X25-M SSD, 2009 mac mini and XP in bootcamp

[TechViking]

I just installed the intel X25-M SSD on my 2009 mac mini. Installed OS X via the install disc which works great. Starting OS X is incredibly fast, once the apple is shown when starting the mini it takes about 10 secs for it to finish booting.

However I need to run Win XP aswell and want to run it natively with boot camp. I started the boot camp assistant and it created a 37 Gb boot camp partition on the X25-M. During the Win XP setup (SP3 disc) there is a big problem and the install will not succeed. The problem is that that the XP installation does not see the X25-M SSD at all. As far as the XP installation is concerned it seems it thinks that there is NOTHING connected to the SATA port in the mini.

Here is the best thread I found which discusses this issue: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9108103

Anyone else has or plans to use an X25-M with their mac and bootcamp? I believe this is an issue with not just the mini, but with the macbooks, macbook pros, mac pro and the imac aswell.

Who can figure out why this is not working? What would be the best way to get this fixed, Apple releases a EFI(BIOS?) update or intel updating the firmware of the X25-M?

I really need this to work.

[azdunerat]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=664551

Second post down has your answer. Sorry it isnt better news.

[bugout]

Its not going to work anytime soon.. Its already been confirmed to not work for months.

You should try to sell it or return it and get the OCZ vertex or g.skill titan.

[Oi-Oi-Oi]

Are you sure it's not a driver issue, as in XP-SP3 doesn't recognise the SATA interface?

[TechViking]

Are you sure it's not a driver issue, as in XP-SP3 doesn't recognise the SATA interface?

Yes. I tried for fun with a slipstreamed version with the sata drivers. Didnt work either.

I also tried with the Windows 7 beta. Didnt work either. Not by loading intel's driver either. :(

There is a post in the pro forum where a pro user says he installed Win 7 64-bit beta in bootcamp on his pro and it apparently works!! Dont know if this is a big issue or not, but I was under the assumption that it didnt work with *any* of the macs. Perhaps he is using a 2009 Mac pro and it has updated bios/efi etcetera which now makes this possible. Any thoughts?

[Oi-Oi-Oi]

Bugger! I would have assumed it works with any of them. I've read a number of threads where people installed an SSD into a Mini (09) and it works....

I am getting an OCZ Vertex next week hopefully ... :o

[MH01]

Damn dude, you sticking in a Ferrari engine into a escort :) X25-M is an awesome SSD. Wish I had the $$$.

Dunno if this helps

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1820385&tstart=15

[TechViking]

Damn dude, you sticking in a Ferrari engine into a escort :) X25-M is an awesome SSD. Wish I had the $$$.
[/url]

Well I dont think my Mini is a Ford Escort... with the 2.26 CPU and 4Gb RAM it is more of a... Mini Cooper! And with the X25-M ssd it will almost be a Ferrari, only smaller and very, very silent. Which is what I like the most about the mini.

[TechViking]

It seems that maybe there is a solution for this now.

Anand writes in his latest SSD article the following at http://www.anandtech.com:80/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3535&p=1 :

" A few readers wrote me and asked why the X25-M doesn’t work under Bootcamp on NVIDIA based Apple systems (e.g. the new MacBook/MacBook Pro). I didn’t have an answer at the time but I looked into it. It turns out that there is a compatibility issue with some of the 80GB X25-Ms and those platforms, but Intel does have a fix.

For starters, if you have a 160GB X25-M or X18-M, you aren’t affected by this issue; bootcamp will just work. The latest production of the 80GB X25-Ms are also not affected by this issue, but not the original drives. If you have an earlier X25-M and one of these Apple machines and are experiencing Bootcamp compatibility problems Intel wants you to contact its support staff for a fix: http://www.intel.com/support/"

I emailed intel support yesterday, no reply yet though. If anyone else have the X25-M perhaps you would like to contact intel aswell.

I wonder what the fix will be, firmware update or replacements?

[mmoran27]

I contacted intel support and they basically told me to go take a hike.

Here is their reply.

Thank you for contacting Intel® Technical Support.

I understand that you need to fund out if there is a fix from Intel® so the Intel® X25-M SATA Solid State Drive to work with the Boot Camp software.

Please note that at this moment there is no Intel® fix for this issue, and there is no estimated date for a possible fix, since this software is not supported by Intel®. You may be able to get a resolution from Apple*.

We are sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

[Maven1975]

I contacted intel support and they basically told me to go take a hike.

Here is their reply.

