iMac broken after running Bootcamp

[Number6]

20" 3 year old iMac running Snow Leopard.

I thought I'd install XP under bootcamp. Ran Bootcamp assistant and partitioned the drive with a 32Gb Windows partition. Ran windows install which seemed to run fine, copied the install files and whilst it was doing that I went and did something else. When I came back I was presented with a black screen with the message "Disk Error, Press any key to restart". Pressing any key did absolutely zilch. I powered off and restarted but no matter what I do I just get the black screen with the Disk error, Press any key... message.

I get no startup options at all.

Not very familiar with Macs in general - is there anything I can try?

[dwhyte85]

Hello,

It sounds like a boot sector -> MBR issue.

Download SystemRescueCd

Run TestDisk, follow the instructions and I think (hope) you'll get this solved.

[Number6]

Well, all is OK now.

Thanks anyway for the reply.

It seems that the disk error was caused by a 'faulty' XP DVD, not by the HD. The Mac could have made that a bit clearer instead of giving me a heart attack! In fact, not necessarily a faulty DVD but a faulty installation process. It seems that Bootcamp defaults to creating the partition as FAT32... BUT.. in order to install XP the partition must be NTFS. So once the XP files copy over and the 'PC' does its first reboot it can't reboot onto the FAT32 partition. And, the Mac doesn't offer any recovery options, only a "disk error" message which is guaranteed to cause palpitations!

Anyway, I rebooted onto a Win 7 Pro DVD which then merrily installed AND offered to reformat the partition to NTFS.

So, as I said, all is now well and I have a dual boot Snow Leopard / Win 7 iMac

[dwhyte85]

I thought XP could format to NTFS :-S

Anyway, gz on fixing it

[Number6]

Yes it can, but not in Bootcamp it seems, it simply defaults to accepting the default apple setting, which is FAT 32!

However, now we have no sound! It appears to work in that if sound is played then the mixer indicates changing volume but nothing comes out of the speakers, or the headphones.

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

All BootCamp does is prepare a 'soft' partition as FAT32. It can only do this from the OSX environment. You can't create NTFS Volumes unless you're prepared to use the command line. The other way is to use a Windows Installer Disk. As you've found out.

OSX can only read NTFS Volumes. There are 3rd-Party utilities that do allow writes. You have to be careful with this in case it 'breaks' Windows.

You actually don't even need to use BootCamp. You could have reinstalled MacOSX and partitioned the internal drive as two partitions. One formatted HFS+ the other FAT32. Once OSX is installed you can insert a compatible Windows Installer, restart and hold down the 'C' key. It should boot into Windows from there.

Once Windows is installed and running you should insert the Snow Leopard Installer Disk which will should AutoRun and install all the relevant Drivers for Sound, onboard networking, keyboard, trackpad bluetooth and anything else the officially supported OS needs. Supported Windows OS are listed when you first run BootCamp

Officially Windows 7 is not currently supported. Install at your own risk.

Windows 7 Beta worked fine for me (including sound) in Leopard (10.5). Until Apple say different I've not bothered installing it on any SL Client Macs.

If you got 'stuck' at the Windows Install powering off and powering on again and holding down the 'alt' key (the one between the command key and the ctrl key) should have presented you with the option to reboot in OSX. Once there you could have ran the BootCamp Assistant again to firstly remove the Windows partition (effectively erasing it completely) and then creating it again.

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

[GrumbleDook]

Been running Windows 7 and SL since SL came out ... not had any noticeable problems.

[Number6]

Thanks again for the replies.

Antonio - When I first experienced the problem there was no way to get the machine to boot, I really thought the HD was cooked. Whatever key(s) I held down on power up did nothing, it simply ended up at the "Disk Error - Press any key to restart" message. Pressing any key did nothing and the only way to restart was to force a power off and then back on.

Anyway, the Win 7 disk sorted it.

Win 7 runs fine so far but I have no sound and this is a major pain as the main reason I put Windows on the machine was so that my daughter could play games. She can play the game OK.... but no sound. All the sound devices claim they're working OK, the mixer levels show as if the sound is being played but nothing from the speakers or headphones. I've tried letting Win 7 search for updated drivers and it claims that everything is up to date and working OK. The sound works fine on the Mac side of things, just not on Windows, no bootup sound or anything. It seems odd that all the output devices claim that they're actually outputting - it's almost as if the speakers are physically disconnected.

Any idea what I can do to address the sound issue? It does seem to be a common issue as Google reveals but everything I've tried to get around it does nothing.

[Number6]

I played with the Mac again last night, I DLd the latest Realtek W7 drivers and installed them, Windows grumbled about not being driver signed but installed them anyway. Still no sound.

I then plugged in a USB headset and lo and behold - sound! Only from the USB set though, still none from speakers or normal headset.

Bloomin' weird if you ask me.

[patty04]

I had the same problem when i installed windows 7 on my macbook.

but i now have sound after i installed the windows vista drivers for the macbook

[mac_shinobi]

I know its been sorted out already but was just curious what service pack level has been slipstreamed with the XP Disc you have ?

When installing xp on bootcamp I always slipstream at least Service Pack 2 into the XP installer disc - seems to resovle a lot of the bsod's and black screen issues afaik ( could be wrong )

[Number6]

Hi Patty and Mac, thanks for the replies.

Sorry I haven't been back for a while, a major server crash had to be resolved at one of our sites.

Anyway, it's not really sorted, I have sound via the USB headset but not via speakers or a normal headset. Maybe I'll try the Vista drivers but I thought that, if anything, putting in the W7 drivers should have sorted it.

The XP disc I used was a pukka MS disk with SP2.

Pete