Mac doesnt boot from Win xp CD

Hello mac'ers,

I have a new MacBook Pro.(os x 10.5.8)
I successfully used the bootcamp and installed Win xp as a second OS on my mac.

After installing the winxp,I inserted the mac os X DVD(10.5.7), in order to install win xp drivers.
But the DVD looked empty when seen from winxp OS.
So I couldnt install the drivers..

I later decided to redo the whole process, thinking if I had made any mistake.
I removed the winxp partition using bootcamp.

Now I again tried to reinstall winxp using bootcamp.
Bootcamp restarted the machine and thats it.. it cannot boot from winxp CD anymore!!

The screen is becoming blank, and I could only force the mac to power off.

I then tried to boot from Fedora 10 linux installation CD, just to check if the issue is with winxp CD.
The same happens, and screen becomes blank.

I then tried to boot from Mac OS 10.5.7 DVD which I got with my MacBook Pro. Now the mac successfully booted from the DVD and tried to start the installation process.

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Ofcourse I tried tricks like, holding the option key during start up and to force the boot from CD.
However I force the boot to happen from CD, the screen become blank and nothing more happens.

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Can someone help me here..
Why is that I was able to install winxp successfully first time..
And when I tried to redo the same task, why am I not able to do it anymore?

I am very new to mac world.
Any suggestion, or insight into this issue is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Pradeep

From your description of the problem it sounds as if the copy of XP you used is not compatible with Boot Camp. (read the Boot Camp instructions carefully to find out what copies of XP will work)

Assuming the copy of XP you installed is compatible with Boot Camp....

The drivers should have installed. When you inserted your Leopard DVD to install drivers from Windows, which DVD did you insert? The drivers are on DVD # 1 and should execute automatically when the disk is inserted while Windows XP is running. If the driver install doesn't start automatically, the Boot Camp instructions direct you how to do it manually.

The only thing I can suggest to you is to run the Boot Camp assistant once more from OS X, and select create partition, then select restore. That will get your hard drive back to all OS X. Then start over.

Regards.

The only thing I can suggest to you is to run the Boot Camp assistant once more from OS X, and select create partition, then select restore. That will get your hard drive back to all OS X. Then start over.

Click to expand...

He said he already removed the partition and tried to start over, and now the problem is that his Mac is not reading the XP disk.

OP, is the disk a burned copy by any chance? Since you said you tried a Linux disk (which is almost certainly burned) and it didn't work.. I am thinking it might be a problem with the disks you are using. The slot load drives in Mac notebooks are notorious for refusing to read certain kinds of disks. And it isn't always consistent. Sometimes it will read it fine just once, and then refuse to ever read it again. If I were you, I would try using a different brand of disk.

Hey Thanks,

It seemed to be exactly the burned cd-disk problem..

I used a different xp version CD (which is not the burned one) and it worked wonderfully well..
However its strange that the other CD worked for the first time, and did not work on the second try..

Nevertheless, it is all in place now, and bootcamp drivers for winxp are also successfully installed this time..

So this means mac is really picky on the kind of disks that it reads!!

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hmm...
Does this mean, in the case I want to install fedora linux in there then I need to order an official copy from fedora distributors!!??
(anyway i dont have any idea to install linux for now, but asking just for info)

Thanks guys...
Pradeep