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Boot Camp Help - Can't boot into Mac

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xcalibur8781

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello,

This is my first post here and my first day after trying to install Windows XP on my Mac Mini using boot camp. Also, I'm fairly new to Macs in general, so please excuse me if I sound ignorant.

I am using an Intel based Mac Mini with Leopard.

Here's the problem:

I used Boot Camp Assistant to create the Windows partition and rebooted to my Windows XP CD. I saw that Boot Camp formatted the Windows partition as FAT32 (which I liked), so when I got to the screen that asks if I wanted to format it as NTFS or FAT32, I selected the option "Leave everything unchanged". While the Windows installation files were copying, I decided to browse the boot camp instructions. I quickly realized that I was NOT supposed to choose "Leave everything unchanged" as I would not be able to boot to the Windows partition.

Low and behold, once the system rebooted to begin the installation procedure, I got a disk error. I then tried to delete the partition and recreate through the Windows setup and it appeared to help a bit, but am now getting an error when I boot saying that the file system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt.

I just want to go back to Leopard and delete the partition, and start all over (following the directions this time 😉. The problem is, I can't figure out how to boot back into Leopard. I tried holding command+option at startup to select my boot device, but it isn't working. It keeps trying to boot to the Windows installation CD, then to the Windows partition. I also can't get the CD to eject. Please help!

Let me know if I missed anything important. Thanks.
 
Wow, thanks for the quick reply guys. I'll give the spacebar and option button only suggestions a try. Will report back later with results.
 
Well, I fixed it. Don't ask me how, though.

I tried both of your startup suggestions above (Option button only, spacebar) and neither worked. I even put my old hard drive back in, which I assumed would at least boot me to Leopard so I could eject the Windows disk. It still booted me to the Windows install CD.

Tried removing the system battery to hopefully reset the PRAM. No affect.

Finally, I booted to the Windows Recovery Console from the Windows CD and ran a fixboot command on the Mac partition. I can't imaging why this had any affect since I assume the startup commands are processed before the hard drive partition is even accessed. However, after rebooting, all startup commands worked (Spacebar to eject disk, Option to choose startup device).

So, I deleted the Windows partition, started over, and am now dual booting Leopard and XP Pro. 🙂 Best of both worlds..


Thank you both for your help. It definitely led me down the right path.
 
xcalibur8781 said:
Well, I fixed it. Don't ask me how, though.

I tried both of your startup suggestions above (Option button only, spacebar) and neither worked. I even put my old hard drive back in, which I assumed would at least boot me to Leopard so I could eject the Windows disk. It still booted me to the Windows install CD.

Tried removing the system battery to hopefully reset the PRAM. No affect.

Finally, I booted to the Windows Recovery Console from the Windows CD and ran a fixboot command on the Mac partition. I can't imaging why this had any affect since I assume the startup commands are processed before the hard drive partition is even accessed. However, after rebooting, all startup commands worked (Spacebar to eject disk, Option to choose startup device).

So, I deleted the Windows partition, started over, and am now dual booting Leopard and XP Pro. 🙂 Best of both worlds..


Thank you both for your help. It definitely led me down the right path.
Click to expand...

Please you i need your help here.
I am with eaclty same problem you had.


how do I run a fixboot command on the Mac partition from the windows installation cd?
when the cd is inside it asks me to press a key to boot from cd.

if a press, it shows the windows installation screen, where f6 key is installs from raid partition, f2 to run recomver from diskette(!!) and if i donp`t press anything it begin the installation process.

so the only option to reistall the windows, and it copy the files to partiation and back to the loop.

Please, mand you have to help me out!!





THe thing is : the windows partion is on the C and the mac one is on the F:

how to back the mac partition to C:?


someone help please!!!
 
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