[rodiau]

Byteman had the same exact problem. He started the thread on 15June09, but never posted a solution.

Just like Byteman, the problem is that the formatting option for the Bootcamp partition - by Windows XP for the Boot Camp partition as outlined on page 9 of the Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide - is not offered at all...
The partition was set to size by Bootcamp, and it says to restart....

The normal XP setup runs and the partitions are shown and I select the Bootcamp one to install XP to.....that part is all good.

The XP install starts up, and it copies the files, to 100 per cent....it says it will restart...I don't touch anything, and it has only "Disk Error" on the black screen.

No matter how long it sits, nothing happens. The XP CD is brand new, no scratches, and we have tried the only one I have - good quality store bought XP SP2 Full OEM's so I am scratching my head....

I have removed the partition as it says in the tips step by steps in case of a problem....and it removed OK, back to one main Mac hard disk etc.

Then started all over again....same result, we don't get any option to format the Bootcamp partition...it just goes right past that and into copying files!!!! After it finishes copying files, it restarts, and I get the error.

XP should spot that the partition needs to be formatted for Windows....it's like it is already, but that can't be....it was just created in Bootcamp and I am following the directions exactly- it says the new partition must be formatted during XP setup (NTFS or FAT,, there is a choice, I only partition 32 GB, so FAT for me ) I think this would indicate an un-formatted Windows partition since it is not booting, that is what the Bootcamp tips sheets say anyway.

[Headrush]

When you get to XP installation screen where you have to choose the partition to install XP to, delete the partition that bootcamp made for Windows and then recreate a new partition manually. (Still in XP setup mode)

Also I would go with NTFS. On a Intel Mac the speed difference is negligible and I find NTFS more stable with XP anyways.

[rodiau]

That did allow me to format the partition.
I deleted the partition that boot camp made; recreated a new partition manually in XP, selected NTSF. Windows then installed.
However, there is a new error after install & automatic reboot: windows root>\system32\hal.dll is missing. I tried it 3 times, going back into bootcamp assistant to reformat the disk, then partitioning with boot camp, then deleting the partition, recreating a new partition - and so on - and once even selecting FAT32 format.

I've read elsewhere at > http://mysoftwareshop.net/1-229534-B...ce_Pack_2.html < that the problem could be that I have a "non-US" version of Windows XP, the version with #E85-02667 that is meant for distribution in the UK and associated countries. . The #E85-02665 is for the US and Canada.


Any thoughts on this?

[Yankee Rose]

Hi there:

See this Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

Hope that helps.

[rodiau]

thanks for the tip. they looked promising, but I discovered that the knowledge based articles assumed that by hitting "R" - recovery mode - that the OS would go into a mode-the recovery console-where other commands could be entered. It also assumes that the OS is installed, but is no longer working correctly. Method 1 could not be used at all-the OS is nowhere close to showing "My Computer". Methods 2 & 3 ask one to type in the "administrator's password" - never got that far during installation to have a password.
Instead, hitting "R" started the install process all over again, from setup to partition, where I would sometimes delete the "C" partition and reformat it (see 2nd post above); other times just proceed & windows would not give me the option to reformat the "C" partition. So, there never was any opportunity whatsoever to follow the instructions in those articles after hitting the "R" key since the OS never did what those articles said.
The article said the causes could be:

• The Default value in the [Boot Loader] section of the Boot.ini file is missing or invalid.
• Windows XP is not installed in the location specified in the Boot.ini file.
• The Ntoskrnl.exe file is missing or damaged.
• The partition path in the Boot.ini file is not set correctly.
• General hardware failure.

I did a hardware check - it's OK. So it's likley one of the first four. Since I have a partition issue, the partition path could be the issue.

Once windows restarted, if I quickly hit F8, I had options to start the OS in various modes such as debugging, system prompt and so on. I tried each of these, returned to the startup page where I had the two choices for the OS: both Windows XP Professional (puzzeling-why two of the same), selected a startup OS and got the missing hall.dll message every time.

[deelern]

Hi Rodiau.

Have you gotten ur problem fixed yet?
Regarding ur missing hall.dll message, what you got to do now is to boot from the Windows XP CD again. Now, delete the NTFS partition that u created earlier (under drive C. Then, quit the Windows Installer (F3).

WHen u mac restarts, hold down the Option key (or ALT key), and u will see the Macintosh hard drive. You will now be able to boot in Mac OS X.

Use ur bootcamp assistant to delete the windows partition - and then, recreate the windows partition.

The steps after that are taken from the apple support site by this guy (pdxbarett):

Boot Camp Assistant should have instructed you to insert the XP CD in the drive and then it will restart. This is what you want. After some time, you will get a blue screen with white text in the upper left hand corner that says "Windows Setup." On the bottom of the screen there will be some words telling you this and that is loading. Keep an eye on this. It will slowly list a bunch of things that it is loading. Toward the end, it will say something like "Starting Windows Setup." At this point, press and hold the F10 button. Keep holding it until you get a black screen with white text.

You are now in the Recovery Manager. You will be asked what volume you want. The only choice you should have is 1. This is your new Windows partition, it is not your Mac OS partition. YYou may safely type "1" (without quotes) and press return. Then, the prompt will look like this:

C:\WINDOWS\

At the prompt, you type "cd.." (without quotes) and press return, the prompt will now look like this:

C:\

Now, we are going to reformat your windows partition as NTFS. To do so, at the prompt type the following without quotation marks "format c: /fs:ntfs" When typed into the prompt, it will look like this (pay close attention to spacing)

C:\format c: /fs:ntfs

It will give you a warning and ask if you are sure. Type "y" and press return. It will take some time to format and you will see a percentage counter counting up from 1% to 100%. When it is done, you will be back at the C:\ prompt where you will just type "exit" and press return.

Now, Windows Setup should proceed normally.

Let me know if u need more help.