Bootcamp Hell.

[thestaton]

So this afternoon I had the bright idea to install bootcamp so I could do some gaming in windows.

I made the partition according to the boot camp helper. I inserted the XP SP2 disk into my iMac, and hit restart when instructed.

When the computer starts up now I'm stuck with a black screen that says no operating system found -- press any key.

I have tried to clear my PRAM / VRAM.
I've tried to make the computer let me choose an OS by holding down option on boot.
I've tried booting to the leopard dvd by holding down c.

No matter what I try, I always get the black screen.

Please advice.

 

[r.j.s]

Were you able to do anything after the inital restart, e.g. did the XP CD boot up at all?

 

[thestaton]

Were you able to do anything after the inital restart, e.g. did the XP CD boot up at all?

nope. nothing. the mac just rebooted, I got the grey screen, bong sound, dvd spins up, then black screen.

 

[HLdan]

Just out of curiosity, is your XP SP2 disk a retail version, a restore disc from a different PC, an upgrade disc or a burned copy? It makes a difference.

 

[I Am Steve Jobs]

Just out of curiosity, is your XP SP2 disk a retail version, a restore disc from a different PC, an upgrade disc or a burned copy? It makes a difference.

Just wondering, what would be the difference between a retail copy and a burned copy?

 

[HLdan]

A burned copy (if not burned correctly) will not be recognized as a boot disk.

 

[I Am Steve Jobs]

Gotcha. Thats def a big difference then lol.

 

[I Am Steve Jobs]

Btw Hdlan, your sig. is probably the truest thing I've heard on these forums all day ha, def. made me smile.

Sam

 

[HLdan]

Btw Hdlan, your sig. is probably the truest thing I've heard on these forums all day ha, def. made me smile.

Sam

LOL, that's the second complement I got about my sig this week.

 

[thestaton]

Just out of curiosity, is your XP SP2 disk a retail version, a restore disc from a different PC, an upgrade disc or a burned copy? It makes a difference.

retail sp2. at this point though it's not even loading the leopard disk either.

 

[r.j.s]

Nothing while holding C on either disk? Try holding X as it starts ...

 

[thestaton]

I have figured out the first problem. My xp disk had some scratches although nothing serious. So I cleaned it up with some windex, and I was then allowed to install windows.

Having my firewire drive plugged in, is what is causing the black screen.

My goal now is to get booted back into osx from the bootcamp app in winblowz so I can delete this awful mess, and get a format going on.

 

[r.j.s]

Hold option or x on boot.