Mac Pro Boot Camp Crash

[jchang1985]

I tried this morning to install Windows XP Pro SP2 on my Mac Pro. I clicked on "Start Installation" and my computer restarted and went to a gray screen. The gray screen stays up for an indeterminate amount of time and the computer does not start up again at all. I've had this problem once after I used migration assistant to bring my old hard drive to my new one, but that was remedied with a PRAM reset (ctrl, cmd, p, r). However, this time it will not work at all. I thought that maybe if that install disc were no longer in there it wouldn't be trying to boot from it, but I can't get the disc out. I've tried restarting the computer while holding the mouse buttons, while using ctrl cmd F O, but nothing seems to work.

What could have possibly happened? I was using an uncopied windows xp install disc and it just crashed my computer.

 

[Spacedust]

I tried this morning to install Windows XP Pro SP2 on my Mac Pro. I clicked on "Start Installation" and my computer restarted and went to a gray screen. The gray screen stays up for an indeterminate amount of time and the computer does not start up again at all. I've had this problem once after I used migration assistant to bring my old hard drive to my new one, but that was remedied with a PRAM reset (ctrl, cmd, p, r). However, this time it will not work at all. I thought that maybe if that install disc were no longer in there it wouldn't be trying to boot from it, but I can't get the disc out. I've tried restarting the computer while holding the mouse buttons, while using ctrl cmd F O, but nothing seems to work.

What could have possibly happened? I was using an uncopied windows xp install disc and it just crashed my computer.

Try starting your Mac with left ALT pressed.

 

[gugucom]

If that doesn't work you may have selected the wrong partition for the install. Itactually happens a lot that people install Windows into their OS X partition. This is the time when backup becomes very valuable.

 

[jchang1985]

Ok I'm still having a lot of trouble and I don't know what can be going wrong. I've partitioned the hard drive to the 32GB option, which made it FAT32. Then, I insert my windows install disc and hit "Start installation" then my macpro restarts and it goes to a blank gray screen and stays there for a really long time. Like I said I really don't know what could be going wrong. Do I just have a defective unit or is there actually something I can do to fix this and get Windows XP on here?

 

[Infrared]

Ok I'm still having a lot of trouble and I don't know what can be going wrong. I've partitioned the hard drive to the 32GB option, which made it FAT32. Then, I insert my windows install disc and hit "Start installation" then my macpro restarts and it goes to a blank gray screen and stays there for a really long time. Like I said I really don't know what could be going wrong. Do I just have a defective unit or is there actually something I can do to fix this and get Windows XP on here?

Have you tried the ALT thing yet?

 

[jchang1985]

Have you tried the ALT thing yet?

Yeah I start up the computer while holding ALT to get back to leopard, but that isn't the issue. The issue is that I can't get the windows installer to even begin running.

 

[Infrared]

Yeah I start up the computer while holding ALT to get back to leopard, but that isn't the issue. The issue is that I can't get the windows installer to even begin running.

Ok, I'm guessing here because I don't know the exact sequence you
went through. It sounds like a problem with either [1] the installer CD
being unreadable by your drive or [2] the CD's contents being wrongly
structured.

[1] Can you examine the contents of the CD from OS X's Finder?

[2] What kind of CD is it? Retail or OEM? Did you buy it or burn it
yourself? Etc etc.

 

[gugucom]

Try an easier installation by using an entire hard disk for Windows XP SP2 only. You have the choice to use Bootcamp or even go without the Bootcamp assistent.

If you go with Bootcamp select an empty HDD and tell Bootcamp to use the whole drive to install. Then proceed with the installation sequence. If it fails again with the same symptoms you know that it is not a faulty partitioning by Bootcamp. It may still be faulty formatting though.

Second chance is simply booting the Mac Pro with the option key (Alt) pressed and selecting the Windows install CD. If that is possible you can proceed to loading the Windows files from disk (optionally adding Intel AHCI drivers from Floppy would be a good idea here). If the Windows files don't load or the CD doesn't boot you know you have a bad CD or a bad optical drive. Get yourself a proper disk if the Leopard disk boots but XP disk doesn't. Repair the drive if both disks don't boot.

If you have successfully loaded Windows files you can format your drive (quick) with NTFS. Proceed with the installation and let Windows reboot twice during the process. In those reboots Windows MUST boot from the hard drive. Hold down the option key while it restarts and select the Windows hard drive symbol. It mustn't start from the CD again. When XP is finished installing load drivers by booting the Leopard disk. Run Windows update for a full update including SP3. If you are still on Bootcamp 2.0 drivers run Apple update to go to Bootcamp 2.1 drivers. Then you should be finished with a full install with legacy SATA driver.

If you want SATA high performance you can proceed with installing the Intel AHCI driver. Search will guide you to a thread on the installation of that driver here.