Black screen with blinking cursor while trying to boot from Win Install CD

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Level 1

4 points

Black screen with blinking cursor while trying to boot from Win Install CD

I'm running Leopard with all updates on a brand new MacBook Pro.

I initially had no problems with Boot Camp - the Assistant partitioned my drive, I put in my Vista DVD and hit Start Installation and the MacBook rebooted from the Windows DVD just fine. I made a mistake, however, when I used my retail Leopard disc instead of the install DVDs from my new MacBook, so the wrong drivers got installed and things were a mess. It wasn't painful setting up Boot Camp, so I decided I'd just go back into Leopard, wipe the Windows partition, and retry.

The Boot Camp Assistant had no problem merging the boot camp partition back with the main one, then making a new boot camp partition (I'm not sure if this was necessary, but I did it). I then put in my Vista DVD again and hit Start Installation. The MacBook rebooted, but not into the DVD - it just sat at the black screen with the blinking cursor in the top left corner. After 10 minutes of nothing, I held the power button to shut the MacBook down and tried again - same thing. I booted back into Leopard and tried Start Installation again - same problem. I remerged the boot camp partition, restarted the MacBook, then made a new partition and tried the Vista DVD - again just that blinking cursor.

What went wrong and how do I fix it?

Windows XP

Posted on Mar 3, 2008 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

xnav

Level 5

7,089 points

Mar 3, 2008 11:57 AM in response to Bevilacq12

Remerge the BootCamp partition again then boot off your Leopard DVD and go into Utility>DiskUtility and do a Repair on the hard drive. Reboot Leopard and retry BootCamp.

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Answer 2

Bevilacq12 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 3, 2008 12:56 PM in response to xnav

I was able to finally get the Vista DVD to boot by holding down Option during start up and selecting the disc. Vista is now installed.

However, whatever caused my previous issues is still at large, as I've done nothing to fix it. Is it safe to follow your steps to fix the issue? Or will this mess up my now-working boot camp partition?

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Answer 3

xnav

Level 5

7,089 points

Mar 3, 2008 1:02 PM in response to Bevilacq12

In that case just do the 'Verify Disk' after booting the DiskUtility from the Leopard DVD and see what it has to say.

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Answer 4

Bevilacq12 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 4, 2008 9:08 PM in response to xnav

I booted from the Install DVD that came with my MacBook Pro and ran Disk Utility. If I select the hard drive, it doesn't let me verify or repair. Same for the Windows partition. Choosing the Mac partition opens up all options, and I verified the disc and it checked out with no problems.

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Answer 5

xnav

Level 5

7,089 points

Mar 5, 2008 7:06 AM in response to Bevilacq12

As long as there is no 'missing' space or orphan partitions, I would say you are in good shape.

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Answer 6

Mar 22, 2008 2:58 PM in response to xnav

I am still having the same problem nothing works!...

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Answer 7

bmarkp

Level 1

0 points

Apr 5, 2008 6:30 PM in response to Bevilacq12

Had the same issue with the black screen with blinking cursor... I tried all the suggestions I could find from the internet... rebooted numerous times, restored, recreated the partition, repaired disk... nothing worked. Finally, on a whim, on my desktop, I copied the Gold OEM Windows XP CD to a new blank CD-R. Tried the install again with Boot Camp, worked like a charm. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I'd try it.

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Answer 8

Apr 27, 2008 2:42 PM in response to bmarkp

I'm also having this problem, and none of the suggestions in this thread have worked.

I tried burning a copy of my windows install cd, but it wasn't recognized as bootable, which did not surprise me. Does anyone know how to do that?

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Answer 9

tony_z

Level 1

1 points

Jul 7, 2008 5:27 PM in response to Bevilacq12

Try resetting the PMU. See link here. I tried everything mentioned previously (in this thread AND the link thread) and the PMU reset (shutdown, pull out power cord and other cords, wait 30 seconds, plug back in and restart) let me continue to install windows after partitioning the HD. Good luck!

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Answer 10

tony_z

Level 1

1 points

Jul 7, 2008 5:29 PM in response to Bevilacq12

Try resetting the PMU. See link here.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7188736

I tried everything mentioned previously (in this thread AND the link thread) and the PMU reset (shutdown, pull out power cord and other cords, wait 30 seconds, plug back in and restart) let me continue to install windows after partitioning the HD. Good luck!

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Answer 11

smithome

Level 1

4 points

Jul 11, 2008 10:08 PM in response to Bevilacq12

Well, pulling the cord worked for us also. How truly bizarre

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