Hello
A few weeks ago I bought my firt iMac, and boy was I happy with it. This afternoon however, I decided to install Windows xp on my mac because I kinda missed the lack of gaming possibilities. I started the bootcamp utility program and told it I wanted to create a second partition for Windows, I wanted my Windows-partition to be 75gb big. This was the point where I made the first mistake: I didn't backup my files, not that I could though, since I haven't got any external harddrives.
Anyways, When it was done creating the partition it asked me whether I wanted to continue with the installation of Windows and naturally, I clicked yes. My system got rebooted and I was taken to a blue screen. It asked me some questions again untill I got to the point where it asked me what partition I wanted to choose to install Windows on. At this point I started to have doubts what I should do. There was only one partition I could choose from and the size of that partition didn't match any partition I ever created, nor did it match the actual size of my harddrive. I decided to reboot once again and try it again, but with no luck. Still only one partition.
(Now please keep in mind that I am a complete idiotic newcomer when it comes to using Mac, I didn't know that I could press the option key during startup to go back to Mac OSX.)
Eventually I decided to go on with the installation as I didn't think there was any other possibility anymore, telling myself that it would all be okay in the end.
Another screen and another load of doubts, I had to choose how I wanted to format the partition. I don't know which one I picked but I was able to choose from 2 options, ''blablabla'' and ''blablabla -quick''. I went for the ''blablabla'' without it being quick and let it format for some time.
I wasn't there when it reached 100% but I think the iMac rebooted after which it took me back to the exact same blue installation screen.
*continue* *continue* *continue* Till in the end it told me something like ''We strongly advise you to choose another partition, installing Windows xp on a partition which already has another operating system installed on it could result into problems.''
''Why in god's name didn't it tell me that the first time I decided to format the wrong partition and thus (as far as I understood) deleting my harddrive...'' was my first thought. I went to my friend's place to use his computer and find out what the hell just happened and fount out about the possibility to press the option-key while starting the computer to choose an operating system. I ran home to try it out, rebooted the system, pressed option key and I got the the menu where I was supposed to be able to choose. Sadly the system didn't give me a choice and forced me to go for Windows, Mac was nowhere to be found... Leaving me with no choice I pressed Windows in the hope that I could at least install XP on my iMac, thus having at least one operating system for the moment. When I pressed ''Windows'' it took me to a black screen, and it stayed black.
I went to my friend's again to find out how to manually eject the windows-disc from the superdrive, but I have yet to succeed (I tried the creditcard trick etc).
Now as to my question, does anybody have any suggestions at all how I could solve this? And maybe even more important, did I really just lose all of my data?
If something is not clear please ask me, and I'll try to elaborate more.
Thanks in advance,
Bas
A few weeks ago I bought my firt iMac, and boy was I happy with it. This afternoon however, I decided to install Windows xp on my mac because I kinda missed the lack of gaming possibilities. I started the bootcamp utility program and told it I wanted to create a second partition for Windows, I wanted my Windows-partition to be 75gb big. This was the point where I made the first mistake: I didn't backup my files, not that I could though, since I haven't got any external harddrives.
Anyways, When it was done creating the partition it asked me whether I wanted to continue with the installation of Windows and naturally, I clicked yes. My system got rebooted and I was taken to a blue screen. It asked me some questions again untill I got to the point where it asked me what partition I wanted to choose to install Windows on. At this point I started to have doubts what I should do. There was only one partition I could choose from and the size of that partition didn't match any partition I ever created, nor did it match the actual size of my harddrive. I decided to reboot once again and try it again, but with no luck. Still only one partition.
(Now please keep in mind that I am a complete idiotic newcomer when it comes to using Mac, I didn't know that I could press the option key during startup to go back to Mac OSX.)
Eventually I decided to go on with the installation as I didn't think there was any other possibility anymore, telling myself that it would all be okay in the end.
Another screen and another load of doubts, I had to choose how I wanted to format the partition. I don't know which one I picked but I was able to choose from 2 options, ''blablabla'' and ''blablabla -quick''. I went for the ''blablabla'' without it being quick and let it format for some time.
I wasn't there when it reached 100% but I think the iMac rebooted after which it took me back to the exact same blue installation screen.
*continue* *continue* *continue* Till in the end it told me something like ''We strongly advise you to choose another partition, installing Windows xp on a partition which already has another operating system installed on it could result into problems.''
''Why in god's name didn't it tell me that the first time I decided to format the wrong partition and thus (as far as I understood) deleting my harddrive...'' was my first thought. I went to my friend's place to use his computer and find out what the hell just happened and fount out about the possibility to press the option-key while starting the computer to choose an operating system. I ran home to try it out, rebooted the system, pressed option key and I got the the menu where I was supposed to be able to choose. Sadly the system didn't give me a choice and forced me to go for Windows, Mac was nowhere to be found... Leaving me with no choice I pressed Windows in the hope that I could at least install XP on my iMac, thus having at least one operating system for the moment. When I pressed ''Windows'' it took me to a black screen, and it stayed black.
I went to my friend's again to find out how to manually eject the windows-disc from the superdrive, but I have yet to succeed (I tried the creditcard trick etc).
Now as to my question, does anybody have any suggestions at all how I could solve this? And maybe even more important, did I really just lose all of my data?
If something is not clear please ask me, and I'll try to elaborate more.
Thanks in advance,
Bas
