In the process of installing WinXP Pro using Boot Camp

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I am stuck and I can't seem to find the answer through Google searches.

I have a Mac Pro and I am working on installing WinXP Pro SP2 on a second SATA drive. It is a 500gb drive by Western Digital and it happens to be the same size as the Mac OSX drive - 500gb.

Because they are alike in size I can't tell which is which in the installer. Here are my options:

476938mb Drive
H: Partition 1 (Unknown) - 476938 free

476938mb Drive
I: Partition 1 (Unknown) - 200mb free
C: Partion 2 (Unknown) - 476938 free

My guess is to install WinXP on the H: partition and I just want to confirm this as I don't really wish to wipe out my MacOS on the drive in Bay 1.

Can anyone confirm this? I wished this was addressed in the Boot Camp Installation Guide. They only address one drive that is partitioned, not two seperate drives. Also nothing listed shows up with the label BOOTCAMP.

Thanks in advance.
Rob
 
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If they are SATA drives, I would simply unplug the Mac OS X Drive before you install WinXP. Then it won't show in the list.

I would also assume you ran Bootcamp in OSX and followed the assistant?
 
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The drives may well be the same size but you OSX drive won't be empty....

That aside why not recreate the boot camp partition just a tiny bit smaller so that you can be sure once your in the XP installer?
 
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I did that as a work around when I first went through this process a month after I got my Mac. In December my Seagate drive with the WinXP OS died and I am going through the process of setting up the WinXP again.

The process was difficult and I did loose a data drive in bay 4 because I accidentally went too far in the Windows Installer. On a side note I was never able to successfully get VM Fusion to work with the drive.

I am at the blue screen of the Windows Installer after going through the Assistant in Leopard. I have backed up my Mac OS using Time Machine and a external USB drive so I am feeling lucky at just picking one. I would love to have the right answer to post throughout the Internet to help people out with this problem. A lot of what I found was people working with partitions on a single drive. This is something that really doesn't seem to safe. I like to keep things seperate.
 
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So I should cancel Windows Installer and get back into Leopard and resize the partition to verify that the 200mb partition should shrink, verifying that this is the Mac OS drive, correct?
 
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The drive you would want to use is drive H:

The 200mb partition is an EFI partition used by Mac OSX.
 
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Thanks JGruber. I am going to start on this right away. I was donig some further research on EFI partitions and this is great learning new things. I really don't want to install WinXP because I am really enjoying my Mac. I hope I can get VM Fusion working so I don't have to boot to the Windows drive. This is something I had to do because I never got VM Fusion to correctly recognize the WinXP partition. When I get to that point I might need further help.

It is really difficult to go and do work on a Windows based PC.

Thanks so much for your help and patience!
 
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Just to further document the process:

1. I selected the H: partition and received the error that Windows could not be installed because it couldn't recognize the file structure. It suggested that I reformat the drive.

2. I hit ESC and got back to the previous screen and selelcted L to delete the partition on the H: drive.

3. I selected ENTER to install on drive H: and Windows said that it had to format the drive.

4. I selected NTFS (not quick) and Windows is now formatting the drive. Fingers crossed.
 
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Everything you are doing is correct.

Have you tried to use Parallels? I currently use it on my MacBook Pro and love it. It works at very close to 100% speed, and it's perfect for what I need it for.

EFI partitions are used by Mac to store firmware updates for the hardware, and on top of that are rarely used by the OS.
 
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75% through the formatting. When I went through this process before and finally got into WinXP I didn't have any of the drivers. The Leopard DVD didn't have them and I needed to extract them. I finally found them online and was able to get everything up and running. It has been a learning experience, something that is a good thing becoming a hybrid user.

I am going to look into Parallels. I picked VM Fusion because I thought it did a couple of things better, but I never got it up and running. I was enticed by the unity function.

My primary use for WinXP is ArcView and Acad. I would love to totally abandon anything to do with Windows. :) I am so hooked on using a Mac. I don't know why it took me this long to switch.
 
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Can I setup Parallels to see my WinXP drive? It looks like I need to reinstall WinXP through Parallels? Is this correct?
 
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A strange thing happened. Just after the formatting finished Windows Installer went to a screen that the drive needs to be formatted - NTFS (quick) or NTFS long. It looks like it is now trying to partition the H: drive as Partition 1 - at 476938mb. I don't get it. Strange.

I do recall that during the previous format that it was listed as H: Partition 2. Well I have to wait another hour and half for it to finish formatting.
 
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Can I setup Parallels to see my WinXP drive? It looks like I need to reinstall WinXP through Parallels? Is this correct?

You can create a boot camp partition, Install XP, and then use Parallels to use your Bootcamp partition. HOWEVER, it will need to be activated again, if it is activated already

A strange thing happened. Just after the formatting finished Windows Installer went to a screen that the drive needs to be formatted - NTFS (quick) or NTFS long. It looks like it is now trying to partition the H: drive as Partition 1 - at 476938mb. I don't get it. Strange.

I do recall that during the previous format that it was listed as H: Partition 2. Well I have to wait another hour and half for it to finish formatting.

Normally you can just do a quick format, a non-quick format is generally used when formatting it to sell it.
 
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Sorry just need to dive in here, don't mean to cause offence but:
1. you don't need to reactivate windows in parallels you just need to syncronise the MAC addresses. Windows requests a re-activation because the virtual network adaptor has a different address to that of your Macs real MAC address. The info is on the parallels site but i can post it if required.
2. you should always do a full format when installing windows on a drive that hasn't been ntfs formatted before and especially when installing under this circumstances. This forum and others are littered with issues where people just quick formatted.

mrplow
 
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Sorry just need to dive in here, don't mean to cause offence but:
1. you don't need to reactivate windows in parallels you just need to syncronise the mac addresses. The info is on the parallels site but i can post it if required.
2. you should always do a full format when installing windows on a drive that hasn't been ntfs formatted before and especially when installing under this circumstances. This forum and others are littered with issues where people just quick formatted.

mrplow
In my personal experiance with using Bootcamp & XP & Vista, is that I only had to do a quick format on the drive, and it has been working just fine for a few months now.
 
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I should have pulled the drive as Windows wiped the Mac OS drive as well. I don't know why. It must have happened on the second formatting. I am steering clear of Boot Camp. I think I can get things back via Time Machine.

Thanks for your help, but I am calling it a day as I am going to spend the rest of my time getting back my Mac OS. What a pain. Well since everything is wiped I might as well download and try Parallels.
 
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I should have pulled the drive as Windows wiped the Mac OS drive as well. I don't know why. It must have happened on the second formatting. I am steering clear of Boot Camp. I think I can get things back via Time Machine.

Thanks for your help, but I am calling it a day as I am going to spend the rest of my time getting back my Mac OS. What a pain. Well since everything is wiped I might as well download and try Parallels.

WoW! That is odd. Time machine will do fine for restoring your Mac OS.

Give Parallels a try, and just let it make the drive expandable (meaning it will grow as it needs)... and don't use a bootcamp partition.
 

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