Complicated problem, please help!

[tomekkr]

Hi, I'm having a frustrating problem, and i was really hoping someone could help me.

I installed Windows 7 64-bit as a partition on my hard drive, so I could run both Windows and Mac OS X. Recently, I got a message upon startup of Windows 7 that "the program can't start because %hs is missing from your system". I searched a little around, and I found out this was due to a stupid AVG (free antivirus software) update that they released!! Of course, now it's been taken down, but many users, including myself, can't log in!

Here is where it gets worse. To fix this problem, AVG released an .iso, which could either be placed onto a CD or usb key to be then booted upon startup, and then the AVG program could be bypassed (because it was apparently the one causing problems). So, I burnt the .iso onto a CD using Toast, double checked that it was set to burn .iso and restarted into Windows 7 while repeatedly pressing the Delete key. However, I only get into the boot setting, not the BIOS settings which I need in order to change the boot order to CD being first! I searched, and I don't think there's another way of booting from a CD in Windows 7 other than changing these BIOS settings. Unfortunately, I searched even more, and apparently, you can't access BIOS settings at all on the mac!

Please help me! I hope I don't have to reinstall the whole damn Windows 7 partition from scratch because of some stupid free antivirus software update!

 

[Voondebah]

I'm assuming you need to boot directly to the disk. Restart your mac and hold the 'c' key on the keyboard and it should boot directly to the disc.

 

[tomekkr]

I'm assuming you need to boot directly to the disk. Restart your mac and hold the 'c' key on the keyboard and it should boot directly to the disc.

Unfortunately, I have to do this all under Windows 7, and there's (sadly) no way to hold a key in windows to boot from a cd.

 

[doh123]

there is no CMOS set up for a BIOS, because Macs have no BIOS, they use EFI.

If you want a boot menu so you can select all bootable devices, when powering on your Mac, as soon as it does the start up tone, press and hold down the Alt/Option key... keep holding it down until the boot menu comes up where you can select and boot up on the CD. Hold C key will go straight to the CD instead of showing you the boot menu, as the previous poster tried to say.... but this is something you do while powering on...

it chooses its boot device and boots from the CD way before Windows ever even tries to boot, so I'm not sure why your even bringing that up. Booting from a disc is booting from a disc... theres no boot to windows then boot to a disc, that doesn't even make sense... you only boot to one thing. If you need to boot into Windows, and then run a program on that disc... well thats not booting the disc.

 

[Voondebah]

there is no CMOS set up for a BIOS, because Macs have no BIOS, they use EFI.

If you want a boot menu so you can select all bootable devices, when powering on your Mac, as soon as it does the start up tone, press and hold down the Alt/Option key... keep holding it down until the boot menu comes up where you can select and boot up on the CD. Hold C key will go straight to the CD instead of showing you the boot menu, as the previous poster tried to say.... but this is something you do while powering on...

it chooses its boot device and boots from the CD way before Windows ever even tries to boot, so I'm not sure why your even bringing that up. Booting from a disc is booting from a disc... theres no boot to windows then boot to a disc, that doesn't even make sense... you only boot to one thing. If you need to boot into Windows, and then run a program on that disc... well thats not booting the disc.

Yeah, this explains the process. If it's a bootable disc, the operating system installed doesn't matter - the disc is booted from without any influence from the operating systems. Once you boot to the disc, you should be able to select the appropriate partition, the windows partition, from the disc's software.

If you wouldn't mind, try our suggestions first. If there is still an issue, then we need to get more info and sort out our miscommunications.

 

[tomekkr]

Thank you guys, I got it to work by just holding down alt/option and then choosing the CD. I would've gone ahead with the whole reinstall if I didn't read your answers!

 

[Voondebah]

Awesome! Glad we could help