Installing XP

[d-mart]

I've started to install XP on my iMac using boot camp but have run into a few problems.

I went through the setup of installing it fine and then it rebooted as its ment to, after it had done this though it went back to the setup screen again. I've been through this 3 times now and had the same out come, only now when it boots up I get a text screen saying 'Press any key to boot from cd'. Problem is now it won't respond to anything, restarded it twice and i get the same screen, ejected the CD on the white start up screen and it just stays there.

Any ideas on how to sloves this?

 

[cwa107]

What kind of Windows XP disc are you using?

 

[d-mart]

XP Professional, Service Pack 2.

Is it possible i could of formatted the Mac partition?

 

[cwa107]

XP Professional, Service Pack 2.

Is that a retail copy or an OEM disc? And if it's OEM, does it have a computer manufacturer's name on it (like Dell or HP)?

Is it possible i could of formatted the Mac partition?

Sure. If you picked the wrong partition during setup, that's very possible. It's more likely that your Windows partition is just set up as the default boot partition. You can choose by holding the Option key down, immediately after turning the machine on.

 

[d-mart]

Turns out I have formatted the Mac, held down the option key and got the choice of windows or the Mac install disk, clicked on windows and again got a black screen.

Tryed to re-install the Mac OS but it didn't give me any option on where to put it.

As I've formatted the bigger partition with windows do i now need to re-format the windows side and install the Mac disk's on there? If so how would i go about this as all i get is a black screen.

Thank you

 

[cwa107]

I think we need to take a step back for a minute. The only way you could have nuked your Mac OS partition is if you chose it during Windows setup and forced Windows setup to format the partition. Is that what happened?

When you hold the option key down, it should only give you a choice of bootable partitions. If the Mac OS partition had indeed been formatted, it should not have appeared as an option (unless of course, you installed Windows twice). What happens when you simply select the Mac OS partition. Does it not boot into OS X?

 

[Dysfunction]

If he's reformatted the bigger partition with windows.. my guess is it won't boot to OS X. FWIW I had the exact same issue (not formatting the windows partition, so it would never actually boot) with a corporate VLA XP sp2 disk. Never found a solution, but I've just flat out given up on bootcamp.

 

[chscag]

I don't believe a Volume Licensed copy of Win XP SP2 will work with Boot Camp. You would think it would since the file structure is the same as the Pro version with the exception of some coding and registry entries.

Regards.

 

[cwa107]

I don't believe a Volume Licensed copy of Win XP SP2 will work with Boot Camp. You would think it would since the file structure is the same as the Pro version with the exception of some coding and registry entries.

Regards.

It does, that's what I use on mine.

 

[akj27]

Sorry to hijack your thread here, but I just got my win xp vol lic today, and I wanna install it using bootcamp, am I gonna have to delete my current partition and create two new ones? I really don't wanna format my hdd to install windows. I'm hoping there's a way to create a windows partition without having to delete my current one.

 

[Dysfunction]

read the bootcamp instructions, there is no reason to reinstall everything.

 

[d-mart]

I think we need to take a step back for a minute. The only way you could have nuked your Mac OS partition is if you chose it during Windows setup and forced Windows setup to format the partition. Is that what happened?

When you hold the option key down, it should only give you a choice of bootable partitions. If the Mac OS partition had indeed been formatted, it should not have appeared as an option (unless of course, you installed Windows twice). What happens when you simply select the Mac OS partition. Does it not boot into OS X?

I formatted the Mac partition and have over wirten it with Windows. When i hold the option key it only gives me Windows, when I select this it takes me to a black screen.

I put the Mac OS install disk in and when holding the option key it gave me Wndows and Mac OS install, only when i clicked install it wouldn't let me select a place to install it. So i'm stuck with no where start Mac OS and Windows which just takes me to a black screen.

Any way of formatted the whole thing and starting fresh with the Mac CD's?

 

[cwa107]

I formatted the Mac partition and have over wirten it with Windows. When i hold the option key it only gives me Windows, when I select this it takes me to a black screen.

I put the Mac OS install disk in and when holding the option key it gave me Wndows and Mac OS install, only when i clicked install it wouldn't let me select a place to install it. So i'm stuck with no where start Mac OS and Windows which just takes me to a black screen.

Any way of formatted the whole thing and starting fresh with the Mac CD's?

Yep. Boot from the System Disc 1 DVD. Run Disk Utility before starting setup (I believe it's available from the Tools menu). That should allow you to erase all partitions and start anew.