Need help with Boot Camp Partition, Vista NOT installed yet, partition gone...

[rpm911]

Hi,

I have a 13" MBP with a 250 gb hd, I partitioned the HD 25gb for Windows XP shortly after I bought it. I was unable to install my copy of windows, contacted apple after exhaustive search as to why... Long story short, I now have Vista to install...

When I went back to Boot Camp Assistant; partition was gone. Researched... ran disk utility, repaired and erased partition. Bootcamp HD now shows up in desktop, still not in bootcamp assistant.

Since I am unable to locate in assistant; would there be any problems with just installing Vista off the install disk by restarting? Any ideas what to do if this is not a good idea (short of restoring)?

Thanks,
RB

 

[Bill Gates]

I don't know what checks the Boot Camp assistant does to determine if the partition is there or not but something is not quite right. Have you tried deleting the partition in Disk Utility, restoring the Macintosh partition to the original size, and trying the Boot Camp assistant again?

 

[rpm911]

I don't know what checks the Boot Camp assistant does to determine if the partition is there or not but something is not quite right. Have you tried deleting the partition in Disk Utility, restoring the Macintosh partition to the original size, and trying the Boot Camp assistant again?

No haven't tried that... will it cause a loss of data (assuming all goes right)?

 

[Bill Gates]

No haven't tried that... will it cause a loss of data (assuming all goes right)?

If it goes right, then no, it will not cause any loss of data. Apple has built into Disk Utility the ability to dynamically resize mounted (and unmounted) HFS+ volumes. However, in the unlikely case that it does not go right, there is a risk of data loss. The same can be said for any partitioning operation, including creating, removing, and resizing partitions whether through Disk Utility or through the Boot Camp assistant. I don't mean to worry you, but before anyone, and I mean anyone, uses the Boot Camp assistant or another tool to repartition their hard drive, they should be certain that they have a good, verified back-up of any important data.

 

[rpm911]

That did it! Thanks!