Help! Boot Camp Gone Horribly Wrong...

Hello everyone,

In a bit of a pickle with ol' Boot Camp - in need of some desperate help!

So I'll keep things brief to get to the core of the problem;

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New iMac arrived a few days ago.

Decided to setup Boot Camp today after digging out Windows XPfrom the attic.

Followed the Boot Camp assistant settings, restarted the computer with XP disc inserted.

When it came to deciding which partition to install XP on, it only should one labeled 'C:'. Assuming windows couldn't read osx extended, I choose drive C: to reformat and install... left it do so.

When I came back, the setup had restarted and CD had rebooted itself to the same point, offering the same three options 'install', 'repair'... etc

Thought this was a bit strange, so I restarted and ejected the CD this time.

After a long period of nothing, a disk with a '?' on it flashed on the screen.

Obviously realised that I formatted my OSX partition by mistake.

Restarted again, this time with the OSX setup disks inserted.

Leopard installation assistant appears, but after proceeding with installing OS X, there are no drives available to install it on!

The disk utility fails to read the drive.

Apple Hardware tests shows everything is working okay.

Now I can't even get the Leopard CD to boot, instead it just displays 'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'


Can anyone give me some steps on how to get Leopard back on and running? I've had enough of boot camp and windows, wished I'd never spent so much time looking for it again!

I'm using a 5 day old iMac 2.4GHz standard with 320GB HDD + 3GB RAM.

Also I choose to reformat the partition in NTFS - because it's probably cleared the whole ruddy thing, could this be the reason why OSX can't read it?


Many thanks in advance for any help provided!

EDIT: Solution at end of thread!

Wow, that is a pickle.

I'm not definite on this, this is just what I would try to do.

I would say that you somehow need to reformat the HDD to FAT32 or OS X... do you have an enclosure you can use with a PC or another mac you could start up with in target disk mode? If you could do that you could use your OS X disks to reformat or erase again if it needs it and then install OS X.

Of course, you could call Apple or take it back to the store because it's so new you'll still have phone support.

In fact, I think I'd call Apple.

Since you have nothing to loose, try booting holding down the OPTION key right after the Startup sound. See what comes up in the choices menu. Does OSX show there at all?

If not, boot with the Install DVD that came with the machine. Hold down C right after the startup sound. If it still shows no drives to install to, open Disk Utility from Tools (I believe) menu and click on the drive. See what shows up. You might have to go to the Partition menu and re-partition the drive.

Cheers guys.

I'll give those suggestions a try and get back with the results.

Obviously I could send it back for someone at Apple correct it for me, but I'm impatient... hence getting myself in this situation

dtravis7 said:

Since you have nothing to loose, try booting holding down the OPTION key right after the Startup sound. See what comes up in the choices menu. Does OSX show there at all?

Click to expand...

Nothing shows up when I tried that, other than the Leopard CD


Just booted up the disk utility, everything is greyed out - doesn't seem to allow me to do anything.

Noticed that it has the following information about the drive though:

Capacity: 298 GB
Available: 127 GB
Used: 480MB (Probably the XP setup files)


Where have those other 150GB or so gone to?!


Do you think if I ran the XP setup again, used it to create a new FAT partition, then would OSX be able to read it to reinstall Leopard?

On a side note...
I tried installing a copied cd of XP onto my mac, this did not work and only showed up with a C drive partition and not the BOOTCAMP partition it was mean't to. I looked it up and found out that for some reason copied versions of XP do not work with bootcamp, only fresh non copied original disks.
Hope this helps.

AK47 said:

On a side note...
I tried installing a copied cd of XP onto my mac, this did not work and only showed up with a C drive partition and not the BOOTCAMP partition it was mean't to. I looked it up and found out that for some reason copied versions of XP do not work with bootcamp, only fresh non copied original disks.
Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, although this doesn't really concern me.

The XP Home edition I have is very old, must of bought it in 2002? It's been a few years since I first installed it on my family PC, but I've an inkling it might even pre-date SP1.

Assuming the counterfeited copies will be of the early editions, maybe there's something incompatible with with them and boot camp?



So what's the verdict, shall I try and format the HDD back into FAT 32 to see if I can install Leopard again?

I know it's no consolation but Boot Camp states quite clearly that it requires SP2 to work, so this is obviously where your problems have stemmed from.

I'll see what I can find out and get back to you if I can find a solution elsewhere.

shfle said:

I know it's no consolation but Boot Camp states quite clearly that it requires SP2 to work, so this is obviously where your problems have stemmed from.

Click to expand...

Crumbs, obviously overlooked that one!


Well at least I know how the problem started, definitely won't be shelling out for another copy for the minute.


Many thanks for the help!

I believe you can burn a new XP install disk with SP2 applied. Fish around in Microsoft's knowledge base for info on that. I'd help you look, but that site is incompatible with my brain, so I wouldn't be any help. Also, Google is your friend.

CoG888 said:

I'd help you look, but that site is incompatible with my brain, so I wouldn't be any help.

Click to expand...

LOL ;D


Okay I think I'm on a winner now, so I'll write up my solution briefly for anyone else that comes across the same problem as me.


Solution:

1) Restarted my machine with the Windows XP CD inserted.

2) Followed instructions to install XP, agree to the licensing... yadda yadda.

3) On the partition selection screen, I choose to delete the partition.

4) Exit the XP install, restart.

5) Ejected the CD (hold down mouse button on startup) switched it with the OSX setup Disk 1.

6) From the tool menu, choose disk utility - then erased the drives contents (which also reformats the disk to OSX Extended)

7) Then proceed with the Leopard install


Never installed Leopard manually before, interesting to see the size of some of the installation files: Epson Printer Drivers > 1.3GB


Thanks again to everyone who helped me out, much appreciated!

Glad you got it sorted as I thought it was looking rather bleak for you from what I could find!

PaulMoon said:

LOL ;D


Okay I think I'm on a winner now, so I'll write up my solution briefly for anyone else that comes across the same problem as me.


Solution:

1) Restarted my machine with the Windows XP CD inserted.

2) Followed instructions to install XP, agree to the licensing... yadda yadda.

3) On the partition selection screen, I choose to delete the partition.

4) Exit the XP install, restart.

5) Ejected the CD (hold down mouse button on startup) switched it with the OSX setup Disk 1.

6) From the tool menu, choose disk utility - then erased the drives contents (which also reformats the disk to OSX Extended)

7) Then proceed with the Leopard install


Never installed Leopard manually before, interesting to see the size of some of the installation files: Epson Printer Drivers > 1.3GB


Thanks again to everyone who helped me out, much appreciated!

Click to expand...

I came across the exact same problem except that now after your step 5 solution.. Mine still display 'No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'

I'm extremely frustrated now and its 3 am in the morning, i can't even bring myself to sleep now....

can someone help me please....

I think i just figured it out myself...
Maybe you should add in the solution right after step 5:
"Hold the option button while starting up, choose macOX disc1"

Thanks anyway for the solution.... Now i can get my sleep, and i won't bother installing windows ever again...!!!