Windows Installer Problems - Wants to write to another partition!

[NATO]

I'm trying (in vain) to install Windows XP on my Mac Pro but I'm hitting a brick wall so far. Basically I used Boot Camp to partition my boot drive and I put in my Windows CD and rebooted, holding down 'c' to start the Windows installer. It loads up fine, but whenever it comes to selecting where you want to install to, I select the correct partition but then I am told that 'Windows needs to install some startup files' on one of my other drives, but it can't because it doesn't contain a valid Windows partition.

Why is the installer wanting to write files to completely different disc? Basically I'm stuck. I don't want Windows writing anything anywhere but the partition I created for it using Boot Camp.

For information, my Mac Pro has 5 internal hard drives and 2 Externals. (2 internals and 2 externals are used for an OS X Raid Array, the other two internals are just general storage and the last internal is my boot drive with the Boot Camp partition created on it).

Could anyone please help me out? I'd be eternally grateful.

 

[velocityg4]

Though I don't have experience with bootcamp I do have a lot of experience installing Windows. Generally when there are multiple hard drives installed Windows wants to install its startup files in a seperate disk than the boot drive to help streamline Windows operations.

To avoid this when installing Windows on PC's I would unplug the other hard drives while installing Windows. Forcing everything onto the boot drive. Which you can do since you are using a separate disk for Windows.

Since you are using a RAID Array I do not know if booting the computer with the Array unplugged would effect the integrity of your array. Maybe someone with more knowledge of Arrays could answer that question.

It is surprising though that Windows would want to try to install startup files on disks that are not FAT32 or NTFS formatted. I did not think Windows would notice HFS+ formatted disks.

 

[Shadow]

I did not think Windows would notice HFS+ formatted disks.

Windows can notice disks that arn't formatted in FAT32 or NTFS, but it cannot use them; you get a "This disk needs to be formatted" error.

To the OP: I am not an expert, but is the RAID array software or hardware?

 

[NATO]

The RAID array is just a software array set up via Disk Utility.

I tried shutting down the computer and disconnecting all other hard drives besides the physical drive (containing my OS X boot volume and Boot Camp partition) but the system acted very very slow and didn't boot to the Windows Installer properly. I just can't figure this one out

 

[NATO]

Sorted!

I got it sorted in the end, basically pulling ALL the internal and external drives except for the drive I wanted to install Windows to (thanks VelocityG4). The CD took a bit longer to boot for some reason, but once the Windows installer got going, it all went fairly smoothly.

Bit of a pain to have to pull all the drives, but at least I know it works

 

[lairdo]

I know this post is 18 months later, but I can confirm that on the latest Mac Pros, pulling the other drives worked for me too.

Thanks for the tip. I was having the install day from hell already.