windows on mac pro via bootcamp

[twoodcc]

has anyone installed any version of windows on their mac pro on bay 3? on the whole hard drive?

everytime i try, it says it needs to write startup files to another disk, and of course it can't, so it won't install.

any help would be appreciated

 

[twoodcc]

any ideas?

should i just use bootcamp to partition a different drive?

 

[waremaster]

Have you actually tried it and had problems? I do not see what difference it should make which bay the drive is in. I myself have the drive in the first bay with OSX on it and the drive with windows on it in the second in the third bay I have a common drive that I use in both os's (macdrive installed in windows).

 

[twoodcc]

Have you actually tried it and had problems? I do not see what difference it should make which bay the drive is in. I myself have the drive in the first bay with OSX on it and the drive with windows on it in the second in the third bay I have a common drive that I use in both os's (macdrive installed in windows).

yeah, i moved it to the 4th bay, and it didn't work. i'm beginning to think it's either the drive, or my mac pro.

i guess i'll try to partition a different drive and try that one

thanks

 

[twoodcc]

ok now i'm having even more problems

i put a second partion in the drive in bay 2. it still gave the same error: need to write startup files on another disk....

so i go back into Mac os x, erase the partition off of that hard drive, and it makes me restart. after restarting, it didn't give me back my 80GBs!!! what do i do?

it says that my 279GB is now only 199GB!!

 

[waremaster]

ok now i'm having even more problems

i put a second partion in the drive in bay 2. it still gave the same error: need to write startup files on another disk....

so i go back into Mac os x, erase the partition off of that hard drive, and it makes me restart. after restarting, it didn't give me back my 80GBs!!! what do i do?

it says that my 279GB is now only 199GB!!

Is this a new drive in bay 2 that you are partitioning if so I think in Disk Utilities you can completely wipe the drive and start over. What kind of dive is it? And during the install process are you letting XP format the drive NTFS quick or full?

 

[twoodcc]

Is this a new drive in bay 2 that you are partitioning if so I think in Disk Utilities you can completely wipe the drive and start over. What kind of dive is it? And during the install process are you letting XP format the drive NTFS quick or full?

the drive isn't brand new, it's just a different drive than before. (i haven't tried putting xp on this drive before)

it's a 300GB SATA drive. i forgot the brand.

i'm not even getting to the format drive part.

i read somewhere that i have to take out my os x drive for it to work?

but first i need to get my 80 GB back!

 

[Rad]

Drive bays

I have a 300 GB total RaptorX RAID 0 using Drive bays 1 and 2. I have WD RE2 500 GB drives in bays 3 and 4, each with their own bootcamp-created Windows installations (Drive 3 has 32-bit Vista Ultimate RTM and Drive 4 has XP Pro and a Mac partition), A fifth SATA drive is in the drive bay under the DVD and has a Seagate 750 GB drive with a Mac partition for data). No problems accessing any other drives or selecting any drive to boot from as configured. Obviously, there is nothing in the Mac Pro architecture to limit where you can put Windows partitions (except when you use oe of the extra motherboard SATA connections which you reportably cannot use for Windows).

-------------------
Mac Pro Quad 3.9 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI XT1900

 

[twoodcc]

I have a 300 GB total RaptorX RAID 0 using Drive bays 1 and 2. I have WD RE2 500 GB drives in bays 3 and 4, each with their own bootcamp-created Windows installations (Drive 3 has 32-bit Vista Ultimate RTM and Drive 4 has XP Pro and a Mac partition), A fifth SATA drive is in the drive bay under the DVD and has a Seagate 750 GB drive with a Mac partition for data). No problems accessing any other drives or selecting any drive to boot from as configured. Obviously, there is nothing in the Mac Pro architecture to limit where you can put Windows partitions (except when you use oe of the extra motherboard SATA connections which you reportably cannot use for Windows).

-------------------
Mac Pro Quad 3.9 GHz, 6 GB RAM, ATI XT1900

so what am i doing wrong? if i take out all the drives except the one i'm trying to put windows on, then i can load the files for windows on it, but then it has to restart to start installing, but when it restarts, it can't get back to the drive. i get a folder with a question mark after i select the windows drive using boot loader

 

[shoe11]

so what am i doing wrong? if i take out all the drives except the one i'm trying to put windows on, then i can load the files for windows on it, but then it has to restart to start installing, but when it restarts, it can't get back to the drive. i get a folder with a question mark after i select the windows drive using boot loader

In this scenario I'd bet that the drive is still configured with the GUID partition table.

