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Help with Macbook Pro 13 & Bootcamp... Windows doesn't see hard drive

V

vimkgt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2009
9
0
Can anyone give me a hand with using bootcamp to install Windows? I just bought my first Apple computer, a MBP 13 today and got it home a few hours ago. First thing was upgrade memory to 4gb and swap the 160gb drive with an Intel X25m 80gb SSD. Installed Snow Leopard, system update, and ran bootcamp to make a 22gb partition for Windows XP Pro.

Bootcamp restarted my computer and booted to the XP Pro SP2 CD, it ran until I hit F8 to accept the license agreement and then it did not list any partitions or drives to install Windows on. Booted back into OS X to verify that there was a BOOTCAMP partition, and booted back to XP CD, still same problem, doesn't see any drives or partitions.

Thinking maybe it's a SATA controller driver issue with XP being too old, I tried same process using Vista Home Premium SP1, and it does the same thing. Gets all the way to where you select a partition and the drive list is empty.

Do I have to do something different to get it to recognize my hard drive? Thanks for any help. Hope this isn't a beat to death thing that I just couldn't find in search :p
 
You need to format the partition in the Windows install to NTFS that way it can install. When it asks you if you want to format the drive say yes and format, and then you will be able to continue your install with no issues.
 
You don't see any partitions at all? The partition you need to format before you install Windows is "BOOTCAMP". If you don't see that partition at that stage/screen, go back to OS X run Boot Camp assistant again and remove then recreate it again.
 
prodigee said:
You need to format the partition in the Windows install to NTFS that way it can install. When it asks you if you want to format the drive say yes and format, and then you will be able to continue your install with no issues.
Click to expand...

How can I format it during Windows install if Windows doesn't see a hard drive?

It shows this screen: http://www.maximumpcguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/vista_clean_install8.png

but just a white box. No Disk 0, no partitions, nothing.
 
iLog.Genius said:
You don't see any partitions at all? The partition you need to format before you install Windows is "BOOTCAMP". If you don't see that partition at that stage/screen, go back to OS X run Boot Camp assistant again and remove then recreate it again.
Click to expand...

Nothing at all. I booted back into OS X and in finder it shows my apple partition and the BOOTCAMP partition. I tried running bootcamp again to remove it and recreate it, but it still doesn't see anything under the Windows installer.
 
Strange. XP being old is not the reason, I'm able to install Windows XP SP2 on my Late-2008 and I don't think your hardware is any different that it won't allow it to see but I could be wrong.
 
vimkgt said:
How can I format it during Windows install if Windows doesn't see a hard drive?

It shows this screen: http://www.maximumpcguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/vista_clean_install8.png

but just a white box. No Disk 0, no partitions, nothing.
Click to expand...

That is really weird, try going into disk utility and see if there was ever a partition made, because if there wasn't then that maybe your reason as to why the install isn't seeing the disk.

EDIT: But even if that was the case, thinking about it you would still be able to see the Mac formatted disks just not be able to do anything with them..
 
Just did some more digging and it looks like there are compatibility issues with Boot Camp with Macs and the older Intel X25M Solid State Drives. Just to confirm, I stuck the original hard drive back in and it works fine.

There goes all my plans :( Guess I have to sell my trusty old Intel SSD and buy another one if I wanna run Boot Camp, or just stick to the slowpoke traditional drive.
 
Get a new SSD, once you have one of them there is no way that you can go back to a traditional drive, I used my buddys uMBP with one and now my 13" MBP feels soo slow.
 
Success! Updating the firmware on the Intel SSD on a whim and it fixed it. XP sees the BOOTCAMP partition just fine now... Don't know why I'm even bothering since Windows 7 is going on there soon but at least now I know why it wasn't working before. Thanks for trying to help out tho guys
 
vimkgt said:
Success! Updating the firmware on the Intel SSD on a whim and it fixed it. XP sees the BOOTCAMP partition just fine now... Don't know why I'm even bothering since Windows 7 is going on there soon but at least now I know why it wasn't working before. Thanks for trying to help out tho guys
Click to expand...

Good call I completely forgot about the firmware, as far as you doing the Windows XP instead of just waiting for Windows 7, well have fun doing a second clean install.:p
 
I have the same exact problem with my X25-V on my new 13" MBP 2.4GHz. Double checked the firmware and it is the most recent.
 
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