Boot Camp Problems

Hi, I just bought a MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz and I can't get Windows XP installed on Boot Camp. I first tried my old RETAIL XP Pro disc which didn't work, it seemed to start installing okay, but the drive made lots of funny noises and locked up during install then I realised it requires an XP + SP2 disc so I tried using an OEM XP Pro + SP2 because I couldn't find a retail one with SP2 and that didn't get anywhere either, in fact it got nowhere, it ejected the disk without even attempting to install. Note: I did restore the Mac OS volume to 100% then re-partition it in between attempts just incase any XP-install residue of some sort was left behind.

Can someone help me set up XP pro on boot camp, or failing that, is there any way to simply wipe the HDD completely and install JUST native Windows XP from my Retail non-SP2, NOT DUAL-BOOT, no boot camp, no mac os, as if it were a normal Intel PC, with intent to install SP2/3 later? Or is there still something fundimentally different about the Apple hardware/BIOS that I just wont be able to make it touch a non-SP2 disc and/or will refuse to boot windows unless its in a dual boot configuration?

Thank you.

Whoah .... easy there. Don't abandon OS X just because it won't play nice with an ancient version of windows.

Do you know anyone with or have access to a Windows machine you could use for an hour?

If so download the SP2 standalone installer and nlite

Use nlite, the SP2 installer and your retail xp disc to slipstream it all into a new disc - WinXP inc SP2.

Once you have that you can start again with the bootcamp instructions from the Apple site.

HTH
mrplow

mrplow said:

Whoah .... easy there. Don't abandon OS X just because it won't play nice with an ancient version of windows.

Do you know anyone with or have access to a Windows machine you could use for an hour?

If so download the SP2 standalone installer and nlite

Use nlite, the SP2 installer and your retail xp disc to slipstream it all into a new disc - WinXP inc SP2.

Once you have that you can start again with the bootcamp instructions from the Apple site.

HTH
mrplow

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Thanks, I'll give nlite a go, can I do that on my Vista machine? Well I'll find out, will reply again later.

Lc3 said:

Thanks, I'll give nline a go, can I do that on my Vista machine? Well I'll find out, will reply again later.

Click to expand...

I'd imagine so - you just need a Windows machine to run the executable.

Another note - if that retail version of XP is currently in use elsewhere, you're going to have problems with it. Product Activation keeps a single copy of XP from being used on multiple machines.

Oh, and if you just want to turn your Mac into a very pretty and expensive Windows machine, there's no need to do anything special with it. Just boot from the Windows disc and follow the prompts - be sure to wipe the entire drive to eliminate any traces of OS X.

The retail windows XP was for my old laptop, which died so its okay to move the licence to this one. It seems to have worked, thanks mrplow for suggesting nlite.

Only problem I'm having is the Wifi takes about 2~3 minutes to connect from startup. Everything else is working perfectly.