I knew I should have stayed away from bootcamp...

After attempting to install windows XP professional through bootcamp, and failing, my computer has now started blearing at me with MSDOS style writing: "No Bootable Device - Insert boot disk and press any key..." whenever I start up my iMac.

Installing bootcamp failed as I used a copied version of my XP disk, which I later learnt from the apple forums does not work (Only original disks do).

I can get around this boot screen by holding option key at start-up and then choosing the Mac disk. However, I don't particularly want to keep having to hold the option key every time I start up my computer. Any help? Take it to the mac store? I'm still under warranty.

I knew bootcamp would bring me problems, and alas, it has.

You can set the boot device from: System Preferences - startup disk

Tried that a first time, booted up with a giant grey firewire logo....

Tried a second time, booted up fine and has done so since.

Thanks alot. I'm never touching bootcamp again though thats for sure.

AK47,

Boot Camp works fine. Why not try it with a real copy of Windows? Just follow the Boot Cam Installation and Set Up Guide in your Applications/Utility folder.

Noel

i used it with a "non-real" copy and it worked fine.

did you follow the instructions completely?

i had someone tell me how to do it, and it didnt work for like a few seconds than i decided to just print out and follow the instructions and it worked like a charm with no hitches at all.

I followed them exactly, the bootcamp partition would not show up in the windows install process.

I researched why and they have found a lot of problems when using copied versions of XP.

I guess I've always been scared of putting windows on my beautiful mac, it's sacrilege!

My copied version worked fine.

Is your hard drive error free? What version of XP were you trying?

I burn XP to CD-R's every day at work to install XP on a bootcamp partition for our users and it has worked every time. Maybe you could reformat your partition and see if that makes any difference, or perhaps your XP cd had a corrupt or missing file.

Copies/legitimate backups etc will work fine assuming they have been authored correctly and are bootable.

You need to ensure, as others have implied, that the version of Windows is the full product (oem or retail), not a PC Manufacturers 'restore' disc and that it already includes Service Pack 2. The OP does not state which version of Windows you are trying.