I would suggest restarting with the Apple install DVD, boot to it and once the installer appears, go to the menu and select Disk Utility. From there you can find a tab called Partition. In this tab you can have the disk utility set the boot record format and you want to have Disk Utility make it an MBR boot record. Once you've verified that the drive is configured for MBR I would verify within Disk Utility that you have the drive completely formatted MS-DOS (FAT 32). Once you have, eject the Apple install DVD, and restart the Vista install. Once the Vista installer starts, delete any partition that the Vista installer lists on that drive, let it recreate the new partition and format.

If you have no other drives in the system and the install drive you are using is Bay 1, then it's either a boot record or partition format issue. If you have both of those set to MBR and MS-DOS (FAT 32) respectively and the install still fails, then I'd say something is wrong with the hard drive you're using.

This process would allow you to only run Vista on that drive. I have mine running Vista Ultimate 64-bit on a WD Raptor in Bay 1 without boot camp.

~shoe

 

[twoodcc]

thanks. the thing is, when xp is installing, it has to restart during the process, and it can't get back to installing. i can't figure out how to get it right

 

[twoodcc]

after it restarts with the cd in there, it just goes straight back to the cd. if i use the alt, then pick the windows drive wtihout the cd in there, i get the grey folder with a question mark. and if i don't push alt, i get 'no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key'

what is going on?

 

[shoe11]

Did you first insert the Apple install DVD, run Disk Utility and verify that your boot record for the drive is set to MBR? Apologies for believing that you were installing Vista, but I understand what you're saying regarding the XP install process. Once the XP installer reboots, then the install should begin to read from the hard drive, but it's pretty clear that the drive's boot loader is still configured for OS X and that's why you get the grey folder with a question mark. You need to make the drive's boot record Windows compatible (ie. MBR) such that the XP installer can begin to read from the hard drive once it restarts.

~shoe

 

[Rad]

Bootcamp

I always prepare the drive with Bootcamp before I install any version of Windows. You can boot from a Windows install CD, but to boot from the actual partition, Bootcamp adds hidden partitions to help with the actual startup process (such as EFI-related issues). I use Disk utility only to erase the drive before Bootcamp. To split the drive into both a Windows partition and a Mac partition, use Disk Utility to make a single mac Partition before using Bootcamp. Bootcamp will then allow you to resize the split. I was unable to successfully get two Windows partitions on a single drive to work properly as a triple-boot (Mac, XP and Vista), despite instructions elsewhere on the net.

 

[twoodcc]

Did you first insert the Apple install DVD, run Disk Utility and verify that your boot record for the drive is set to MBR? Apologies for believing that you were installing Vista, but I understand what you're saying regarding the XP install process. Once the XP installer reboots, then the install should begin to read from the hard drive, but it's pretty clear that the drive's boot loader is still configured for OS X and that's why you get the grey folder with a question mark. You need to make the drive's boot record Windows compatible (ie. MBR) such that the XP installer can begin to read from the hard drive once it restarts.

~shoe

thanks. i know for sure that the drive i'm trying to put windows on is MBR. or at least i set it to MBR, and then used bootcamp to format it as well. but i don't think that's the problem anymore. why does it not read from the hard drive, or how do i make it?

I always prepare the drive with Bootcamp before I install any version of Windows. You can boot from a Windows install CD, but to boot from the actual partition, Bootcamp adds hidden partitions to help with the actual startup process (such as EFI-related issues). I use Disk utility only to erase the drive before Bootcamp. To split the drive into both a Windows partiation and a Mac paritation, use Disk Utility to make a single mac Partiation before using Bootcamp. Bootcamp will then allow you to resize the split. I was unable to successfully get two Windows partitions on a single drive to work properly as a triple-boot (Mac, XP and Vista), despite instructions elsewhere on the net.

so what can i do to fix the bootcamp partition?

 

[Rad]

Fixing Windows

Unfortunately, the Bootcamp Utility will only partition the drive. It cannot "fix" an existing installation. I have not found any Windows utility that can handle the GUID partitions correctly. Drive Genius for Mac can backup a drive containing a Windows partition, but it cannot handle individual partitions separately - only the entire drive/device. Essentially erasing and repartitioning the drive may be the only way to go!

