Re-installing XP

T

tommy25

New Member
Hello

Stupid windows died on my laptop. How do you reinstall it as its a partion on my mac? Just put the disc in and boot to that drive?

Thanks
 
That all depends on what you mean by died? If you made a mess of Windows and need a good repair the "install to repair" method usually works out well. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

A full reinstall will see the current installation deleted meaning all programs will also need to be installed fresh all over again. The repair simply replaces the main system files while leaving files and folder as well as programs intact. You may have to reinstall video and/or sound drivers while the rest remains untouched.
 
Died as in, generally screwed up. Im thinking a virus as programs open and close constantly, cant uninstall anything and cant even open AVG or Zone alarm. Tried a full re-install earlier but got 'un-mountable boot volume' error so tried erasing the partion using mac's disk utility but it wont let me select the drive properly. Been such a pain in the ass :(

Any ideas
 
That may be the problem there. Instead of using the Windows installer or an MS compatible drive tool for that Mac runs on a totally different platform even it's drive tools. You could try GParted since that offers cross platform support for MS as well as Linux and others. That should the now vacant drive space and create a new NTFS type primary for you.
 
How do you mean, use gparted to delete the old xp partition? If so how as you cant install it on mac, so....

Thanks for the help
 
The idea is to use a platform independent partitioning tool that will see both MS and Mac partition types and can create a totally new one if needed. I think PC Hobbyist googled a few links seen there for seeing a dual boot of Windows on a Mac system for you there.
 
Ok im happy using boot camp to create the partion etc. But just need a program to install on mac to delete the current XP partion so i can create a fresh new one using boot camp. I will have a look at some of them links

Thanks guys
 
Besides GParted the XP installer itself can be used to delete the NTFS partition there. Then you simply use the Boot Camp tool to create the new one. It's takes far longer to boot from the XP or GParted live for cd disk then actually removing a partition.
 
So deleted the xp partion all nicely. Then went to create a new partion using boot camp and got an error saying disk must be repaired using disk utility. So i go into disk utility verify disk and get this error:

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
%)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
Invalid volume free block count
uld be %@ instead of %@)",2)
12452567
12449164
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

Then it won't let me damb repair it!

Any ideas people
 
I would think Apple/Mac would also have a disk checking tool or repair method you could use without a need to start from scratch. Unfortunately I've never worked with that platform. You wouldn't use Boot Camp for seeing XP go back on however since that's for Apple/Mac there. Are you planning to still XP alone or a dual boot?
 
Dual boot again with XP, will have a look on one of the mac forums. Dont have a OSX disk though so may be a problam.

Anyway thanks people, half way there now
 
Once you have a good Apple type partitioning tool you can simply leave enough unallocated drive space for a clean install of XP using something like GParted for creating the MS type primary. How that will work when dual booting will depend on which OS has to go on first and whether you should look at a 3rd party multi platform boot loader like Uniboot. That installs into the mbr.
 
Oh thats the problem that you have to reinstall everything again very carefully..i don't know why do you have the installation through mac you can also do this simply then why you wanna go through the complex process..if after the re installation simply..any problem occurs then go for mac..at least try once.
 
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