Thank you for contacting Intel® Technical Support.

I understand that you need to fund out if there is a fix from Intel® so the Intel® X25-M SATA Solid State Drive to work with the Boot Camp software.

Please note that at this moment there is no Intel® fix for this issue, and there is no estimated date for a possible fix, since this software is not supported by Intel®. You may be able to get a resolution from Apple*.

We are sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

This was my solution to this problem..

From experience, I concluded it was an EFI issue. I sold that drive and got the OCZ Veretex 120GB. It works fantastic, cheaper and has the same performance.

[mmoran27]

Hopefully the replacement will be the newer revision that works with boot camp.

[TechViking]

Hopefully the replacement will be the newer revision that works with boot camp.

Did they agree on RMA on basis that it did not work with bootcamp? Really?

[mmoran27]

They still will not confirm that new one will work. Its like they have never heard of this problem before.

I think their support is really lame. Most of them barely speak english and you never get to talk to engineering. Your must talk to first tier at all times (They probably don't even work for intel (indian call center most likely).

[Maven1975]

They still will not confirm that new one will work. Its like they have never heard of this problem before.

I think their support is really lame. Most of them barely speak english and you never get to talk to engineering. Your must talk to first tier at all times (They probably don't even work for intel (indian call center most likely).

I tried two different Intel X-25m's and had the same results with both. Their support is horrid.

[TechViking]

As you may have seen intel has released a firmware update for the X25-M. It is supposed to, among other things, fix the boot camp problem.

http://support.intel.com/support/ssdc/index_update.htm

Anyone able to install XP on the 2009 mini and X25-M after upgrading to the 8820 firmware?

It does not work for me. The X25-M is now detected by the XP installation, and can be chosen when asked where to install Windows. But after the part when the XP installation has finished copied files to disk and is restarting, the installation can not continue and I get the following error message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file"

The file is not missing nor corrupt however.

Tried several different versions of XP discs. I am getting the same error on them all.

[brand]

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file"

Sounds like the wrong hal is being copied to the drive. I would try manually extracting a different hal from the install disc and then copy it to the drive.

[TechViking]

Sounds like the wrong hal is being copied to the drive. I would try manually extracting a different hal from the install disc and then copy it to the drive.

Any more info on that?

I dont think that has anything to do with it though. I have used the exact same XP disc/s to install XP on the same mac mini, the only difference being it was not done on a X25-M but on two SATA standard hard drives. ( One was the stock 120 GB that came with the mini, and the other a 320GB Scorpio Black).

Why would somehow a "different hal" be copied just because it is being installed on a X25-M?

[mmoran27]

The install completed without error.

[TechViking]

I have this working now, Win XP on bootcamp. I believe the fix was deleting a hidden 200 MB partition at the start of the X25-M drive. It seems to have confused XP at various stages of the installation about which partition # XP was being installed on.

EDIT:

I discovered that removing the 200 MB EFI partition had side effects. I were no longer able to select a startup disc in the tool in OS X. Neither the OS X partition or the XP partition showed up there anymore. This led to slightly longer boot times, so I was not satisfied with this solution.

This is a step by step list on how I was able to install XP without deleting the 200 MB EFI partition. The key is letting the rEFIt software fix some GUID/MBR issue, halfway through the XP PRO SP3 installation.


1. Install OS X on the entire X25-M as one partition.
2. Use the Boot Camp assistant to create the windows partition. I made the two partitions equally sized at about 37 GB.
3. Start the XP installation. Choose the FAT32 partition created by bootcamp as the XP drive.
4. Continue with XP installation until it restarts.
5. I then get the "missing hal.dll" or "disk error" and cant continue with XP installation.
6. Boot into OS X and install something called rEFIt available from http://refit.sourceforge.net/ .
7. Reboot and hold the option key down to choose what to boot, and then select "rEFIt".
8. Run the partition analyzer in rEFIt. It will analyze the GUID and MBR tables and will find an "error" and suggest a change.
9. Answer yes when asked if you want rEFIt to do the change.
10. Reboot and restart the XP installation all over again.
11. Remove the FAT32 partition created by bootcamp and create a new NTFS partition instead.
12. Install XP on the newly created NTFS partition.
13. When the XP installation reboots, the "missing hal.dll" error is not shown anymore and the XP installation will be able to continue successfully.
14. Uninstall rEFIt.
15. Start enyoing having both XP in bootcamp and OS X installed on the X25-M. :)

[angelitos]

Sorry I don't get the last post. Do you have your
intel ssd working with bc after the firmwere update?

