Hatrack River Forum: I know it's not a tech forum but...

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Posted by Nick (Member # 4311) on :

I'm only asking here because I know we have a few Apple tech guru's here.

So let's just say I love my iMac... so far. But I want to install Half-Life 2 on a separate Windows XP partition. I used Apple's "Boot Camp Assistant" software to partition 32 separate gigabytes of space. When I went to install Windows XP, only one partition showed up, so I couldn't install is there since that was where OSX is. I'm totally lost. I'm using an XP home disc from 2002. What am I doing wrong?

Any help is much appreciated. [Smile]

Posted by Launchywiggin (Member # 9116) on :

I got bootcamp to work and loaded the new Command and Conquer game just to make sure I could do it (that the commercials weren't lying). It did work, but I had enough trouble dealing with XP on the mac that I gave it up (and I didn't care about gaming at all)

It's been 8 months since I tried it, but I remember it going smoothly with the partitions by following directions closely.

I didn't know there WERE apple tech gurus. You don't have enough control over the machine to get to guru status.

[ March 07, 2008, 12:30 AM: Message edited by: Launchywiggin ]

Posted by Nick (Member # 4311) on :

That's strange that only one partition appears when I boot from my xp home disc. Maybe it doesn't have sp2 on it. Oh well. I just wish I could play Half-Life 2. [Frown]

My HP laptop died right after I bought HL2, so it's been gathering dust and sitting unused.

Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :

quote:
You don't have enough control over the machine to get to guru status.

Really? I've found that there's way more control over a computer running OSX compared to a Windows machine. However, part of that finding could stem from a long-seated bias caused by years of frustration with Windows. [Wink]

Nick: here's a thread from the apple support discussion forum that might help.

Basically, the questions people asked there were:

Do you have a full version install of Windows XP SP2? (SP1 gives boot camp issues)

What format did you use for the partition? One person on this thread noted that some imacs have issues like yours if the partition is formatted as FAT32 instead of NTFS.

Is the Windows XP a legit disk or a copy? (copies don't tend to work with boot camp)

OR...

you could get a console to play HL2 on [Wink]

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :

I don't know about Apple, but I know there are boot problems if Windows is loaded second in a Linux environment. Something about Grub being able to handle the MBR and Windows but not vice versa.

Are their similar problems duel booting with Apple? Does Windows need to be loaded first? I have virtually no Apple experience.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

Does BootCamp work with XP SP0 (I have a disk from 2001). I'd like to use the license I have to add XP to my Mac, rather than buying a whole new license.

-Bok

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

Nevermind, it doesn't. Doh!

-Bok

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

quote:
Does BootCamp work with XP SP0 (I have a disk from 2001). I'd like to use the license I have to add XP to my Mac, rather than buying a whole new license.

Your license entitles you to use SP2, although I don't know how you would get the media.

Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :

Uninformed guess (I never used Boot Camp and don't know how Macs format their disks):

Could it be that XP only sees the new partition that was created for XP? This could be true if the Mac partition is "hidden" to keep it safe from XP.

I used to work for a company that made partition resizing software and it's been 9 years, but I think you can have multiple "primary" partitions on a hard disk but only one can be active at a time. Some software might fail to see other primary partitions than the active one.

I don't know how bootcamp manages the partitions so this could be a really dumb guess.

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dagonee:

quote:
Does BootCamp work with XP SP0 (I have a disk from 2001). I'd like to use the license I have to add XP to my Mac, rather than buying a whole new license.
Your license entitles you to use SP2, although I don't know how you would get the media.

There's some software out there that will combine a service pack with an install disk to create an ISO to burn to a CD. I may go that route, but will have to commandeer a family member's PC for a couple hours to get it to work.

-Bok