Help! SR Macbook Bootcamp OS selector doesn't see windows partition.

[Fatty McGeek]

Hey guys, new SR MacBook owner here. I'm new to the mac and recently got my blackbook 2.2GHz and loving every second of it. Been using it for 4-5 days and just starting to get the hang of every thing (usual switcher problems).

But there was one thing that I can't seem to figure out and no matter how much amount of searching here or on Apple's Discussion Forum could I find a solution. I decided to use Boot Camp that came with Leopard to install a FAT32 windows partition so that I may run Windows XP. The installation went perfectly, and I put in some applications on XP that I really need to use.

Here's the thing. As I understand it, we can press the option key at start up to select OS. But when I do so ... the macbook only detects the Mac OS X partition. Once in Mac OS X, I CAN see the Windows partition, read-write to it as normal. If I choose the main start up partition as Windows, it boots to Windows ok. But ... next time I start up and press the option key, again it shows only OS X.

Any one know anything about this? There was a thread at Apple's about this

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5817997#5817997

and it seems the problem has occurred with other owners of the SR Macbook as well. One option would be to reformat the windows partition in NTFS (but you'd lose all your existing data + can't read/write from OS X) or set the main start up OS as Windows (obviously not an ideal solution). Do other users here have the same problem?

Other than this, I just want to say that I LOVE this macbook! My first mac experience has been fantastic and beyond my wildest expectations. I found to my pleasant surprise that I hardly need to revert to Windows at all for anything except this one program, Adobe Illustrator, and soon I won't need even this once I can afford the Mac version. The only reason this minor inconvenience is bugging me is it's spoiling an otherwise perfect switch! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[xUKHCx]

Have you tried zapping the PRAM, hold down command + option + P + R at start up.

FYI you can convert to NTFS without losing any data.

 

[Fatty McGeek]

yes, i heard about zapping the PRAM ... is this dangerous to my com? it sounded like a pretty drastic measure (Zap!) and i got scared and didn't try it out. will i lose any data or settings by doing that? also i am not sure where the problem originates from so don't know if zapping will help. might give it a try later tonight.

i would prefer to keep the partition in FAT32 because then i can write to the partition when in OS X. but i'll give it a week or so to find another solution, and if i can't i'll try the link you sent me to convert to NTFS. thanks a bunch for that, i so didn't know that it was possible without losing data!

 

[Fatty McGeek]

i just tried zapping the PRAM. didn't solve the problem though.

 

[toast4]

ntfs is the only way i could get mine to work, tried everything with it partitioned as fat32 and worked the first time after converting to ntfs

 

[Fatty McGeek]

ntfs is the only way i could get mine to work, tried everything with it partitioned as fat32 and worked the first time after converting to ntfs

Thank you! I guess you had the same problem too? I wonder if this is an SR macbook specific issue ... hope Apple fixes it soon. I will convert to NTFS too then. I guess I can always use an external hard disk to transfer files to the Windows partition. Did you do a full reformat or using the conversion method that the previous poster mentioned?

 

[xUKHCx]

you could always use refit. But not totally sure it is compatible with the new MBs

 

[ruuti]

Same problem here, no solution

Exactly the same problem here, again with a MacBook with Windows XP SP2 installed on a FAT32 partition. Can't see the windows disk pressing option at startup. This is very common problem and Apple is doing nothing. I hope that a fix is something else than a new partitioning from Apple, because I just got everything running smoothly in my Windows. Frustrating...

 

[steelbit]

refit is the answer!

I've run into the same problem on my new black MacBook. I tried a couple of different partition sizes, etc.., but nothing would let me choose Windows XP (FAT32) on the boot menu. (NTFS works fine.)
I installed refit and it works perfect.
Just download the .dmg and follow the instructions on the website.

http://refit.sourceforge.net/

I installed this after going through the boot camp process and installing Windows XP as FAT32. I also set my Startup Disk back to Mac OS X before rebooting.

NOTE: The refit boot menu does not come up automatically like the docs say. (This is actually exactly what I wanted). You still have to hold down the Option key as the MacBook starts, then you can choose "refit" and it will show you the refit boot menu. Work great!