[TechViking]

Sorry I don't get the last post. Do you have your
intel ssd working with bc after the firmwere update?

Yes.

[angelitos]

Thank you for all,
angelitos

[TechViking]

This is how my X25-M drive is partitioned after succesfully installing both OS X and Windows XP on the 2009 Mini while keeping the 200 MB EFI partition intact.

[angelitos]

Hi, I download the firmware update from intel,
I burned it into a disk, but when I boot from
that disk it do not found my SSD Drive?

Any Idea?
Thank you,
angelitos

[Chak64]

Hi, I download the firmware update from intel,
I burned it into a disk, but when I boot from
that disk it do not found my SSD Drive?

Any Idea?
Thank you,
angelitos

Upgrade in the Mini is not possible.
you have to do the upgrade in a PC.


I have done few installation's without any problem after the upgrade
Win2003 (native)
WinXP SP2
WinXp SP3

On the Windows 2003 I was running Vmware server
Vmware had some problems with the virtual disks (2 different machines)
This problem can only happen when there are bad sectors on the disk..
Repair was possible..but I'm a bit concerned about the disk writes..this is still a problem

When using Windows XP only 2.8 Gb memory is availibile
When using Windows 2003 all the memory (4gb) is availibile.

few other problems:
When the Nvidia drivers (video) is not installed mini will consume 22 watt memory in idle mode.
When the drivers from Apple CD are installed this will drop to 12 watt.
After installation of the drivers RDP will no longer work....

You can Install the drivers form Nvidia Website they will do the same job and RDP will works in Windows 2003

[ux4all]

Hi, I download the firmware update from intel,
I burned it into a disk, but when I boot from
that disk it do not found my SSD Drive?

Any Idea?
Thank you,
angelitos

Are you doing this update on a Macbook? You will not be able to flash the SSD on an NVIDIA machine.

[Chak64]

I have installed Windows XP and Windows 2003 on the SSD

My main reasons for the Mac Mini was running Vmware Server.
Vmware machines keep crashing with the fallowing error

Operation on file "C:\Virtual Machines\HomeSeer\HomeSeer.vmdk" failed. If the file resides on a remote file system, please make sure your network connection and the server where this disk resides are functioning properly. If the file resides on removable media, reattach the media. Choose Retry to attempt the operation again. Choose Abort to terminate this session. Choose Continue to forward the error to the guest operating system.

I'm almost sure this has nothing to do with the SSD.
I have tested the SSD few weeks in a PC without any problem running VMware on it.

I think the combination of chip set and SSD is still a problem when running windows.

[QuantumLo0p]

Here is a good review of installing the new firmware and benchmarking the results. http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=691&type=expert&pid=1


I think it was the seven pages into the article...

The MAC thing

Some MacBook users have reported their X25-M failing to cooperate with Bootcamp. This is caused by a timing issue related to the SATA handshake process that does not play nicely with some of the newer MacBook hardware. Low level handshake timings are only partially controlled by the user-flashable firmware. The earlier part of the power-on process is controlled by the bootloader, which is unfortunately not end user flashable.

There is a very narrow slice of drives affected by this issue. It really boils down to how much of an early adopter you were. While all current (as of this writing) X25-M drives have shipped with the same 8610 firmware, the bootloader ROM *was* revised about a month into retail sales. The 160GB model is not affected, as it went into production with the newer ROM. This is a very rare timing issue that depends on variables other than just the bootloader. It is entirely possible you will never be affected, even if you own a MacBook and a first run X25-M. Intel is making things right and encourages those effected users to contact their support team for resolution. One of our pre-production review units showed this problem, and the 8820 firmware did not correct the issue.

Maybe not the answer the OP wanted to hear but I would contact Intel if still having issues with the drive.

[Chak64]

Thanks you for the information.

At the moment I can't access the SSD any more
also when connected to a PC.
I think that the boot sector is damaged.

[QuantumLo0p]

Thanks you for the information.

At the moment I can't access the SSD any more
also when connected to a PC.
I think that the boot sector is damaged.

Sorry to hear that. Perhaps a call to Intel customer service would help. Sounds like they have been supporting customers well.

[red42]

sorry to resurrect this old thread but im having some problems.

I have an Intel X18-M and I'm trying to install Windows 7 via Bootcamp on my mac mini.

It will not detect the SSD. I've tried to install the updater from Intel, that is not working either.

please help?