Windows XP on Boot Camp installation problem

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johnrdelaney Author

Level 1

10 points

Windows XP on Boot Camp installation problem

OS: 10.10.3

Model: Mac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)

I want to install Windows XP Home Edition on my internal drive. It has room for an ~200 GB partition.

I tried to use Boot Camp Assistant. Says my boot disk portion is not journal. "About This Mac" says it is journaled.

I tried to use the installation disks which came with my iMac (OS 10.6.2). My SuperDrive cannot seem to mount either; it just keeps spitting them out.

I would prefer not to buy a newer version of Windows. I would also prefer not to buy a new version of VMWare. I was using it under 10.6 to run Windows XP Home Edition put that version of VMWare won't run under OS 10.10. And VMWare is now an EMC product. My past experiences with software taken over by EMC have been bad.

Thanks in advance for any help or understanding you can provide.

John

Posted on Apr 30, 2015 4:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 2, 2015 5:03 PM in response to johnrdelaney

You have options.

1. Boot from Snow Leopard OS from an external flash drive (any other type of storage will confuse the Windows Installer and BCA). Install XP on the internal drive partition. Once it is self contained, there is no relation ship between the two OSes except sharing the same hardware.

2. You can use free VirtualBox and test XP with that, if you do not want to invest in VMware Fusion.

3. Do you have a backup of you old XP installation? If yes, it may be possible to restore. This is not always successful.

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Answer 2

johnrdelaney Author

Level 1

10 points

May 2, 2015 5:13 PM in response to Loner T

With respect, Loner T, I cannot follow your option 1 suggestion. I cannot mount my Snow Leopard installation disk on my iMac, making it difficult to install that OS on an external flash drive.

Nor can I follow your option 3 suggestion. My old XP installation ran on a version of VMWare that is not compatible with OS 10.10.<any>.

I can follow option 2 and may yet try it. I would, though, really prefer to use Boot Camp.

Can anyone out there come up with another suggestion? Or explain why I there is no way I can install an appropriate version of Boot Camp on my late 2009, 21.5" iMac when using OS 10.10.3.

Hopefully,

John

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 2, 2015 5:27 PM in response to johnrdelaney

1. Is this the Grey disk that came with you Mac? If you insert the disk, does it show up in Disk Utility?

2. I agree Option 2 is the safest for testing. If you do not play games and do a lot of GPU intensive work, VB may be ideal for you.

3. My 2c on your last question. There is always a method, sometimes painful.

a. Replace the internal drive with a new one for SL 10.6.8.

b. BC is built-in to the OS X layer, not a separate piece of software that requires installation. This is part of the reason, OS X needs to be downgraded to a

lower version, to allow access to BC version which corresponds to it.

As an aside, for this specific reason, I still have Macs running SL. I have also built an external disk, which has 10.4 through 10.10 which I have nicknamed the Rescuer. I have kept a PPC Mini (the original) still running so I can run older software, that Infinite Loop chose not to support. For example, Front Row.

I do understand your reticence about such acrobatics to get XP running.

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Answer 4

johnrdelaney Author

Level 1

10 points

May 5, 2015 5:04 PM in response to Loner T

Loner TMay 2, 2015 5:27 PM Re: Windows XP on Boot Camp installation problem
Re: Windows XP on Boot Camp installation problemin response to johnrdelaney

1. Is this the Grey disk that came with you Mac? If you insert the disk, does it show up in Disk Utility?

Yes, it is a grey disk. No, Disk Utility does not show it.

2. I agree Option 2 is the safest for testing. If you do not play games and do a lot of GPU intensive work, VB may be ideal for you.

I will look into it.

3. My 2c on your last question. There is always a method, sometimes painful.

a. Replace the internal drive with a new one for SL 10.6.8.

b. BC is built-in to the OS X layer, not a separate piece of software that requires installation. This is part of the reason, OS X needs to be downgraded to a

lower version, to allow access to BC version which corresponds to it.

Arrrgghh! The last thing I want to do is go back to 10.6.8.

In any case, how do I install OS 10.6.8 on a new portion or disk when my installation disk cannot be mounted?

As an aside, for this specific reason, I still have Macs running SL. I have also built an external disk, which has 10.4 through 10.10 which I have nicknamed the Rescuer. I have kept a PPC Mini (the original) still running so I can run older software, that Infinite Loop chose not to support. For example, Front Row.

I have an old SE/30 but I don't think it will be of much help 😉 That is my only antique. The two Macs I had in between the SE/30 and the late 2009 iMac both died.

I do understand your reticence about such acrobatics to get XP running.

Maybe I should just break down and buy a Windows 8 installation disk. Know where I can get a good price?

John

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 5, 2015 5:47 PM in response to johnrdelaney

Is your Optical drive functional? Can it read disks other than your 10.6 CD? The support Windows XP was dropped in BC 3.2 or 3.3.

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Answer 6

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

May 6, 2015 9:44 AM in response to Loner T

I did a similar retrograde Boot Camp Win install not possible with the current MacOS X version (Mavericks) on my MBP mid 2010. Halo 2 from Microsoft Games for Windows states on the box that it requires Windows Vista. I had Win 7 and despite all the posted fixes and tweaks I could not get it to function beyond where it wanted Vista.

I cloned the Mac OS X 10.9.5 partition to an external HDD and then reinstalled 10.6.3 (updated to 10.6.8) to the internal HDD Mac partition. Then I installed Vista on the Boot Camp partition replacing Win 7. The final step was to back clone 10.9.5 on the external HDD back to the internal HDD partition. Windows XP could be installed the same way.

Halo 2 works perfectly with Vista now.

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

May 6, 2015 9:59 AM in response to dalstott

dalstott wrote:

I cloned the Mac OS X 10.9.5 partition to an external HDD and then reinstalled 10.6.3 (updated to 10.6.8) to the internal HDD Mac partition.

Did you use the SL 10.6.3 Retail disk or the Grey Restore media?

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