Hey guys. I just finished trying to install damn Windows XP on my iMac using Boot Camp. Everything was going fine, I burnt the drivers DVD, partitioned the HDD and then popped in the Windows disc and went to install. When I got to the Windows install screen, I noticed there was only one partition showing up! Confused, because I was sure I had just partitioned the drive, I exited the Windows setup and restarted the computer. Now here's where my problems really start. When I startup the computer, I get the Mac "ahhhh" on startup, and then it just sits at the white screen. I've waited 10-15 mins, just staring at the white screen. The XP disc is still in the drive, and I can't remove it. I'm really screwed. What can I do?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Boot Camp screws over my whole iMac
- Thread starter Sobering
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It seems like you were just being impatient. 
Calm down, you probably haven't done anything to your computer.
The reason why windows only saw one partition, is that it is developmentally-disabled, and can't even recognize HFS+ partitions. It probably just saw the FAT32 partition you made with BC, and that was that.
What happens when you boot, holding the Option key? There should be an option as to which HDs you boot from. You should be able to boot back into OSX, then use BC to remove the partition, and make another one. Let me know if that doesn't work.
To clarify- you get the white screen, as there is no OS (and probably proper formatting) on the partitioned space (that you were going to use for XP)
Calm down, you probably haven't done anything to your computer.The reason why windows only saw one partition, is that it is developmentally-disabled, and can't even recognize HFS+ partitions. It probably just saw the FAT32 partition you made with BC, and that was that.
What happens when you boot, holding the Option key? There should be an option as to which HDs you boot from. You should be able to boot back into OSX, then use BC to remove the partition, and make another one. Let me know if that doesn't work.
To clarify- you get the white screen, as there is no OS (and probably proper formatting) on the partitioned space (that you were going to use for XP)
OK, that's never good. Do you still have your original CDs? If so insert them, and on boot, hold down C. I'm assuming that you managed to get the Windows CD out. You should be able to when you see the cursor.
When the Mac Disk boots, you should see a "Utilities" drop down menu up top. Select it, and then choose Disk Utility. From there try repairing your start up disk. That should restore the formatting of your OS disk. Now, if you can't "see" the HD, you really have an issue. Let me know.
When the Mac Disk boots, you should see a "Utilities" drop down menu up top. Select it, and then choose Disk Utility. From there try repairing your start up disk. That should restore the formatting of your OS disk. Now, if you can't "see" the HD, you really have an issue. Let me know.
So.. pushing the eject key does nothing eh? OK, restart while holding the mouse key. This is a hardware override, if it doesn't work I'd be mad....
Wow... that can't be good. Only thing I got left is fsck'ing it:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
This is comand line stuff, and a bit advanced but that's all I can think of. Push comes to shove, you can always take it to an Apple Store and have a genius have a look (haven't really been impressed by their technical know-how), or call Apple tech support, and see what they tell you.
Here is what I'm thinking happened: you set up a partition with bootcamp, which may have been incomplete, or was corrupt. When you booted into the second partition, and started installing Windows, you never finished, and thus there is no OS on it. Somewhere in this procedure you must have ruined your partition table for the OSX volume, which is why you don't see any drives when you boot holding option. The fact that hardware comands don't work worries me...
Come to think of it, before you call Apple, try zapping the PRAM.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Just reboot and hold
-option-p-r . If that does something then you can try inserting the CD and holding C again.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
This is comand line stuff, and a bit advanced but that's all I can think of. Push comes to shove, you can always take it to an Apple Store and have a genius have a look (haven't really been impressed by their technical know-how), or call Apple tech support, and see what they tell you.
Here is what I'm thinking happened: you set up a partition with bootcamp, which may have been incomplete, or was corrupt. When you booted into the second partition, and started installing Windows, you never finished, and thus there is no OS on it. Somewhere in this procedure you must have ruined your partition table for the OSX volume, which is why you don't see any drives when you boot holding option. The fact that hardware comands don't work worries me...
Come to think of it, before you call Apple, try zapping the PRAM.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Just reboot and hold
-option-p-r . If that does something then you can try inserting the CD and holding C again.Hold down T while booting and see if it'll go into target disk mode (you'll get the firewire logo floating on the screen). If that works, plug it into another Mac with a firewire cable and see if you can at least retrieve your data from the hard drive.
For me, if I hold down the Option key during boot, the OS menu choice will show up along with any bootable disk in the SuperDrive. From there you can eject or "inject" a bootable disk into the SuperDrive and it'll show up.
sounds like you have screwed your logic board seen the same thing on a 24inch imac.
did you have the most up to date firmware bootcamp messes with this and that inturn can cack up the board.
get down to ur nearest apple store they should be able to order a new logic board and fit in within a week or so but you may loose all the data on your hard drive as well
did you have the most up to date firmware bootcamp messes with this and that inturn can cack up the board.
get down to ur nearest apple store they should be able to order a new logic board and fit in within a week or so but you may loose all the data on your hard drive as well
No resetting PRAM did nothing. But at least that keyboard booting command worked. Here are the commands that work for me:
hold the clicker to take discs out
hold p+r+command+option (i think, i cant remember off hand) to reset pram
option, it does nothing, but a mouse cursor pops out
If only I could get the C command to work so I could try and repair the disc.
hold the clicker to take discs out
hold p+r+command+option (i think, i cant remember off hand) to reset pram
option, it does nothing, but a mouse cursor pops out
If only I could get the C command to work so I could try and repair the disc.
exsact same stuff happened well i think tis a logic board problem thats what apple replaced altho all his data was gone to
so maybe it was the HD and they just wernt sure... its a real pain in the japsys but yeah like yours no comands would work apart from taking the disk out and resetinf the PRAM and yup it did have the mouse cursor.have u tried booting from and external or using say a mac laptop and connecting the imac via firewire and seeing if it finds it. if so you should be able to use the apple disk utility
go to nearest apple store and dont mention boot camp
cos its beta software they might get all well its beta software so its you fault and crap
Did Apple help?
We did the same thing to our iMac and are stuck with the white screen. Did you find out if this is covered under AppleCare? We paid for the extended warranty and really don't know what to do if it's not covered. I'd like to hear the end of this story.
We did the same thing to our iMac and are stuck with the white screen. Did you find out if this is covered under AppleCare? We paid for the extended warranty and really don't know what to do if it's not covered. I'd like to hear the end of this story.