Can't find Windows

A

AndreaM

Registered
My brother had an Intel MacBook Pro and had installed Windows XP. Sadly, he died recently and his wife now has the laptop. Unfortunately, neither of us can get into the Windows part of it. We can't even find any reference to it and, when booting up, it automatically opens in OS X without any mention or option to boot up Windows. Can anyone give us any advice what settings to change to always give a choice of which OS we want to boot up in?
 
My condolences on the loss of your brother. I hope that you and the family are coping well. My prayers are with you and the family.

As for the Mac, if you hold down the Option key the moment you hear the Macintosh startup chime, you'll be presented with the option to select which partition to boot into. From there, you can use the arrow keys to select the partition to boot into.

I hope this helps.
 
Thank you for your speedy reply and condolences. Tragically, my brother was the victim of a roadside bomb in Iraq in October.

We have tried what you suggested. Which one is the 'option' key? Is it the one with 'alt' to the left of the Apple key? We did manage to get a screen which had the Mac OS hard-drive picture with an arrow below it but we couldn't get any other options from it. What are we doing wrong?
 
Also if you look in the dock of OS X, you will see an icon that is white with a grey Apple. This is the dock shortcut for System Utilities. Go ahead and launch that. Once the program starts you will see the pane for "startup Disk". Also explore these System Preferences.

If this is you first times with OS X you should really get the book Mac OS X Tiger: Missing Manual. It is a very easy read that will help you with OS X. You can get this book at most book stores.

By the way, sorry for your loss.
 
AndreaM said:
Thank you for your speedy reply and condolences. Tragically, my brother was the victim of a roadside bomb in Iraq in October.

We have tried what you suggested. Which one is the 'option' key? Is it the one with 'alt' to the left of the Apple key? We did manage to get a screen which had the Mac OS hard-drive picture with an arrow below it but we couldn't get any other options from it. What are we doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Oh my....I'm so sorry. :( Again, my prayers are with you.

As for the option key, I haven't had a look at the MacBook Pro's keyboard but it should be listed as "Option" with "Alt" in smaller lettering. The second you hear the startup chime when you turn on the MacBook Pro, hold it down (doesn't matter which one if it has two). Keep it held down until you see the option to select which one to boot in. If done correctly, you'll be presented with two hard drive images, one that says Windows and another one that displays the name of the Mac hard drive which boots to OS X.

If all you're seeing is the Mac OS X hard drive, then it's possible that he was running Windows from within Mac OS X using a program called Parallels Desktop. The application should be located in the Macintosh's hard drive in the Applications folder. If so, then launch that and it should give you the option to launch the virtual session running Windows.
 
Thanks for the further reply. I can't find the icon you mention in the dock. I'm beginning to suspect that there wasn't Windows on the machine. I went into 'Disk Utilities' and it only mentions the Mac volume. I know he used to have Virtual PC on a previous machine and wonder if that is what his wife saw him using. She remembers him playing a game on Windows on this laptop. I know he was planning to install Windows but it looks like he maybe never got the chance.

Thanks anyway for your help.
 
It could be that he was using Parallels for running Windows within Mac OS X virtually. If so, you'd have a "Parallels Desktop" application somewhere in the Applications folder.
 
Thanks, nixgeek & fryke. I looked and found a Parallels Folder in Applications. He has a copy of the receipt when he purchased the software and there is a folder which contains four icons:

1. Image Tool
2. Parallels
3. winxp.hdd
4. winxp.pvs

How do we launch Windows from here? We tried clicking on the 'winxp.hdd' icon but got a message saying: 'There is no default application specified to open the document'
 
No, you'd launch "Parallels". A window should open, in which you have a "play" button. Push that. Windows should start.

(The .hdd-file is simply a "disk image" file representing the virtual harddrive on which Windows is installed. "Parallels" is the main application, which presents you with the virtual environment.)
 
Ok - when we open the 'Parallels' icon, it opens a small window entitled 'Untitled Virtual Machine'. To the right of the window there are several buttons, one of which is a green triangular play(?) button described as 'Click this button to start the virtual machine'. When I click it, the window changes to black with the following text:

Parallels(R) VGA-Compatible BIOS Version 1.05

Parallels(R) 2.2 build 1884 (C) 2005-2006 Parallels Software International Inc.
All Rights Reserved

640 KB Base Memory
262144 KB Extended Memory
No boot device available, press Enter to continue


When I click 'enter' nothing happens, except, at the bottom of the small window the text changes to 'Click inside Guest OS console to capture input' When I click inside the window, it changes back to 'Press Ctrl+Alt to release keyboard and mouse'.
 
Sounds as if the virtual machine isn't correctly configured. You'd need to choose the harddrive-file for the machine etc. by hand.
 
I believe you run Parallels, then click File -> Open -> and browse to your "winxp.pvs" file. Then click "Play". There is a "Getting Started Guide" for Parallels here, and you'll find more information in there, specifically Chapter 10 (page 47). Hope that helps!
 
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