Windows XP won't boot on unibody MacBook Pro

[triantos]

Hi all,

I just had to switch to a new (late '08 unibody) MacBook Pro. I was able to transfer my Mac files from my 2007 MBP, but the Boot Camp partition didn't get copied by default. I tried moving it with WinClone but when I boot to Windows the machine enables the backlight, spins up the CD, but never does anything else.

I tried to completely remove and recreate the Boot Camp partition but 3 different WinXP CDs (SP2 and SP3) do exactly the same thing. My original WinXP CD is from SP1 so I've tried grabbing a few slipstreamed disc images off the net. They all behave the same.

Can anyone please offer any advice about how I can debug this? I've looked for firmware updates and the machine appears to be totally up to date.

Totally stumped. Hope someone has some ideas.

thanks!

 

[triantos]

Well, I also just tried running the Ultimate Boot CD to see if that would work, and no dice. I suspect something is wrong with this Mac (which was a refurbished one). Bummer.

 

[InkMaster]

Well, I also just tried running the Ultimate Boot CD to see if that would work, and no dice. I suspect something is wrong with this Mac (which was a refurbished one). Bummer.

So lets start from the beginning. You have a MBP, with OS X installed on it. Nothing else, no other partitions, no extra crap beyond the OS X installation

If you run though the Boot Camp Assistant process, does that create a new partition properly?

If it does, when you boot up and hold the alt key to pick the boot source, does the Windows disk show up properly there?

And if you pick to boot from it, does it spin up and ask to press enter to start the setup?