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Mac Forum / Country Specific / UK Mac Group / May 2008Problem with Boot Camp
I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself in a loop. After the first windows installation reboot the screen read: 'Disk error, press any key to reboot'. At this point the keyboard didn't respond. After powering down/rebooting the Mini I ejected the CD using the mouse button and inserted the Leopard DVD, meaning to try some sort of repair. Now the Leopard DVD is stuck in the machine, and the Mini doesn't respond to any keyboard or mouse commands - I've tried shift, C, D, Option and X keys (not at the same time!) using a wired and wireless keyboard/mouse. The Mini just boots to a white screen, then returns the 'Disk error' message. Any ideas? I've got a data backup (no disc image), an Intel iMac and firewire cable. My (ex-windows user) reflex is to take the HD out, format, and start again, slightly the wiser... Thanks, Rob > I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I > didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself in [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > firewire cable. My (ex-windows user) reflex is to take the HD out, format, > and start again, slightly the wiser... You would have thought that there was an option to boot from the CD in the face of hard disk errors. I know on most Windows systems a hard disk with an unreadable boot block will hang the BIOS for many tens of minutes before continuing with the CD boot - a very bad design fault in the BIOS in my view, particularly since complete removal of the HD will allow the CD to boot almost immediately. You would have thought that if the BIOS is set to boot from the CD there would be no need for it to look at the HD at all. If you put the suspect HD in a PC and boot the PC from a known working system (which may take some time as noted above) you might be able to find a disk analyser program which would tell you what is wrong. Most likely the boot block has been re-written with some illegal formatting  SignatureGraham J >> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I >> didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself in [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > boot almost immediately. You would have thought that if the BIOS is set to > boot from the CD there would be no need for it to look at the HD at all. I can't see how a windows install manages to get in the way of the Mac's BIOS. I can't boot into the Mac OS or even what exists of a windows OS, or come to that a boot CD. The keyboard/mouse simply fail to kick any life into it. > If you put the suspect HD in a PC and boot the PC from a known working > system (which may take some time as noted above) you might be able to find a > disk analyser program which would tell you what is wrong. Most likely the > boot block has been re-written with some illegal formatting I'd rather just scrub the partition I think. If I was curious it might be interesting to see what's scrambled the boot section. What I don't understand is why the pre-OS boot part of the Mini is inaccessible. Rob >>> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I >>> didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > interesting to see what's scrambled the boot section. What I don't > understand is why the pre-OS boot part of the Mini is inaccessible. Somehow, the Windows install has to "see" a file on the Mac system as set of blocks at some offset from the start of the disk as a logically contiguous set of blocks in which it can build the Windows boot block and file system. Clearly this can go wrong, and the installer might write to the part of the disk on which the Mac boot ROM expects to find the Mac boot information. If this is damaged then perhaps "disk error" is all that the Mac can tell you. It still doesn't explain why it doesn't boot the CD if you hold down the correct keys to achieve this at power up. SignatureGraham J >>>> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I >>>> didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > It still doesn't explain why it doesn't boot the CD if you hold down the > correct keys to achieve this at power up. Yep, that's the problem. Can't even access the Mac BIOS. Curious. My plan for tomorrow is to hook it up in target mode and try to see what's what. Thanks for your thoughts and help. Rob >>>>> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows >>>>> xp I didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has [quoted text clipped - 56 lines] > plan for tomorrow is to hook it up in target mode and try to see what's > what. Thanks for your thoughts and help. Target mode doesn't work because... the Mini doesn't respond to the keyboard. Hmphhh. Rob > I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I > didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > keyboard/mouse. The Mini just boots to a white screen, then returns the > 'Disk error' message. Yikes. That sounds pretty nasty. Some suggestions (though I'm grasping at straws...): - Does the Caps Lock key light up? Might help work out whether the keyboards are just not being recognised or just the special commands aren't working. Hmm, the light will probably work anyway on a Bluetooth board. - Reset the PRAM? - Er, actually, that's it. It's a tricky one. Thinking about it, is the white screen completely blank except the "Disk Error" message? 'Cos you could be in whatever the equivalent to Open Firmware is these days. > Any ideas? I've got a data backup (no disc image), an Intel iMac and > firewire cable. My (ex-windows user) reflex is to take the HD out, > format, and start again, slightly the wiser... My first thought was "That's a bit drastic". But it may be your only choice. Before you format, it could be worth booting the iMac from it (I assume you'd be putting it in some enclosure or other to format it, rather than using a stonking big magnet or something). Then again, you could be risking getting your iMac into the same fix. -z- Signature"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin >> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I >> didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Yikes. That sounds pretty nasty. yep! > Some suggestions (though I'm grasping at straws...): > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > - Reset the PRAM? > - Er, actually, that's it. It's a tricky one. The light on the Mac wired board doesn't light. The F light on a logitech wireless does light. Neither work on the Mini; both work on the iMac. > Thinking about it, is the white screen completely blank except the "Disk > Error" message? 'Cos you could be in whatever the equivalent to Open > Firmware is these days. The Mini starts with a clear white screen, and then goes to a black DOS-like screen and returns the disk error message. >> Any ideas? I've got a data backup (no disc image), an Intel iMac and >> firewire cable. My (ex-windows user) reflex is to take the HD out, [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Then again, you could be risking getting your iMac into the same fix. I can't risk breaking the iMac - ignorance is something less than bliss. I've got the Mini's HD out right now. it shows up (linked to the iMac via USB) as two partitions - Bootcamp with some windows files, and Mac OS which looks intact. I'm cloning the Mac partition ATM using CCC. I then intend to format/erase the Mini HD, restore the partition, then put it all back together. Fingers crossed... Rob >>> I've got myself in a spot of bother. When trying to install windows xp I >>> didn't choose the 'format' option, and my Intel Mac Mini has got itself [quoted text clipped - 56 lines] > > Rob Merely for posterity - the cloned HD booted to OSX once, then on restart displayed exactly the same symptoms - DVD wouldn't eject, keyboard/USB wouldn't work, and disk error. Different HD, same thing. Pulled the DVD apart and inserted windows disk, tried to boot into windows, that worked, and now it seems OK. Boot Camp obviously installs something at a very low level before the HD that no amount of resetting will remove. Quite how the freshly cloned HD booted once and then refused to start again remains a mystery. Once it gets it into its, er, head that windows is on the way it won't let go until it's done. The moral, of course, is RTFM ;-) Rob |
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