Have an idea... will it work?

[xanis]

I wasn't sure what forum this best belonged in so I'm trying this one first.

I got my Macbook Pro in August of last year. So far everything has been great, except for the fact that I can't seem to get XP set up so I can dual boot.

So far I've had nothing but problems trying to do this. The very first thing I tried was BootCamp. I could burn the drivers CD, but an error would come up when BootCamp attempted to partition my hard drive. I tried the built-in disk utility and DiskWarrior hoping that one of those would fix the problem, but neither did.

I also booted my XP install disc hoping that would work, but unfortunately that doesn't let me partition and/or format my hard drive either.

Now that I've tried and failed with the most straightforward and obvious methods, I'm thinking about trying something else. My plan is this: Use the built-in disk utility to divide my hard drive and it's existing single partition into two separate partitions. My concern is that this is going to backfire and I'm just going fubar my existing partition and lose all of my data. I would really like to do this right the first time because if I mess it up, it'll be a massive PITA to fix.*

So does this idea seem like it will work? Any and all suggestions are welcome.


*I got my laptop through my college at a severe discount. I did not receive the OSX install disc with my laptop. Also, the school has put what I estimate to be well over $1K worth of software on my laptop, which I also lack the discs for (they're trying some shared network key server system).

 

[Kmax82]

This is a known issue. Really the only recourse is to do one of two things:

1. Backup your whole drive, then reinstall Leopard, and partition the drive... then you can migrate your data back over.
2. Find any files over 1GB.. which can be done with a simple Smart Search in Spotlight, and move those files off your drive, then partition it.

Both ways will require you to have a second HDD. It's annoying and I hope that they fix this issue with BootCamp soon.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Had the same problem on my new Mac. Quickest way is to write zeros to your drive and reinstall leopard, then make a boot camp partion right away (dont have to install right away though).

It will fix it every time.

 

[xanis]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but there's one problem. Like I said in my little note, I don't have the OS install disc. Also, I'm running Tiger still and AFAIK I need to pay to get Leopard, which comes with BootCamp.

 

[randomlinh]

Does the beta bootcamp even still work?

 

[HomerSapien]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Does the beta bootcamp even still work?

I thought they disabled boot camp for tiger when leopard came out

 

[Tyranicus]

If you have an external drive, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive. Then boot off the external by holding down the option key when you turn on your computer. Once booted into the external, use Disk Utility to partition your internal drive. If it fails, erase the drive and partition it. If you had to erase the drive, use CCC again to transfer your files back.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Tyranicus
If you have an external drive, you can use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your drive. Then boot off the external by holding down the option key when you turn on your computer. Once booted into the external, use Disk Utility to partition your internal drive. If it fails, erase the drive and partition it. If you had to erase the drive, use CCC again to transfer your files back.

Excellent advice, thank you. I downloaded Carbon Copy so I'll be covered in case things go sour.

EDIT: Can you explain to me how exactly the restoring of the clone works? Say I just reformat the whole drive to create the two partitions. I have Windows on one, nothing on the other. How would I physically get the clone to the other partition and turn it into a working OS?

 

[TheStu]

Alright, since you are on Tiger, this is a little different.

CCC your drive to your external, make sure you select it to be bootable, once it is done, restart your mac and hold down ALT to bring up the boot menu, your external should be there, boot from the external to make sure it all went swimmingly.

Now, here is where you are going to run into problems, since the BootCamp Assistant no longer works under Tiger, you will need to use your external Tiger to format your drive, and then split it. See, Tiger doesn't allow for non-destructive dynamic partitioning. Now, once you have your drive wiped and partitioned, launch CCC from your external, and CCC the external back to your OS X partition. Do not format the second partition, if you did, not big deal, just wipe it again... maybe format it FAT32 if you can.

Now, reboot your Mac this time having it boot from the internal drive, check to make sure everything is working, and stick in your XP disc (make sure it is post SP2, if it isn't then this will not work). Now restart again, holding ALT again, and select the XP disc. In theory it should boot off of it and then launch the installation process. You will want to format that partition again (make sure you choose the right one) and then install Windows.