Boot Camp screws over my whole iMac

[Sobering]

Hey guys. I just finished trying to install damn Windows XP on my iMac using Boot Camp. Everything was going fine, I burnt the drivers DVD, partitioned the HDD and then popped in the Windows disc and went to install. When I got to the Windows install screen, I noticed there was only one partition showing up! Confused, because I was sure I had just partitioned the drive, I exited the Windows setup and restarted the computer. Now here's where my problems really start. When I startup the computer, I get the Mac "ahhhh" on startup, and then it just sits at the white screen. I've waited 10-15 mins, just staring at the white screen. The XP disc is still in the drive, and I can't remove it. I'm really screwed. What can I do?

[Lovesong]

It seems like you were just being impatient. ;) Calm down, you probably haven't done anything to your computer.
The reason why windows only saw one partition, is that it is developmentally-disabled, and can't even recognize HFS+ partitions. It probably just saw the FAT32 partition you made with BC, and that was that.
What happens when you boot, holding the Option key? There should be an option as to which HDs you boot from. You should be able to boot back into OSX, then use BC to remove the partition, and make another one. Let me know if that doesn't work.

To clarify- you get the white screen, as there is no OS (and probably proper formatting) on the partitioned space (that you were going to use for XP)

[Sobering]

When I hold the option key on boot, I get a mouse cursor on screen that I can move around, but nothing else appears after that. No HD selection.

[Lovesong]

OK, that's never good. Do you still have your original CDs? If so insert them, and on boot, hold down C. I'm assuming that you managed to get the Windows CD out. You should be able to when you see the cursor.
When the Mac Disk boots, you should see a "Utilities" drop down menu up top. Select it, and then choose Disk Utility. From there try repairing your start up disk. That should restore the formatting of your OS disk. Now, if you can't "see" the HD, you really have an issue. Let me know.

[Sobering]

Nope I haven't managed to get the Windows CD out. What do I do after getting the cursor on boot while holding option?

[Lovesong]

So.. pushing the eject key does nothing eh? OK, restart while holding the mouse key. This is a hardware override, if it doesn't work I'd be mad....;)

[kgarchar]

instead of holding option at startup, hold down the clicker on your mouse (just a real real long click) until the cd comes out

[Sobering]

Ok the Windows disc is out! Now to try to boot off the OS X disc.

[Sobering]

Holding C while the OS X disc is in the drive on boot does nothing. :S

[Lovesong]

Wow... that can't be good. Only thing I got left is fsck'ing it:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

This is comand line stuff, and a bit advanced but that's all I can think of. Push comes to shove, you can always take it to an Apple Store and have a genius have a look (haven't really been impressed by their technical know-how), or call Apple tech support, and see what they tell you.
Here is what I'm thinking happened: you set up a partition with bootcamp, which may have been incomplete, or was corrupt. When you booted into the second partition, and started installing Windows, you never finished, and thus there is no OS on it. Somewhere in this procedure you must have ruined your partition table for the OSX volume, which is why you don't see any drives when you boot holding option. The fact that hardware comands don't work worries me...
Come to think of it, before you call Apple, try zapping the PRAM.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Just reboot and hold :apple: -option-p-r . If that does something then you can try inserting the CD and holding C again.

[SteveG4Cube]

Hold down T while booting and see if it'll go into target disk mode (you'll get the firewire logo floating on the screen). If that works, plug it into another Mac with a firewire cable and see if you can at least retrieve your data from the hard drive.

[kinchee87]

For me, if I hold down the Option key during boot, the OS menu choice will show up along with any bootable disk in the SuperDrive. From there you can eject or "inject" a bootable disk into the SuperDrive and it'll show up.

[Lovesong]

Nevermind

[MetalFace]

sounds like you have screwed your logic board seen the same thing on a 24inch imac.

did you have the most up to date firmware bootcamp messes with this and that inturn can cack up the board.

get down to ur nearest apple store they should be able to order a new logic board and fit in within a week or so but you may loose all the data on your hard drive as well :(

[Sobering]

I'd hope it's not a logic board problem. I mean, the only hardware command that works is holding down the clicker to eject discs. I'm so pissed off right now it's unbelivable.

[Lovesong]

I'd hope it's not a logic board problem. I mean, the only hardware command that works is holding down the clicker to eject discs. I'm so pissed off right now it's unbelivable.

So... reseting the PRAM did nothing?

[Sobering]

No resetting PRAM did nothing. But at least that keyboard booting command worked. Here are the commands that work for me:

hold the clicker to take discs out
hold p+r+command+option (i think, i cant remember off hand) to reset pram
option, it does nothing, but a mouse cursor pops out

If only I could get the C command to work so I could try and repair the disc.

[MetalFace]

No resetting PRAM did nothing. But at least that keyboard booting command worked. Here are the commands that work for me:

hold the clicker to take discs out
hold p+r+command+option (i think, i cant remember off hand) to reset pram
option, it does nothing, but a mouse cursor pops out

If only I could get the C command to work so I could try and repair the disc.

exsact same stuff happened well i think tis a logic board problem thats what apple replaced altho all his data was gone to :mad: so maybe it was the HD and they just wernt sure... its a real pain in the japsys but yeah like yours no comands would work apart from taking the disk out and resetinf the PRAM and yup it did have the mouse cursor.

have u tried booting from and external or using say a mac laptop and connecting the imac via firewire and seeing if it finds it. if so you should be able to use the apple disk utility

[Sobering]

I'm actually gonna try that connecting to another Mac via firewire tomorrow. Hopefully it'll work. I guess I just have to wait and see.

