Boot Camp not letting me into WinXP

[Rick Singbeil]

Hi,
I have a new 2.8 iMac with 500GB HD 4 GB memory and installed boot camp on my hard drive. I set it for a 32GB drive Fat32 partition for windows. Then I installed software and after all was well I returned to OS X 5.2 and installed parallels. Now, parallels works fine and sees my programs in my boot camp part, but when I go to start in Win XP using boot camp I turn machine off and start holding down option. The loader screen comes up with choice of OC X or Win XP. I move the box to hi-light Win XP and my mouse locks and nothing happens. I cannot do anything but turn machine off and then on again. There are no messages and I cannot get into Win XP using boot camp now. I can use parallels and get into Win XP that way. Can I remove programs that were installed with boot camp from parallels. I want to use some programs that are installed with boot camp but now have no way to access them and don't want to have to activate them on parallels as well. Can I bring over from boot camp programs to parallels?

I called tech support and they said they never heard of this problem before and instantly told me it was a Windows problem. I think its a Mac problem as boot camp is their program and it should allow access to Win XP, or what ever operating system I want to use. If it stops running after loading starts up then I would think it's a Windows problem. This doesn't start up at all.

If I can remove/delete/migrate the programs I installed with boot camp to parallels then I will be happy and don't mind the wasted space on my drive. I don't think I would need the Windows partition if I only run parallels and I was told I could remove boot camp without reinstalling Mac OS X with no problems and return the partition to OS X again.

Hope someone can help me.....

Thanks,
Rick

[CEMatt]

It is normal (at least on my MacPro) for pointer to freeze when restarting with option held and selecting a startup system...are you waiting for the XP to startup, or do you force quit before giving enough time?

If you want to start over, run the BootCamp program again and you will see an option to return the hard drive to a single OSX partition.

Hope this helps,
Matt

[MACBOY29]

i would say remove parellels since it is causing the issue. if you need phone support call me at 905-230-0804 after today.

[DeltaMac]

i would say remove parellels since it is causing the issue.

yeah - interesting guess....
If you are at the Option-Boot screen, then you are not booted to any OS, and Parallels would not be affecting anything at that point.

Rick - boot to OS X, then go into your System Preferences/Startup Disk pane. Select your Windows partition as the startup drive, then click the Restart button in that pane. Assuming your Windows install is still OK, you should boot straight to Windows.

[Rick Singbeil]

I have tried that and get the same effect as restarting iMAC and holding the option key down until it loads the boot loader. I choose the windows disk that is shown and nothing happens. If I go to Startup Disk pane and select Windows I get the same thing. It restarts and then sits there and will not load. All I get is the white screen (not blue) and I can wait for an hour and not hear or see anything happening. I then hold the off button fro a while until it shuts down and then when restarted I hold the option and when boot choice comes up I select OS X and it loads fine and runs fine. When I installed Windows I did it with boot camp and then when I installed parallels it seen Windows on the WinXP partition and said it would use it for parallels. When I load parallels I have the choice of using Windows XP or My Boot Camp for versions of PC WinXP to load. Both are different as I can set the memory allotment in one to 1GB and the other to 512k. Maybe that will help you understand my problem. And yes WinXp does work fine in parallels still but not in boot camp.

Rick

[aceadman]

I have EXACTLY this problem with VMware Fusion. Booted with bootcamp fine until I installed Fusion. Now it boots in fusion fine, but won't boot in boot camp. Freezes the moment I click the windows startup disk. Has there been any resolution to this issue?

[Rick Singbeil]

I've been trying for the longest time, with no luck. I finally just removed boot camp partition and use parallels. Seems to work fine, but I wish I could use both programs.

Seems to be the chicken and the egg problem. Windows says its a MAC problem and MAC says its a Windows problem. I wish/hope someone can find a solution to the problem. I have an idea that boot camp must lose the active partition required for Windows to boot. (Don't know for sure), but if I was to bet, that's what I'd bet on. I thought it would be an easy fix with all the MAC people, but either they don't use the board or they can't fix problems.

Rick

p.s. If you find a fix please let me know.. Sounds exactly the same problem with 2 different programs.

[MACBOY29]

i have contacted my sources at apple canada you can not use fusion or parells with windows simoyaniously you need to pick either boot camp and run windows natively or use fusion or parelles period what i would do is remove the boot camp partion by going to /applications/utilities/boootcamp assistant and restore the mac only partion warning doing so will remove windows and all installed programs and personal files once that is done move fusion and parelles to the trash and empty the trash make sure you delete anything from your home directory a.ka whatever your short name would appear in the finder window reinstall fusion or boot camp partion one only please and reinstall all the windows apps just fine and make it useable period you can not use boot camp partion in fusion or parelles which will muck up the boot camp app so only use one or the other period windows is tempermental that way it is not a mac issue at all. Let me know what happens again only use one or the other if all else fails back up your mac info except parelles or fusion and reinstall mac os from the cd that came with your mac make sure to do a fresh install do not do an archive and install otherwise it will not provide you with a clean slate to do things with o.k.