Windows not appearing on option restart

[ktbills]

I just installed Windows XP on a boot camp partition on my MacBook. All seems fine except that holding down the option key on restart only gives me the option to launch Leopard, not windows. I can get the Windows partition to launch by setting it as the default start up system (from either the mac or windows partition) but not by using the option key on restart.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Should I just reformat the boot camp partition and start over? If I ignore this problem, am I asking for trouble down the road?

Thanks, Ken

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

I just installed Windows XP on a boot camp partition on my MacBook. All seems fine except that holding down the option key on restart only gives me the option to launch Leopard, not windows. I can get the Windows partition to launch by setting it as the default start up system (from either the mac or windows partition) but not by using the option key on restart.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Should I just reformat the boot camp partition and start over? If I ignore this problem, am I asking for trouble down the road?

Thanks, Ken

Is your EFI/Firmware up to date? (null statement if you have a new imac)

Pressing the correct key? In my case (windows keyboard) it's the ALT key. You need to press it immediately after the startup "chime" and I romp on it two times, then hold it until the menu appears.

 

[ktbills]

More details

Sorry for not giving enough detail in my original post. I am using a new MacBook, bought in November 2007, running Leopard. Leopard is up to date. I installed Windows XP pro in a 32 GB FAT partition using boot camp. The alt/option key is the same on my MacBook, and I seem to be accessing the right boot camp function when I hold it down on re-starting because the restart stops and I see my Macintosh HD with an arrow under it., but no Windows option (or any other option). As I said before, I can get to the Windows partition by selecting it as the default operating system and then restarting.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Neil321]

Im not 100% certain but if its a SR macbook it maybe something to do with your xp partition being FAT32 try a search

 

[ktbills]

I actually have been searching around and found in the apple support forum about 10 or so others with the same issue in Leopard, some of which had used NTSF formatting, etc. The consensus seemed to be it was an issue Apple would have to resolve eventually.

 

[Neil321]

Only trying to help my friend
try searching around on these forums there is a thread somewhere about this issue

 

[ktbills]

Your advice was good and much appreciated. So far, though, I have not found anything helpful in this forum on that particular issue. And in the other various forums on the web, as noted above, there seem to be a number of Leopard users who encountered the problem and have not yet been able to fix it.

Given the way I use my MacBook, it is not a big deal for me, since I use the Mac OS almost exclusively, so long as it does not foreshadow problems down the line. Guess I will have to wait and see.

Thanks again.

 

[ktbills]

Now I found it

Guess my searching could use some help, because now I found the threads you were mentioning when I searched on SR and FAT -- of course, I didn't know what SR was or whether I had one, but I do.

I suppose I may try to reformat in NTSF and reinstall Windows. Although I did run across one post on another forum that claimed the same problem under NTSF.

 

[Neil321]

That's ok i knew id read about it somewhere on here,oh its NTFS by the way

 

[codenameconer]

I have the same problem

I am also experiencing this problem with my XP Pro FAT32 partition. I'm on a new 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook.

One thing that did occur to me, however, is that we could leave our startup disk set to Windows and then hold down the Option key every time we want to boot into OS X. Not the best solution, of course, but a solution nonetheless. You wouldn't have to boot into Mac OS X every time you wanted to start Windows.

Maybe they'll throw us a Bootcamp bone at Macworld Expo, eh?

 

[Neil321]

yep thats a option but its nice to have the choice at boot up

 

[AVR2]

I suppose I may try to reformat in NTSF and reinstall Windows

You don't have to reformat and reinstall to convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS. There's a utility built into Windows that will do it for you while leaving your Windows data intact.

See here, or just Google "Converting FAT32 to NTFS". It's NTFS, though, not NTSF.

 

[Neil321]

You don't have to reformat and reinstall to convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS. There's a utility built into Windows that will do it for you while leaving your Windows data intact.

See here, or just Google "Converting FAT32 to NTFS". It's NTFS, though, not NTSF.

Not that i need to but cant the above be done just by right clicking on the c drive in my computer then format?(i know its a b*****K if NTFS to FAT32)

 

[ktbills]

So... before i reformat to NTFS, has anyone with the option restart problem with a FAT boot camp partition on an SR MacBook actually reformatted to NTFS and found that it fixed the problem?

And is the quick way of reformatting to NTFS from FAT just as good as reformatting to NTFS from scratch and reinstalling windows?

 

[wxgeek96]

I was having the same problem -- had chosen FAT32 so I could write to the windows partition from the OSX side. But I will give that up if I can get the option key working.

ktbills -- did you try converting to NTFS? did it work?

 

[fazox]

I was able to convert it From FAT32 to NTFS and not lose any of my data through the Command Prompt
and now I have both options at startup
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx

 

[Neil321]

I was able to convert it From FAT32 to NTFS and not lose any of my data through the Command Prompt
and now I have both options at startup
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx

Glad to hear this worked out for someone

 

[ktbills]

Wish me luck

I will be trying this weekend. I will let you know how it works out.

 

[wxgeek96]

I did manage to get this to work last night, although I was a bit concerned when the macbook kept rebooting throughout this process. Thanks for the help.

 

[riscy]

Have a look at BootPicker (see my signature) - it is a very nice startup Boot selector (and free!).

 

[ktbills]

Worked for Me

I converted my bootcamp partition from FAT32 to NTFS, and now the bootcamp partition shows up as a choice on an option restart.

I would've prefered the FAT32 format so the Mac side could write to the bootcamp partition, but that's the way it goes.

 

[Neil321]

I converted my bootcamp partition from FAT32 to NTFS, and now the bootcamp partition shows up as a choice on an option restart.

I would've prefered the FAT32 format so the Mac side could write to the bootcamp partition, but that's the way it goes.

try giving fusion a go, glad it worked out
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

If you would like to read/write files from the OSX side on an NTFS partition, consider searching google for "NTFS software OSX" - I'd Google it here - but it comes up with hebrew and I can't read it. (currently in Israel)

Or search one of my posts - I answered this a couple times in the past, but stlil can't remember the name of the program.

Anyhow - there are a couple of programs that allow you to do this.

And VMWare or Parallels are another option. (since getting Parallels - I rarly - if ever - use bootcamp)

Cheers.