I broke 3 Macs trying to install XP via Boot camp...please help!!

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I recently attempted to install XP via Boot camp on 3 Brand New 13" mac books.

I followed all instructions very closely and I keep hitting the same wall. I get as far as "select partition" and I chose c:/, then I perform a quick format in NTFS. Windows installer runs great and everything is perfect. Then Windows needs to reboot in order to complete the install, when I do this, the mac boots right into the installer program again asking me to select a partition etc. It's an infinite loop.

After canceling the install my mac won't boot into XP or Leopard. I called Apple, they went through a dozen different "apple Key + __" commands, and nothing seems to work. They told me to bring them in for repair because they are beyond what a user can repair.

Anyone know how to get past that loop?
 
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what happens if you eject the windows install disk
 
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You're sure you're not formatting the OS X partition to install XP?
When you're done installing XP and it restarts, hold down the mouse button to eject the disc.
Or, when the disc loads it asks you to hit any button to continue. You do this and disc boots. I think once it installs XP and resets, you don't hit any button and let it continue on its own. It should boot to the HD.
Either method should break the cycle.
 
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try restarting then holding down option immediately after you hear to restart sound. It may come up with a list of bootable devices, hopefully including the windows xp install.
 

dtravis7


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You can NOT use Quick Format. It will install but not boot after the install. Go back and try it again and in the Windows Installer do not choose Quick for Full format, either NTFS or FAT32 depending on what you want. Then the install will finish and it should boot. I did it the Quick Format way and got the same results you did. It was my fault though as I was tired and knew i was not supposed to use Quick but full.

Works great now on my Intel Mac. If that does not fix it I am not sure what is up, but when i used Quick Format it would not boot into Windows but went back.
 
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Agreed dtravis7, even on brand new home built PCs....you can't do a quick format on new partitions in Windows setup, it has to be properly formatted, to create the basic filesystem table.....all the quick format does is wipe out the contents information....like file and folder names. When doing up a brand new install, the normal format is preferred and will work all the time.
 
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Yeah I had the same issue. Using Quick Format is a complete no go! I booted into Mac OS, deleted the Windows partition and started over using full format and it works fine!

HTH

Paul.
 

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