Need help with Leopard Boot Camp and XP-SP2 please...

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Need help with Leopard Boot Camp and XP-SP2 please...

Hello. I have a MacBookPro 17". This is a little over a year old. It came with Tiger 10.4. I used bootcamp 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 and had no problem installing XP SP2. Yesterday Windows needed to be reinstalled. After installation I kept getting HAL.DLL errors. I went through several scenarios to correct this. Nothing worked. Since I haven't put Leopard on it yet I felt this to be a good time to do so. So I booted the Leopard DVD and used the disktools to wipe the hard drive to clean off all old/unused files, and use the whole drive to install Leopard. Once installation was completed, I then used the Leopard Boot Camp 2.0 to repartition the HDD and begin the XP SP2 install (using the same XP SP2 CD that I successfully used a year ago). When XP install is complete, the computer tries to boot into XP, but it stops with the message "Disk Error". Leopard still runs fine. I verified the disk and no errors are found. The XP partition is 32MB in size and is formatted with the FAT32 file system. Do I have to use NTFS for this to work on this laptop? I have read the following info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q237556
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xphaldllmissing.htm

None of this information seems to help. Help/information greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Scott

MacPro Quad Xeon 3.0GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 16 GB RAM - 1TB Internal RAID1

Posted on Dec 10, 2007 8:27 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Dec 10, 2007 9:03 AM in response to Scott_G

I always just ignore the HAL errors as there is no fix or support and I use x64.

Maybe its the 32MB partition 😉 I just found 3 bad blocks on one drive (Maxtor 500GB MaxLine Pro) that has caused me huge problems with everything (had to rip out Vista, corrupted my home directory, disk was making noises and stuttering).

I'm not really a fan of using BootCamp Assistant. so I always just use Disk Utility and create FAT32 from there, then reformat FAT in Windows again before installing.

I was hanging around the BootCamp discussions and I know that others have run into same mixed results. Some lost their Windows partition when upgrading to Leopard. BC 2.0 seems like it is also mixed with support and whether it even is useful.

If you have saved your old BootCamp Windows drivers (CD or exported to folder) try installing that first, then maybe apply the Leo BC 2.0 set?

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Answer 2

Scott_G Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2007 9:26 AM in response to Scott_G

Well, I am not using x64 XP-SP2. I am using the 32 bit version. And, I am on a MacBookPro17 laptop with a built-in hard drive. I know that the information you mentioned worked on my MacPro box.

I have successfully installed Win XP-SP2 behind Leopard using bootcamp 2.0. Here's the run down...

First of all, this is like the 5th try. After turning the system off/on several times and retrying, it finally went. Here's how you do a fresh install...

1) Leopard is installed using the entire internal disk. (disktool available on
the DVD when it is booted if needed)
2) BootCamp 2.0 is used to partition the internal HDD. (32MB works)
3) Insert XPSP2 CD when prompted to continue.
4) Go through the XP text menus to install onto the partition BC created.
5) DO NOT QUICK format. Do a full format on the BC partition in FAT(32).
6) Windows will install and reboot.
7) When system comes back up do not hit 'any key' to boot CD. Let HDD boot.
8) XP finishes installing.
9) When all that is done, pop ur Leopard DVD back in and it will ask to install
BC drivers. Click yes/continue. System will reboot again.
10) Now XP should be installed and all Mac hardware working.

That's the best way I found to do this on a MacBookPro Laptop.

On a desktop you can just boot XP CD (OPTION KEY at boot time) and install it to another HDD in the system. For some reason, if you want to put XP on the same HDD as OSX, you have to use BootCamp, otherwise is not needed.

Thanks again,
Scott

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Dec 10, 2007 9:45 AM in response to Scott_G

Glad it is working... I was kidding about the 32MB partition. And not suggesting you use or need x64 (but all I used).

I wouldn't bother installing again, I would clone Leopard to your external drive and then restore, using Disk Utility both times.

Using Disk Utility was the only way to get around the FAT32 + 32GB issues.

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