I need help installing Windows on iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010) OSX Yosemite

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I need help installing Windows on iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010) OSX Yosemite

Like many of us the superdrive is broken but it still reads CDs, Bootcamp no longer gives me the option to make a partition or install anything. I can make a partition using Disk Utility. So I thought I could install a copy of Win XP SP2 and upgrade from there. Unfortunately all my attempts ended with : "Press any key to boot from CD..." and then the message blinking forever... I own an original win XP Pro install CD I bought in 2001 and to my surprise I was able to install it on the partition. The problem is that I cannot upgrade to SP2, I cannot install bootcamp drivers or connect to the Internet to upgrade. I have been trying for hours and I think this path is a dead end. My question is why the old original CD boots and all the genuine ISO images of Win XP SP2 do not?

I would be very thankful if someone could help me find a solution.

iMac, Windows XP

Posted on Jul 18, 2015 5:34 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 18, 2015 5:37 PM in response to Kissaki

Most likely your problems is related missing AMD drivers for your iMac on the XP SP2 CD. Please see Boot Camp: iMac displays a black screen during installation of Windows 7 - Apple Support . If you can download the AMD drivers to a WinPE USB, it should be tested.

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Answer 2

Kissaki Author

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Jul 18, 2015 9:09 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you a lot for your answer.

As I said I can install Win XP Pro SP1 on the partition but I need to install the Bootcamp drivers - BCUpdateXP.exe- in order to upgrade to Win XP SP2. Unfortunately, I get the message : "the ordinal 264 is missing in the msiddl library..." Same thing when I try to upgrade directly to SP2 I get : " There is not enough space on the hard disk ...." But then when I try to install XP SP2 or 3 over Win XP the installation process starts well but on reboot I get a blue screen. I believe that the link you sent me may lead to a solution providing I can install "Apple_Win7 Upgrade Utility".

I am going to reinstall Win XP SP1 and then try to install "Apple_Win7 Upgrade Utility".

Thank you again for your input.

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Answer 3

Kissaki Author

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Jul 19, 2015 2:54 AM in response to Loner T

I am afraid this does not work... thank you anyway.

What I would really like to understand is why I can boot and install from an XP Pro SP1 CD I bought 15 years ago but I cannot boot from a formatted CD- whatever the format is ???????

Thank you for your time

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Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

182,028 points

Jul 19, 2015 5:10 AM in response to Kissaki

if you don't need to run fancy 3d games then install windows in a virtual machine it's much less hassel in terms of requiring a optical drive and driver support

virtualbox is a free virtual machine you can use

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 19, 2015 5:40 AM in response to Kissaki

But then when I try to install XP SP2 or 3 over Win XP the installation process starts well but on reboot I get a blue screen. I believe that the link you sent me may lead to a solution providing I can install "Apple_Win7 Upgrade Utility".

I am going to reinstall Win XP SP1 and then try to install "Apple_Win7 Upgrade Utility".

What is the BSOD? Can you post a screen shot?

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Answer 6

Kissaki Author

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Jul 19, 2015 6:16 PM in response to Loner T

I am afraid I did not think of taking a screen shot.

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Answer 7

Kissaki Author

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Jul 19, 2015 6:38 PM in response to Rudegar

I do need to run fancy 3d games... what would be the point of installing windows on Mac ?

And you are right, replacing the DVD drive might be an option to consider but I live in Japan and the Japanese Apple store would charge me about 1000 dollars to do that and then there is no guarantee that this even will work : Boot camp no longer gives me the option to make a partition or install anything ; just download the drivers and restore the partition providing I make one with Disk Utility .

Thanks for your advice

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