Help! Windows is trying to eat my mac!

[RagnarokHGM]

Hi!

I decided to try installing Windows Vista 64-**** for my 3.06-24inch iMac.

I put in the disk and selected Windows 140gigs.

Then the mac rebooted and went into Windows Setup, it asked me which drive to install windows on, but none of them would let me install. The 140 gigs I selected was showing as 140 MB, and I don't know why.

So I had to abort setup.

The thing is, now I can't get the mac running anymore. I can't get it to eject the Windows CD so therefore everytime I try to reboot the machine, I get a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner!

Thus, my Mac is stuck reading the windows vista CD forever. I can't eject it, nor force it into OS X.

Could someone please assist? Thank you.

[windowpain]

Try holding down the mouse button when you reboot. it should force it to spit out the disk.

[Parsec]

You could also try holding the ALT/Option key at boot-time. This will normally give you boot-options. How did you try to install...via BootCamp or another way?

[RagnarokHGM]

Okay, holding down the mouse button didn't force Eject, but the ALT OPTION key did work and I get OS X up and running.

I installed windows via BootCamp.


Thanks for the major assist. I really appreciate it.

[windowpain]

This link (http://guides.macrumors.com/Force_Eject_a_Stuck_CD_or_DVD) might be useful in the future, now that you can boot into OSX.

[SHADO]

Now what you do is delete the 140GB partition using Boot Camp and then re-partition your HD. Then, when you boot into Vista to install it, select the volume called "BOOTCAMP" and format it to NTFS. It should work after that. Btw. how big is your HD?

[ziegs]

Hi!

I decided to try installing Windows Vista 64-**** for my 3.06-24inch iMac.

I put in the disk and selected Windows 140gigs.

Then the mac rebooted and went into Windows Setup, it asked me which drive to install windows on, but none of them would let me install. The 140 gigs I selected was showing as 140 MB, and I don't know why.

So I had to abort setup.

The thing is, now I can't get the mac running anymore. I can't get it to eject the Windows CD so therefore everytime I try to reboot the machine, I get a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner!

Thus, my Mac is stuck reading the windows vista CD forever. I can't eject it, nor force it into OS X.

Could someone please assist? Thank you.

The only thing that is different with me is that holding down the mouse worked for me and when using the option key only a windows drive shows up. If I use that drive it brings me back to the blinking cursor of death.