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    Disk boot error when installing XP...

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by cdnalsi, Jan 29, 2009.

  1. cdnalsi

    cdnalsi Food for the funky people

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    Hey guys I have this problem. I had the x64 version of Vista running on my Macbook Pro and I just started to hate all the stuttering because of the wireless driver (which nobody can resolve), so I decided to put back my good-old trusty XP Pro 32bit. (I still have that CD all dusted somewhere around here).

    So I wiped my Boot Camp partition, made another one (with the Assistant), and put in the XP CD, the computer restarted, it loaded up Windows Setup, copied all the files (in text mode) and then when the computer restarts and boots off the new partition, I get the:

    "Disk Boot Error,
    Press any key to restart..."

    And of course the system freezes. I have to hold down the power button and shut down my Mac.

    Now as far as I can figure this out, I think something messed with my mbr or something, because this only happens with the XP disc. Vista would want to install just fine and dandy.

    Could this be because at one point I had a live Ubuntu CD and booted off it to see what it's like?

    Or otherwise, what can I do to be able to install XP again?

    I should mention I did format my entire internal drive last night, put a fresh copy of Leopard on it, and XP does the same thing...

    Cheers!
     
    cdnalsi, Jan 29, 2009
    #1
  2. blazezaku

    blazezaku Notebook Guru

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    before the copying process starts ( during blue screen)
    format the partition again to FAT32
     
    blazezaku, Jan 29, 2009
    #2
  3. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    Yea, you its a formatting issue. For me with XP sp3 i had the same problem.
     
    sulkorp, Jan 30, 2009
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  4. Lee Howley

    Lee Howley Notebook Consultant

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    I worked on boot camping macs for a summer job. My guess is that you creating a partition bigger than 32 GB and not reformatting it to NTFS. If you have a partition bigger than 32GB you need to format it using NTFS, thats why there is that 32GB button. If its less than 32GB you can use FAT 32. Boot camp will set up the initial partition as FAT 32, just remember to change it in the XP installer to NTFS. You didn't have that problem with Vista because it formats it automatically.
     
    Lee Howley, Jan 30, 2009
    #4