I made a big mistake!!!!! really need help!

[Jdm_rsx]

so i made the biggest mistake of my life....installing boot camp! without reading all the instructions!!!!

i loaded bootcamp up successfully and made the backup drivers disc!

while installing windows xp, it asked me which partition i should use...

i tried to use one of them and it wouldn't let me....so i didnt know what to do....and did what i always did in regular windows...

delete them ALL! and remake a whole new fresh partition...

little did i know...it SCREWED UP EVERYTHING! not only i couldn't load up windows xp properly but now OSX wont even load at all....

later in the evening when i got home....i put in the original OSX disc 1 and disc 2....hoping to retrieve the OSX 10.4 tiger...like putting the laptop back to original state.....however i noticed that....IT WONT EVEN LOAD up the factory disc.....

while fuss'ing around w/ the laptop some more....i put in windows xp up again....and it loads up the windows xp! but it wont load OSX!

now im stuck with a macbook that has windows xp but it wont load OSX!

what should i do now? go to apple? what can they do for me?

if this is too confusing...please let me know!

 

[furious]

it is my bedtime now. I will try to help. First turn of the MacBook. Walk away. get a drink. Walk back the Macbook. Attach the power cord to the Macbook. Plug in the power cord to a socket. Let it charge if it needs charging (not necessary but i like to do it). Select disc 1 of the recovery discs. Place disc 1 in the combo/superdrive. Turn on the MacBook. Hold the power button for a few seconds. It should load a grey screen with a window in the centre. If not consult your local Apple-person.

The rest should be self explanatory.

 

[Jdm_rsx]

heres an update of what happened so far..

i went back ahead...installed windows xp and the drivers disc that i made with boot camp!

windows xp runs perfectly now....theres sound and everything...usb...etc

only thing is...how do i load my OSX back on there?

my macbook only has windows xp now!

 

[Jdm_rsx]

it is my bedtime now. I will try to help. First turn of the MacBook. Walk away. get a drink. Walk back the Macbook. Attach the power cord to the Macbook. Plug in the power cord to a socket. Let it charge if it needs charging (not necessary but i like to do it). Select disc 1 of the recovery discs. Place disc 1 in the combo/superdrive. Turn on the MacBook. Hold the power button for a few seconds. It should load a grey screen with a window in the centre. If not consult your local Apple-person.

The rest should be self explanatory.

i did exactly what you said....and i even did the "hold C" once i started up the macbook with the osx disc 1 inside...

it wont install it! i dont know why....

whats can i do ..?

 

[bbarnhart]

How soon did you press the 'c' key after you started your MacBook and how long did you hold the 'c' key? I wouldn't think BootCamp would affect the startup keys. Try it again.

 

[Deputy-Dawg]

First and foremost don't panic. Take a deep breath and lets have at it.

1) Try booting while holding down the optiion key. This will bring you to a screen that will show what bootable drives that are available to you. If you see your Macintosh HD among them (along with one labeled Windows) select it and continue the boot process. You will now be in Mac OS X and should open your system preferences and set that disk as your prefered start up disk.

If you only see the Windows Disk then you have hosed your Mac OS partition and will have to re-install Mac OS X. So...

2) With Windows runing put in Disk #1 of the recovery set and shut down your computer.

3) Restart your computer wihile holding down the option key until you get to the screen were you can select the start up volume. Select the Install Disk #1. Your computer will boot into OS X form the disk and you will now have to install OS X. But before you do that you may have to erase and repartition your HD using Disk Utility. This will most likely hose your Windows installlation. But there is no way around this.

If must erase and reparition the disk be sure you create only one partition at this time if you intend to reinstall Windows. If you have difficulties with erasing and repartioning get back and I will try to walk you through the process.

 

[Jdm_rsx]

deputy !
you read my mind and exactly what happened last night...

i only have a windows partition...

if i erase the windows partition and attempt to reinstall osx...

it would say install failure for the OSX...and if i restart to try again...

the hard disk shows only 200mb! i dont know why? and it wont let me know install the osx...because it requires 15gb or so..

what should i do now?

do you have aim or msn we can chat on? to make this easier?

thank you everyone for your reply

right now the laptop has the windows xp pro installed with the mac drivers...so it is actually "useable for now"...