[MetalFace]

good luck hope your baby gets better!






(yes i do call my mac my baby :p)

[Sobering]

Woot with just my luck, I only have a firewire cable to connect my Mac to my video camera. So now I can't even connect my Mac to my friends Mac tomorrow. Great.

[MetalFace]

any luck yet or is still being a bitch!

[Sobering]

Nope still nothing. And the retards at Apple's support phone number want to be *******s and not help.

[MetalFace]

Nope still nothing. And the retards at Apple's support phone number want to be *******s and not help.

go to nearest apple store and dont mention boot camp ;)

cos its beta software they might get all well its beta software so its you fault and crap

[machopper]

We did the same thing to our iMac and are stuck with the white screen. Did you find out if this is covered under AppleCare? We paid for the extended warranty and really don't know what to do if it's not covered. I'd like to hear the end of this story.

[MetalFace]

We did the same thing to our iMac and are stuck with the white screen. Did you find out if this is covered under AppleCare? We paid for the extended warranty and really don't know what to do if it's not covered. I'd like to hear the end of this story.

mate got his fixed under warrenty altho the people at the apple store where not 100% as it is beta software but they gave him the benifit of the doubt.

question did you install it with a manufacture version of XP ie. a version that has say Dell on it.... im pretty sure thats the problem as i tried it with a MESH disk i think and only one partition poped up with like 130 gig space or sommit luckily when i quit it worked lol.

make sure you use a proper XP SP2 disk or VISTA ;) that isnt for a said computer brand....

oh and maybe dont tell apple you where installing bootcamp just say you restated your pc and the problem happened from there on in.

[machopper]

question did you install it with a manufacture version of XP ie. a version that has say Dell on it.... im pretty sure thats the problem as i tried it with a MESH disk i think and only one partition poped up with like 130 gig space or sommit luckily when i quit it worked lol.

make sure you use a proper XP SP2 disk or VISTA ;) that isnt for a said computer brand....


My son was running BootCamp and definately used the wrong version of XP, pre-SP2. I hope he learns from his mistakes and I'll take your advice not to mention BootCamp.

[Sobering]

Well my iMac is in the shop right now. Hopefully I'll have it by Saturday, and I'll tell all you folks the end of this story.

[Sobering]

ok well im back on my imac! it feels great. i only paid $85 to get it fixed from my local authorized service provider, otherwise everything else was under warranty. heres what he said the problem was on the bill:

The system powers on, but will not boot to the HD, ASD DVD, or network volume. Removed the HD from the system. Connected the HD to a service system and began scanning for potential data recovery. Found apporximately 62GB worth of data to recover. Would be about 2 hours labour for the data recovery. The HD itself appears to be alright, but the directory structure was entirely wiped out. Data recovery was not needed as per Stefan. Just a reinstallation of the OS was done and an account made with NO PASSWORD.

[JNB]

ok well im back on my imac! it feels great. i only paid $85 to get it fixed from my local authorized service provider, otherwise everything else was under warranty. heres what he said the problem was on the bill:

[Sobering breathes a huge sigh of relief]

I would offer that unless you need true hardware compatability at this point, just go with a Parallels VM. Until 10.5 is released, Boot Camp is beta only, and nightmares like you just experienced are a major risk.

Something tells me that BC won't be appearing on your machine again soon, anyway... ;)

[Sobering]

Something tells me that BC won't be appearing on your machine again soon, anyway... ;)

You are quite correct with that assumption. Haha, I guess I'll just wait until 10.5 and until Vista is 100% compatable.

[MetalFace]

did you use a windows disk provided by a company for example a windows disk from dell?

cos thats what screwed my mates over.

only showed one partition and said it was 100 sommit gigs.

i installed vista on his with the proper ultimate disk and its all fine altho he was bricking it at the time hopin it wouldnt die again.

[Spinnetti]

Hey guys. I just finished trying to install damn Windows XP on my iMac using Boot Camp. Everything was going fine, I burnt the drivers DVD, partitioned the HDD and then popped in the Windows disc and went to install. When I got to the Windows install screen, I noticed there was only one partition showing up! Confused, because I was sure I had just partitioned the drive, I exited the Windows setup and restarted the computer. Now here's where my problems really start. When I startup the computer, I get the Mac "ahhhh" on startup, and then it just sits at the white screen. I've waited 10-15 mins, just staring at the white screen. The XP disc is still in the drive, and I can't remove it. I'm really screwed. What can I do?


I did the same thing, (I'm typing from that machine too).

In my case, it is because I didn't read the instructions.
It HAS to be XP SP2, and anything but the right version hoses both sides.
From all the comments, seems I'm not the only one!

I just reinstalled the OS, and tried again with the correct windows version. If you don't see two partitions come up, its not right!

Once I slipstreamed the right XP version, it worked like a charm. Good thing I had backups!

I've been using it now since boot camp came out, including all the updates.. flawless on both sides.