Ejecting 1st of 2 CDs during Windows XP Install

S

SonHasAMac

Registered
Hello,

My son and I are having trouble with Boot Camp Assistant on his Mac Pro. We are trying to install Windows XP Media Center Edition (which calls itself Windows XP Professional during its Installer execution, and) which comes with 2 CDs.

Everything goes fine with Boot Camp Assistant, but when the Windows Installer asks us to "Remove Disc 1 and put in Disc 2", well, there is no physical CD Eject button on the optical drive (at least no accessible one we know of) and Windows does not listen to the Mac Pro's keyboard for the push of its Eject button there, so we are left stuck, unable to complete Windows Installer for lack of a working eject method.

Yes we found the paper clip hole in the optical drive; this does release Windows Disc 1 and we can put in Disc 2, but the problem with that is Windows Installer doesn't recognize that the disc have been changed. It seems we need a real Eject button on the optical drive itself so we can change discs during the Winows XP install.

Interestingly, I can see the symbol for eject (triangle above a bar) on the right front of the optical drive, but if there is a button below that, it's covered by the carrier chassis for the optical drive.

Soooo.... is there some way to make the optical drive do a Windows-recognizeable CD eject during Windows Installer operation under Boot Camp Assistant?

We would be willing to remove the optical drive from its chassis if that is possible and makes accessible an eject button. Or is there some software magic we can put on a USB drive (maybe some driver for the keyboard that will make the keyboard's Eject button work, else copy the entire Windows Installl Disc 2 to a USB drive and redirect Windows Installer there when it asks for Disc 2) to help?
 
You can use either Disc Utility to eject the disc or iTunes. Disc Utility is found in the Applications folder ~> Utilities and the eject disc option in iTunes is under Control in the menu.

Alternatively you can navigate to:

System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras

In the Menu Extras folder, double click the Eject.menu and you will notice that there is an eject icon in your Menu Bar. You can use that to eject discs from your drive.
 
SonHasAMac said:
Hello,

My son and I are having trouble with Boot Camp Assistant on his Mac Pro. We are trying to install Windows XP Media Center Edition (which calls itself Windows XP Professional during its Installer execution, and) which comes with 2 CDs.

Everything goes fine with Boot Camp Assistant, but when the Windows Installer asks us to "Remove Disc 1 and put in Disc 2", well, there is no physical CD Eject button on the optical drive (at least no accessible one we know of) and Windows does not listen to the Mac Pro's keyboard for the push of its Eject button there, so we are left stuck, unable to complete Windows Installer for lack of a working eject method.

Yes we found the paper clip hole in the optical drive; this does release Windows Disc 1 and we can put in Disc 2, but the problem with that is Windows Installer doesn't recognize that the disc have been changed. It seems we need a real Eject button on the optical drive itself so we can change discs during the Winows XP install.

Interestingly, I can see the symbol for eject (triangle above a bar) on the right front of the optical drive, but if there is a button below that, it's covered by the carrier chassis for the optical drive.

Soooo.... is there some way to make the optical drive do a Windows-recognizeable CD eject during Windows Installer operation under Boot Camp Assistant?

We would be willing to remove the optical drive from its chassis if that is possible and makes accessible an eject button. Or is there some software magic we can put on a USB drive (maybe some driver for the keyboard that will make the keyboard's Eject button work, else copy the entire Windows Installl Disc 2 to a USB drive and redirect Windows Installer there when it asks for Disc 2) to help?
Click to expand...


I have this problem as well.

My XP install was a one disk install so that went fine. But any 2 disk install is where things go south.

Problem is the installer is full screen. There is no access to any utility or directory. Even manually ejecting the disk doesn't work because Windows fails to recognize the second disk at all.

I've thought about the external firewire or USB work-around too.
 
I had a slightly different problem with a stuck Windows installaed CD (single one only), as I wanted to abort the Windows XP Installation in the middle as I noticed my XP version was SP1a and not SP2 as Apple recommends to be used for partitioning - and didn't want to take a chance of messing up my new Macbook with incorrectly installed Windows !.

So here are self-learnt tips for anyone who wants to stop half-way their windows Bootcamp installation on a Macbook !


> To eject a Installation CD that seems stuck - keep the trackpad pressed while restarting and the CD pops out easily - at least in my case with Intel MacBook !

> After you abort half-way installation, next time you restart you keep getting message "No system disk found" at start up, as Mac keeps looking for Windows installation disk. To avoid this and to get back to Mac OS, click "Option" button while restarting, and choose the OS-X to switch to your Mac version. Then go back to Bootcamp assistant and remove the previous unused Partition & Windows setup.

> If you keep still getting "no disk" or error message at startup even after you removed partition. Make sure to set your "start disk" in "preferences" to Mac OS X.
 
Ok so here's the solution. Download a program call Eject (for windows)
http://www.technize.com/?dl_id=18
Place the program on a USB drive.

When you start you're install, select repair windows (or something like that). Then open a command prompt windows. Goto e: drive (or whatever the USB drive is). Leave the command prompt open.

Hit the back button on the repair screen to get the install windows option again. Install windows. When it ask for disc 2, hit Atl-Tab to switch to command prompt.
Type eject d: (or whatever is the cd drive) Insert disc 2 Alt-Tab and resume install.

Enjoy!
 
OR... You could get a bobby pin, paperclip, or similar and press the eject button. Worked great for me on a slipstreamed SP2 XPPRO disc!
 
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