Boot Camp Issues - Cannot Use my IMAC

[chico00]

Hi there, i am new to these forums, i have recently purchaced a imac and i previously installed parralells on it which worked fine other than the fact i could not play games on it. I was told to install bootcamp to overcome this issue, however when i downloaded bootcamp and proceeded with the install at the windows stage of the process (the dos looking blue screen where you choose the partition) the partition bootcamp created for me did not show up, therefore i cancelled the windows setup but when the computer re booted it is stuck on a grey screen like when you turn it on, you cannot boot from the OS X cd's which came with the computer you cannot log in on safemode you pretty much can't do anything.

I have backed up all important things prior to doing this but how would you format the computer if its not responding to the command to boot from the CD?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[gr8tfly]

I imagine you really have an Intel iMac, not a G5.

Hold down the "X" on startup and it should boot back into OS-X. Another method is hold down the "option" on startup, and it will let you select the boot volume.

Not sure why the Windows partition wouldn't show up. Try removing the partition, using BootCamp, then re-create the partition.

[chico00]

Ha. shows how much i know bout my mac LOL

when I held down the X the screen went black with a small prompt type character thingy appeared but i could not imput anything there it basically froze.

I reset it and held down the Option button and the cursor for the mouse appeared i was able to move it for approx 30 seconds then it stopped responding

i removed the windows xp cd and inserted the mac OS cd but pressing c does nothing.

Thanks for any help in advance

[sandersp]

The exact same thing has happened to me. More specifically:

1) Set up a 30G partition using Boot Camp Assistant;
2) Restarted computer, began windows setup
3) Saw that the only option for reformatting was a ~130G C:, so quit and rebooted.
4) Got a gray screen
5) Tried resetting PRAM/NVRAM, to no avail;
6) Tried holding down x; got a black screen with a single _ in the center/middle (a bit to the left side)
7) Tried restarting again and holding down option; got a gray screen and a moveable cursor for about 30 seconds, then it froze.

At the moment, I'm not even sure how to boot from the OS X CD! I'm typing this from my old windows box.

By the way, I have a 20" iMac. In case it matters, my firmware situation was:
Boot ROM: IM51.0090.B08
SMC: 1.9f4

which seemed to be at or above the required.

[gr8tfly]

Try the "option" method to startup off the OS-X CD. Then run Disk Utility from there and verify/repair the Mac OS-X volume. To do that, wait until after the Install dialog comes up (after language selection, I believe), then you should have a menu option to launch Disk Utility.

[gustavl]

Originally Posted by gr8tfly

Try the "option" method to startup off the OS-X CD. Then run Disk Utility from there and verify/repair the Mac OS-X volume. To do that, wait until after the Install dialog comes up (after language selection, I believe), then you should have a menu option to launch Disk Utility.

had the exact same problem with my brand new Macbook Pro!

Seems quite a lot of people has this problem, and not a single word from Apple? Nice one.

Other threads with same problem:
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternat...-camp-windows/

http://www.macfixitforums.com/showfl......=31&fpart=1

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.p...0&gopid=415397

My Macbook is completely dead, since it it newer than ten days, I am trying to get it replaced, but this seems absolutely ridiculous. Apple has to be aware of this problem, yet not a single word from them?

I can imagine my worst nightmare coming to reality. I'm sure Apple will call me in a week and tell me I have to play for a completely new Macbook, or several parts that they choose to replace instead. Damn...

[pcsonka]

I saw the incorrect partition size in the Win XP installer, exited, and was presented with the Grey Screen of Death.

I was able to recover everything by booting off an external firewire with OS X installed. From there I used iPartition to delete the Windows partition, and I imagine, in the process, it corrected the partition map.

[kwdaye]

pcsonka wrote:

one way to recover...
I saw the incorrect partition size in the Win XP installer, exited, and was presented with the Grey Screen of Death.

I was able to recover everything by booting off an external firewire with OS X installed. From there I used iPartition to delete the Windows partition, and I imagine, in the process, it corrected the partition map.[/size]


PCSONKA,

Can this be done using and external Hdd with USB instead of firewire. I have several USB Hdds, but no firewire Hdds. I am haing the same problem with my 20" IMac. I am using my powerbook G4 to post this. Thank you in advance for any help.

Kevin

[kwdaye]

Update


I found the solution, what i did was very carefully take apart my 20" IMac to get to the Hdd, once I got to it I removed it and connected it to another mac and erased the hard drive and reformatted it. I then put it back in the IMac and it was able to boot from the cd/dvd drive so I could restore it. Good luck with it.

Kevin

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by kwdaye

Update


I found the solution, what i did was very carefully take apart my 20" IMac to get to the Hdd, once I got to it I removed it and connected it to another mac and erased the hard drive and reformatted it. I then put it back in the IMac and it was able to boot from the cd/dvd drive so I could restore it. Good luck with it.

Kevin

Wouldn't it have been easier to use Target Disk Mode instead of open up your iMac?