12-26-2006, 03:10 PM

I posted an earlier question about Boot Camp and fortunately got the help to fix it. Well now I went in to set up bootcamp. It rebooted my computer then to start a install of Windows XP Pro w/ SP2. Of course it asked to format the drive and I did do that with NTFS and made sure it was the new partition I created which was 28 gigs. Well for some reason during this my screen went black like my computer was not on. I had it plugged in so unless something was loose I'm sure the power didn't go dead.
Well now when I turn it on it gets to a grey screen with no writing, then a black screen, and simply says "Press any key to boot from CD" and I don't press anything and then it says "Missing operating system" I have tried pressing a key as well with no luck. The thing is even with the CD eject button I'm unable to remove the CD (windows xp) which is in the computer and what scares me is I can't even get into the Mac side. I'm completely locked out and have no idea what to do. Any suggestions? Would boot camp have somehow wiped my entire hard drive including the mac side?

12-26-2006, 04:34 PM

I tried running bootcamp when i got my Mac several months ago too.... same exact thing happened... i didnt know how to fix it.. so i return the mac.. and took a restocking fee... i just recently bout the MBP.... reluctant to try bootcamp again.. afraid same thing will happen...

12-28-2006, 02:16 AM

Hmm, I can't tell you why your computer shut down suddenly, but here's what I do know. To eject a cd on start up, hold down the mouse key after you press your power button. Keep the key held down and it should eject. To get to the start up disc menu, hold down the "alt" key after pressing the power button, from there press the arrow pointing to your mac HD. Hope this helps.

12-29-2006, 12:54 AM

So I ordered a genuine Windows XP install disk with SP2 and successfully got Boot Camp to run on my Macbook at the beginning of last summer. It was great. Everything ran smoothly, but yesterday, while on Windows XP, the keyboard stopped working. Not a keyboard hooked up to the Macbook via USB, but the keboard that is on the Macbook. So I was like WTF? I then restarted, booted to Windows, got to the login screen, and I couldn't type a darn thing. Even when I press the caps lock button (there's supposed to be a green light on the key) but there was none! Then I rashly decided to "uninstall" the windows partition. So I booted on Mac OSX, ran Boot Camp Assistant, partitioned the harddrives into one, then restarted a bunch of times. I then ran Software Update and updated all my firmware, so now I was ready to reinstall Windows XP on my Macbook, again. I pop in the disc and let it load. I waited until the blue screen told me to press Enter to continue, press r to repair, or press F3 to quit. I pressed Enter and nothing happened. I then pressed F3, nothing happened! Now when I turn on my Macbook, I go to the black screen which says "No bootable device--insert boot disk and press any key." From my boot camp experience, I have to hold the alt key right after pressing the power button to load Mac OSX. It's greatly appreciated if anyone has any suggestions to fix these problemS.

12-29-2006, 02:50 AM

OK I just did this and its very quick and easy to fix. First of all, get the XP disc out. Keep pressing eject or hold the mouse button from boot up.

Then put in the Apple disc you got with the machine and hold down C for a while until the apple logo and the little wheel thing appears. Then wait for the recovery to start, Select your language. The do nothing until the bar at the top appears. Go to Utilies then start up disc. Select the Mac OS X 10.4.8 or whatever version you are on. You will be prompted to reboot. and then it back to normal. I hope that is clear and helps and it works for me, it takes less than 5 minutes.

01-15-2008, 08:47 AM

I had the same problem and that boot disk trick worked. Thanks a ton!!!

02-17-2008, 01:59 PM

I currently have this problem. The usual suspects don't help however, i.e., holding C or option while trying to boot. In fact, when trying option key booting, it no longer shows my mac volume (or a windows volume either) )o: Cursed boot camp!!! I've pretty much resigned myself to losing data <sobs at the thought of the last few weeks of phd work down the drain>. However, I'll be happy if I can just get my iMac to boot, reinstall leopard or just plain work at all! I'm stuck at the dreaded grey screen. I'm running leopard on an intel iMac. Has anyone got any ideas? Has anyone tried booting from another mac under these circumstances with any success? Thanks in advance.

09-01-2009, 02:08 AM

Originally Posted by ???

OK I just did this and its very quick and easy to fix. First of all, get the XP disc out. Keep pressing eject or hold the mouse button from boot up.

Then put in the Apple disc you got with the machine and hold down C for a while until the apple logo and the little wheel thing appears. Then wait for the recovery to start, Select your language. The do nothing until the bar at the top appears. Go to Utilies then start up disc. Select the Mac OS X 10.4.8 or whatever version you are on. You will be prompted to reboot. and then it back to normal. I hope that is clear and helps and it works for me, it takes less than 5 minutes.

Did you lose all your data in your mac when you did this?

04-26-2010, 04:44 AM

I'm having the same problem where my unibody macbook snow leopard can't even find the os x partition after running boot camp to install xp. I was able to boot from the osx install cd but it is prompting me to startup as if it is a completely new fresh install. Is there anyway to figure out if my old partition is still there so i don't lose all my data?

More info: I initially completed the windows install with boot camp but i didn't partition with enough disk space (5GB) and ran into trouble when trying to install sp2. I repartitioned with more (40GB) after removing the initial and was never able to complete the install for windows (just kept freezing up during the install). Now when i restart it only shows the windows partition that isn't even working and it doesn't show the os x partition.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

04-26-2010, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by luke.burger

I'm having the same problem where my unibody macbook snow leopard can't even find the os x partition after running boot camp to install xp. I was able to boot from the osx install cd but it is prompting me to startup as if it is a completely new fresh install. Is there anyway to figure out if my old partition is still there so i don't lose all my data?

More info: I initially completed the windows install with boot camp but i didn't partition with enough disk space (5GB) and ran into trouble when trying to install sp2. I repartitioned with more (40GB) after removing the initial and was never able to complete the install for windows (just kept freezing up during the install). Now when i restart it only shows the windows partition that isn't even working and it doesn't show the os x partition.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also, I do not have anything backed up with time machine or any other source.

11-03-2010, 03:10 PM

I only partitioned 15 gb. And windows took up 7 ish. SO I might re do it all. I am having problems with getting the window 7 disc to eject and also booting up in MAC OSX. I am going to try some of these ideas, but I will let you know if any of them or what one works for me.

11-03-2010, 03:18 PM

Alt key did the trick first time! Thanks again

01-20-2011, 04:29 PM

I have a mac pro with RAID, so I figured, I can´t have windows on my mac.
I wanted to try to install windows on an external drive (3,5" using the esata port from newer technology. Didn´t work either.
I tried to install windows on that disc using parallels on my macbook. That worked, but couldn´t boot from the macpro.
I installed OSX on that disc, while connected to macpro via esata in order to install windows from there using bootcamp. Didn´t work.
Then I took all my 4 RAID discs out of the macpro and inserted the external which had OSX installed. After start up it came with that message:
No Bootable Device -- Insert boot disk and press any key
Then I changed back to my 4 RAID discs and it says the same. I tried to start while pressing the option key. Same. I also tried starting holding the T down to see if I can get access to my data, but still the same.
I cannot do anything. Anybody any idea? I´m a bit desperate....