 

[twoodcc]

Unfortunately, the Bootcamp Utility will only partition the drive. It cannot "fix" an existing installation. I have not found any Windows utility that can handle the GUID partitions correctly. Drive Genius for Mac can backup a drive containing a Windows partition, but it cannot handle individual partitions separately - only the entire drive/device. Essentially erasing and repartitioning the drive may be the only way to go!

well the drive i'm trying to install windows on is MBR, not GUID (unless bootcamp made it GUID). i'm trying to install on one whole drive, not trying to put os x and windows on the same drive.

this is what is going on:

i formatted the drive to MBR with disk utility.
then i use bootcamp to make the drive ready for windows
i startup with the xp disk.
i use the xp disk to format the disk and copy the setup files
then it has to restart
when it comes back up, if i leave the xp disk in, it will boot the xp disk
if i take the disk out, it will say 'no bootable drive, please insert one'
if i hold down option, and then choose the windows drive (the only drive), it will give me the folder with the question mark.

i hope all of this makes sense. i'm beginning to think that something might be wrong with my bootloader somewhere.

what should i do?

 

[Rad]

Xp

Everything actually should work. You may want to reformat the drive with Drive Utility as a Mac partition only, reprep it in Bootcamp for Windows. Try starting the install from within Bootcamp. Have the Windows installer to do only a Quick Format NTFS. I have installed/reinstalled Windows to several drives without any problem recognizing the drive, including formatting to either Fat32 or NTFS. Make sure your Windows XP is clean and free of scratches.

 

[twoodcc]

Everything actually should work. You may want to reformat the drive with Drive Utility as a Mac partition only, reprep it in Bootcamp for Windows. Try starting the install from within Bootcamp. Have the Windows installer to do only a Quick Format NTFS. I have installed/reinstalled Windows to several drives without any problem recognizing the drive, including formatting to either Fat32 or NTFS. Make sure your Windows XP is clean and free of scratches.

well i think i've done this several times. i think there is something wrong with the bootloader. is there anyway to reset this or something? without reinstalling OS X? like maybe deleting the bootcamp partition and then putting it back on there?

 

[MRU]

has anyone installed any version of windows on their mac pro on bay 3? on the whole hard drive?

everytime i try, it says it needs to write startup files to another disk, and of course it can't, so it won't install.

any help would be appreciated

That's exactly how my mac pro is set up.

Bay 1 & 2 have my macintosh HD's and Bay 3 has a drive completely for windows

I've not had any problems though.

 

[twoodcc]

That's exactly how my mac pro is set up.

Bay 1 & 2 have my macintosh HD's and Bay 3 has a drive completely for windows

I've not had any problems though.

when you installed windows, did you have to take out the first 2 drives?

 

[Rad]

Install

I never needed to take out my Mac Drives.

 

[twoodcc]

I never needed to take out my Mac Drives.

so again, if i startup with the xp cd, and delete the bootcamp partition, and then go back into Mac os x, and use bootcamp to put the partition back, would this reset the bootloader?

 

[Rad]

Install

I would clean up the drive with Drive Utility first by repartioning it to a single Mac Partition. Then go to Bootcamp, setup a Windows partiation, then run the XP install from the option within Bootcamp. In XP, when selecting the partition, carefully make sure you are pointing it to the correct drive and partition then do a quick NTFS format, then the rest. Do not delete any other partition during the XP install - you maybe deleting the needed 200 MB EFI partition. Good luck!

 

[twoodcc]

I would clean up the drive with Drive Utility first by repartioning it to a single Mac Partition. Then go to Bootcamp, setup a Windows partiation, then run the XP install from the option within Bootcamp. In XP, when selecting the partition, carefully make sure you are pointing it to the correct drive and partition then do a quick NTFS format, then the rest. Do not delete any other partition during the XP install - you maybe deleting the needed 200 MB EFI partition. Good luck!

but that's exactly what i did last night, and it didn't work. all of that works, except when installing XP, it restarts, and then it never continues installing. like it can't get back to it somehow. i can do the quick format when installing, and then it copies the setup files, and then when it restarts, it never gets back to continuing