Your computer's startup program cannot gain access to the disk

[Almarcus]

My computer : iMac iMac5,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz Snow Leopard.

My problem: I partitioned my HD {Mac HD 107gb extended Journaled, BOOTCAMP 16gb MS-DOS (FAT)} When I try to install XP using Boot camp I get the above error message. I DO NOT have an external HD to back-up my drive. The only program I will use XP for is 3Ds max (if that helps). I thought i could use macdrive but I need to be using xp 1st to access the drives.

 

[Almarcus]

Also are there any solutions to this in windows 7

 

[Transporteur]

Sorry, but I really did not understand what you are trying to do.

First issue: do NOT use the FAT file system. It's extremely vulnerable and causes errors. Please reformat your drive with the NTFS file system in case that you did not install Windows yet.

Anyway, from what I understood, you want to install Windows on your Mac using bootcamp.
Did you choose the bootcamp application that is on your Mac to partition your drive?

 

[Almarcus]

yes im trying to install xp and i used boot camp to partition the drive

 

[Almarcus]

Is the only way to do this is to start with a clean disk?