 

[Jdm_rsx]

How soon did you press the 'c' key after you started your MacBook and how long did you hold the 'c' key? I wouldn't think BootCamp would affect the startup keys. Try it again.

to be honest...what difference does it make? can you please explain?

thank you!!!!!!

 

[72930]

to be honest...what difference does it make? can you please explain?

thank you!!!!!!

Holding 'c' imediately boots from the disk...

 

[apfhex]

if i erase the windows partition and attempt to reinstall osx...

it would say install failure for the OSX...and if i restart to try again...

the hard disk shows only 200mb! i dont know why? and it wont let me know install the osx...because it requires 15gb or so..

Don't just erase the partition. You need to re-partition the drive. The OS X install disc includes Disk Utility, you can use that to setup your hard drive correctly. You want to have exactly one HFS+ (Journaled) partition.

 

[Deputy-Dawg]

jdm-
Have you suceeded in booting from Disk 1 of the set that came with the computer? If so and you cannot install OS X from that disk then I suspect that you have managed to commit all, or nearly all of your HD to the Windows partition (Windows and Mac OS X really require different partitioning schemes - a problem which Boot Camp works arround but that is for a different show). But it is a problem that you can fix fairly easily - it will mean losing the Windows install however.

1) Boot from the #1 disk from the install set that came from the computer. You will come to a screen were you select the install language, do so.

2) You will now come to the primary install screen. Ignore for the moment the install pane and instead under Utilities in the menu bar select Disk Utility.

3) Now select the drive that is in your Mac at the root level (eg the icon highest in the Disk Utilities pane.

4) Click on paritition, and set the disk to have one paritition containing all of the disks capacity. and then on options. Under options be sure that the partition type GUID is selected. Now partition the disk.

5) Quit Disk Utility.

6) Reinstall Max OS X.

If you wish PM (private message) me your phone number and I will give you a call and arrange for you to call me for further assistance.

 

[Deputy-Dawg]

Don't just erase the partition. You need to re-partition the drive. The OS X install disc includes Disk Utility, you can use that to setup your hard drive correctly. You want to have exactly one HFS+ (Journaled) partition.

In order to recover from this type of an error he will effectively have to erase the partition in as much as he seems to have assigned all but 200 mb to the windows partition. As wonderful as boot camp is there are some real gotchas in making duel boot machines and it would seem that jdm got bit by one of the worst.

 

[Jdm_rsx]

In order to recover from this type of an error he will effectively have to erase the partition in as much as he seems to have assigned all but 200 mb to the windows partition. As wonderful as boot camp is there are some real gotchas in making duel boot machines and it would seem that jdm got bit by one of the worst.

so should i now erase my windows partition? and follow your steps?

 

[Deputy-Dawg]

so this error...is there no way out?

The way out is through the process I described in my message to you. My remarks to apfhex was just a heads up to him. Once you partition your disk with a GUID partition table you will be able to re-install Mac OS X. But... if you ever intend to install Windows the original partitioning of the disk must be a single partition.

Or put another way when you have Windows installed there can only be two partitions on the disk, one for Mac OS X and one for Windows. The only way to that situation is to start with the entire disk in a single Mac OS X partition and then let boot camp do its magic.

 

[apfhex]

In order to recover from this type of an error he will effectively have to erase the partition in as much as he seems to have assigned all but 200 mb to the windows partition. As wonderful as boot camp is there are some real gotchas in making duel boot machines and it would seem that jdm got bit by one of the worst.

That's what I was saying... there's a difference between reformatting the partition and removing the partition/re-partitioning. I think the confusion is that "erasing" can mean either, depending on your interpretation.

Boot Camp is easy to use if you just follow the instructions. The only place that you can mess up is where the OP did, in selecting the wrong partition to install Windows on. Unfortunately it does create a mess if you don't do it right.

I think the 200MB partition is also something created by Boot Camp, but doesn't mount or anything. At least I recall hearing about something like that.

 

[strydr]

I think the 200MB partition is also something created by Boot Camp, but doesn't mount or anything. At least I recall hearing about something like that.

I believe it containts info about booting the NTFS volume after it (C

 

[Jdm_rsx]

so an updated for deputy!

it works im on the 2nd disk installing OSX right now!

then ill update everything for the laptop and install bootcamp again and windows xp.

thanks again everyone ...