Trying to install XP via bootcamp without any discs

[drewma007]

Well, I recently decided to reinstall my xp on my boot camp,
however, my superdrive in my MBP is not functioning at all,
so I browse around and find that it is possible to boot windows setup via USB

Then I partitioned my Mac drive to split a 70gb space for bootcamp

After a lot of works, i finally finished partitioning the drive and got to the stage where I need to install XP from my USB flash drive

I downloaded refit so I can boot from my usb, but the thing is,
when everytime I boot from the usb, it says
"Non-system disk-press any key to continue"

then I tried to format the usb using VMware following this instruction,
http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=922924218
When I tried 'list disk' ,my usb isnt seen as a disk, but a volume
so I tried 'select volume 2' then 'clean'
it just says 'No disk selected'
so I am stuck on that stage

Then I tried using a software called 'WinToFlash' which apparently would automatically format the usb and make it bootable
but it still has the same error

Please can anyone help and guide me on how to create a bootable USB flash drive to install Window XP, with instruction

Thank you

 

[balamw]

Why? Do you not have an optical drive?

Unfortunately, the only way that works reliably is to burn the ISO to disc and boot from that with the internal drive. Some external drives may work, but not all do.

There is a guide somewhere on how to use VMWare to do the first part of the install, then booting natively from the fresh boot camp install, but I can't find the link recently.

FWIW: The guide you followed is for Vista/7 and does not work in making a bootable XP installer, at least as far as I know.There are other guides for XP, e.g. http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4900

B

 

[drewma007]

Why? Do you not have an optical drive?

Unfortunately, the only way that works reliably is to burn the ISO to disc and boot from that with the internal drive. Some external drives may work, but not all do.

There is a guide somewhere on how to use VMWare to do the first part of the install, then booting natively from the fresh boot camp install, but I can't find the link recently.

FWIW: The guide you followed is for Vista/7 and does not work in making a bootable XP installer, at least as far as I know.There are other guides for XP, e.g. http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4900

B

Thank you,
well, my optical drive is not working anymore, it auto ejects all discs I have, including the Mac install disc

I am trying to install using parallel and install the OS onto the Bootcamp drive I splitted recently.

I have tried using the 'USB_MultiBoot.cmd' method,
not sure if it is the same as the one you posted here, but when I tried to boot the USB 'Boot Windows from Partiton 1" ,
same thing happened, black screen saying 'Non-system disk, press any keys to reboot'

thanks anyway

 

[balamw]

I have tried using the 'USB_MultiBoot.cmd' method,
not sure if it is the same as the one you posted here, but when I tried to boot the USB 'Boot Windows from Partiton 1" ,
same thing happened, black screen saying 'Non-system disk, press any keys to reboot'

Yes. Part of the problem is that XP and Vista/7 have completely different boot processes. boot.ini/BCD so you should not mix and match processes/guides.

Ideally you should be able to use VMWare/Parallels to mount the Boot Camp partition, start the install from the ISO and then reboot to the physical disk when the installer first asks you to reboot.

The hard part is setting up the VM to use your empty Boot Camp partition in the first place.

B

 

[drewma007]

Yes. Part of the problem is that XP and Vista/7 have completely different boot processes. boot.ini/BCD so you should not mix and match processes/guides.

Ideally you should be able to use VMWare/Parallels to mount the Boot Camp partition, start the install from the ISO and then reboot to the physical disk when the installer first asks you to reboot.

The hard part is setting up the VM to use your empty Boot Camp partition in the first place.

B

Well, I have just installed XP via parallel, and after I have formatted the disk and finished the bluescreen installation, it started to count down and restart.

So I stop the Parallel and restart Mac to boot as Window, but it wen to a black loading screen and then blue error screen which you usually have in windows
Like this one


e.g.

So I just restarted my Parallel again and tried to finish off with the installation via parallel

I am new to systems and stuff, please spot out anything that Im doing wrong
Thank you very much



EDIT:
Finished installing and ended parallel, then I reboot the physically drive (restart and starts as windows)
got to the bit where the Windows XP logo appears for a second then it got to a blue screeen and automatically 'power off' half a second later
*sigh*

 

[balamw]

Try holding down F8 (maybe fn-F8) during the initial part of the boot, to try the safe mode boot as it suggests. This might get you past this point.

B

 

[drewma007]

Try holding down F8 (maybe fn-F8) during the initial part of the boot, to try the safe mode boot as it suggests. This might get you past this point.

B

safe mode didn't work, it loaded as how it should load when booting from safe mode, then it crashes again (blue screen+shutted down)

now I just reinstalled again and stopped parallel when the first time it says to restart and booting it again

thanks

EDIT:
Oh, forgot to say, when it's installing, it says "Mac OS X has prevented the guest operating system from changing the boot loader on your physical hard disk." and it works on virtual drive but not the physical.

 

[sirlol]

safe mode didn't work, it loaded as how it should load when booting from safe mode, then it crashes again (blue screen+shutted down)

now I just reinstalled again and stopped parallel when the first time it says to restart and booting it again

thanks

EDIT:
Oh, forgot to say, when it's installing, it says "Mac OS X has prevented the guest operating system from changing the boot loader on your physical hard disk." and it works on virtual drive but not the physical.

The issue is, the new version of Parallels blocks boot loading changes on a hard drive. It's supposed to "help protect" you from unintended changes. (Not very helpful when you're installing a new, completely legitimate OS)
I've been trying to find a VM that can use a partition instead of an image file, but I've yet to find it.

In the mean time, I tend to try out an old version of Parallels. I remember doing it a year or two ago. I'll post results.

 

[balamw]

This thread has more info on an approach that seems to work.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/601414/

B

 

[sup3r1or]

Ive seen countless amount of people saying that their Macs SuperDrives are not working, I wonder whats up?

 

[mmulin]

Ive seen countless amount of people saying that their Macs SuperDrives are not working, I wonder whats up?

Considering that people who don't have a problem are not complaining, I would book it under acceptable failure rates. Plus, many buy the drive for use with their MBP/MBs not realising that it won't work on those computers. Anyway, I don't think it is in epic proportions as other recent faults with Apple products.

 

[PoisonBeef]

Well there are probably a number of old, and very used superdrives out there.

My MBP has not had a working super drive in over 2 years. It fell off a couch and was done since then. I have enough other computers that can burn or read that it has been a mild annoyance. Not annoying enough to pay for a new one.

 

[PoisonBeef]

So my solution was to install XP via boot camp on another mac I own. Then use winclone to copy it over to my laptop that is sans superdrive.

Worked quite well.