't use any partition options during the Windows install.

04-14-2011, 05:50 AM

ok, have got the mac instal going, but not entirely sure I'm on track - it took 3 attempts to ge the instal cd going/not sure why......then when it got into the start up screen I clicked on disk utilities top left and in the left window of the screen which came up I had :
1. 1TB WDC WD1001FALS...
2. Macintosh HD
3. untitled
OPTIARD DVD RW AD-5
MAC OS X INSTAL DVD

I selected number 1 ( on the other 2 there was no partition tab coming up when I selected them).......clicked on partition, which was set to "current" for volume scheme ....changed that to 1 and applied; checked that GUID was checked. The message that came up was : "are u sure? this will delete mac hd"......I went for it and now have "untitled disk 1" and am continuing with set up......will report back ! * it shows 999.86GB.

Thanks for getting me this far, what a relief.

(hello again mr.plow - we're now back in the UK and enjoying landline broadband so no more faffing around with usb/dongles!)

04-14-2011, 12:53 PM

We're now bootcamped !!!!!

One issue I'm faced with immediately, and not sure if it's appropriate to mention it here but here goes: I seem to have IE 6 by default but on some pages ( which I go to via google) I get " IE cannot open the internet site....operation aborted" ....and this seems to be because they want me to upgrade my IE - so tried downloading IE8 but then get a message at the end of installing updates : " IE instal did not complete because your comp failed to instal a required update; pls click on the download button to manually instal"....I click on the download button but then all that happens is I'm prompted to instal IE8 and it happens all over again - so not sure what to do here and whether this has somehting to do with it being a mac computer, or whether it's some other issue. If I should raise this somewhere else, please let me know. Presumably it is IE8 I should be aiming for.

04-14-2011, 01:33 PM

It has nothing to do with it being a Mac computer. Once you've rebooted into Windows, you're using the Mac as a PC to run Windows.

Make sure you've downloaded all the security updates and service packs for IE 6 first. There are a myriad of them.... Once IE 6 is up to date, go to the Windows Update page and let it scan your computer for required updates. It'll also probably want to install "Genuine Windows Verification" or some such. Let it go ahead and do that.

After that, you can attempt to download IE 8 again. If it still doesn't work, there may be something else that's messed up. I would then just go ahead and install Firefox 4 and forget about IE 8.

04-15-2011, 06:36 AM

by the way, is the "untitled disk 1" my mac HD? I was alittle nervous when I was faced with " are u sure? this will delete mac HD", but everything is running smoothly ! ( aside from IE issue) ....I gave up with IE 6 in the end - tried to get to pages with IE updates but I couldn't stay on those pages - I kept getting "operation aborted" before i even had a chance to attempt to download updates, so in the end took chscag advice and went for mozilla firefox - never really understood befrore that the browser is an option/something you can choose - I've always had IE. I stumbled across an option for a safari browser somewhere along the way which confused me a bit as I thought safari was only for apple...but said it was for windows too. Anyway, I now have mozilla firefox and am relieved I can browse the webs through windows in bootcamp.....what do I do with the IE icon on my desktop? Do I delete it and uninstal IE from somewhere?

Also, hope you don't mind another ( last) question - I did buy a widows ergonomic mouse + keyboard in anticipation of this great day when my mac would be bootcamped - am I being unrealistic? Is it posisble just to plug in a windows mouse and keyboard and expect them to work seemlessly in both windows and mac? I almost daren't try it but it would be wonderful if I could have windows mouse and keyboard going...any thoughts welcome. Thank you.

ps - windows updates are in progress

04-15-2011, 06:52 AM

in addition to the above, forgot to mention - I have another issue going on which is no sound in windows. EG I can play a you tube video with sound in the mac HD but not in windows bootcamp - have checked all sound settings/volume controls, plus checked in device manager - no yellow exclamation marks anywhere in the sound section.