Keyboard Issue

[ivnj]

I just treated my self to a new Intel Mini after my old PC died. I downloaded Bootcamp fully aware it's still beta. Gave it a try.

I click Application, Utilities, Boot Camp Assistant.

Click Start the Windows installer.

Follow steps. Stick in XP CD. The Mini reboots. Then it says inspecting hardware and blue screen shows. All drivers load.

Then it says Enter or F3 or something like that. And at that screen after all the drivers load and it tells me to hit enter to install XP or goto recovery console to fix.

At that screen it fails to eject the CD.

The eject button on the keyboard works otherwise when I reboot or while I'm in Mac. But it refuseus to eject when I need it to. At the XP install blue screen.

So I'm lost.

Thanks,
ivnj

 

[kinchee87]

Why do you need the CD to eject before Windows starts installing?

 

[ivnj]

Because it's a upgrade CD not a full install. So you eject the CD and stick in your ME cd and it verify's you can upgrade. Then you stick back in the XP CD and it installs. That's how I did it on Parallels and all my other XP non mac machines. So I have to have the eject working.

Unless boot camp can install ME or something else first then upgrade. But it's only XP from what I read.

Thanks,
ivnj

 

[kinchee87]

Right well that makes your previous post clearer. On the Apple Bootcamp page it states:

A bona fide installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (No multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions.)

You're out of luck with the upgrade CD.

 

[ivnj]

I read that but I've read people that have done that before. But aside from the eject issue.

If the disk is not SP2 or full then wouldn't boot camp just give me a warning without restarting the Mini and halt or give a error. Or just not let me install.

If I need SP2 full then why did it even boot to a install blue screen without errors.

Anyway if I did buy a SP2 full disk form somewhere retail or OEM. Genuine and not ripoff version. Then could I install it from a external firewire burner also. Or the internal drive only.

Thanks,
ivnj

 

[kinchee87]

I think there may be usb support for an external CD/DVD drive but not sure about firewire support. If you do have support for your external drive then you probably could eject the disc through hardware.

Bootcamp probably doesn't tell you that the Windows XP upgrade CD is bad because it relies on you to have the right CD when you boot off the CD. Also, having such a strict CD checker would probably prevent people from installing Vista via Bootcamp.

BTW, you don't need to use boot camp to install Windows. You could just manually partition the HDD yourself as I did. For me, I used Bootcamp just to get the drivers for Windows.

 

[ivnj]

But how can I partition form XP if Mac is already installed won't I destroy the OS X partition. Or do I partition. destroy both and thwn reinstall everything again.