OH CRAP need help with bootcamp.
ok im in a really bad position right now. im a new mac convert/user but im having some problems. I used boot camp on my macbook pro to load windows xp onto a partition. problem is that when im on my windows side it wont allow me to use the keyboard or trackpad (yes i loaded the drivers from a burnt disk and restarted) ive tried unloading/disabling those pieces of hardware in device manager and rebooting but it doesnt do anything.
then i figured i might have skipped some vital steps so i wanted to start over with bootcamp. in the pdf instructions it says to use disk utility or boot camp assistant to delete the partition,
problem is when i try to use boot camp assistant it says "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." i dont know why id back it up since i want to get rid of it, i also dont know how id do that. so i go into disk utility and try to select erase for the secondary partition the options are not selectable and are all greyed out. i tried doing restore from my macbook hd into the secondary partition but then it says "no such file or directory"
please help? either to allow me to use my keyboard in windows or delete my partition? much thanks
then i figured i might have skipped some vital steps so i wanted to start over with bootcamp. in the pdf instructions it says to use disk utility or boot camp assistant to delete the partition,
problem is when i try to use boot camp assistant it says "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." i dont know why id back it up since i want to get rid of it, i also dont know how id do that. so i go into disk utility and try to select erase for the secondary partition the options are not selectable and are all greyed out. i tried doing restore from my macbook hd into the secondary partition but then it says "no such file or directory"
please help? either to allow me to use my keyboard in windows or delete my partition? much thanks
Comments
ok im in a really bad position right now. im a new mac convert/user but im having some problems. I used boot camp on my macbook pro to load windows xp onto a partition. problem is that when im on my windows side it wont allow me to use the keyboard or trackpad (yes i loaded the drivers from a burnt disk and restarted) ive tried unloading/disabling those pieces of hardware in device manager and rebooting but it doesnt do anything.
then i figured i might have skipped some vital steps so i wanted to start over with bootcamp. in the pdf instructions it says to use disk utility or boot camp assistant to delete the partition,
problem is when i try to use boot camp assistant it says "Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." i dont know why id back it up since i want to get rid of it, i also dont know how id do that. so i go into disk utility and try to select erase for the secondary partition the options are not selectable and are all greyed out. i tried doing restore from my macbook hd into the secondary partition but then it says "no such file or directory"
please help? either to allow me to use my keyboard in windows or delete my partition? much thanks
This can always be a tricky thing. I almost made my iMac useless somehow. What I would do is this: delee everything in that other partition, leaving Mac OS X alone. Don't worry about backing up your Windows part -- you haven't done anything yet. Then, I would start over.
Now how to delete it -- use the partitioner that Apple gave you, either with the Mac OS X disk (yes, it has one), or with the Boot Camp. BE CAREFUL! You can delete Mac OS X..and trust me, you don't want to do that...since it seems thats the only OS that allows u to have your keyboard/track pad.
But something you may want to try, just to see...put a USB keyboard in Windows and see if it works. Just a thought.
Anyway, thats what I would do. But BECAREFUL. And wait for other people to reply. I'm not always best at giving directions, so yea.
It usually means the hard drive is fragmented so it can't allocate enough free space all at once. The way to get round it is as it says to backup OS X to an external drive, format the drive and then clone it back.
I'm not sure why it's telling you to do this if you are trying to delete the partition though because it doesn't have to merge blocks together.
How much free space do you have left on your OS X partition?
Have you tried reinstalling the Bootcamp application?
I've seen that error most commonly when trying to make a partition not delete it.
It usually means the hard drive is fragmented so it can't allocate enough free space all at once. The way to get round it is as it says to backup OS X to an external drive, format the drive and then clone it back.
I'm not sure why it's telling you to do this if you are trying to delete the partition though because it doesn't have to merge blocks together.
How much free space do you have left on your OS X partition?
Have you tried reinstalling the Bootcamp application?
ya ive tried reinstalling bootcamp many times to no effect. i have about 28 gigs free so i dont think it should really be cramped for space
ya ive tried reinstalling bootcamp many times to no effect. i have about 28 gigs free so i dont think it should really be cramped for space
If you are going to reinstall Windows, I would focus on just formatting the partition instead of removing it. There must be some quirks in the way the dynamic partitioning tool works because I've had to format every machine I've used bootcamp on. I would have thought deleting a partition would be unaffected but maybe not.
You should be able to format it by booting from a system disc and running disk Utility.
Firstly though, is this the procedure you tried for uninstalling the drivers:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=46869
If you've done that, try reinstalling them from the latest Bootcamp. If you've done all that, just format and install. You shouldn't need to worry about the Disk Utility format because the Windows installer will reformat it. Also, you shouldn't need to use Bootcamp to install Windows. Macs boot from the Windows CD so just hold the alt-key with the disc in the drive and choose it when it comes up.
If you are going to reinstall Windows, I would focus on just formatting the partition instead of removing it. There must be some quirks in the way the dynamic partitioning tool works because I've had to format every machine I've used bootcamp on. I would have thought deleting a partition would be unaffected but maybe not.
You should be able to format it by booting from a system disc and running disk Utility.
Firstly though, is this the procedure you tried for uninstalling the drivers:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=46869
If you've done that, try reinstalling them from the latest Bootcamp. If you've done all that, just format and install. You shouldn't need to worry about the Disk Utility format because the Windows installer will reformat it. Also, you shouldn't need to use Bootcamp to install Windows. Macs boot from the Windows CD so just hold the alt-key with the disc in the drive and choose it when it comes up.
wow, that link worked, now i dont have to erase everything. although it would be nice to actually be able to move memory around and actually be able to undo the partition without backing up everything...i hope the next version of bootcamp is a bit more flexible, or i guess i could just wait for parallels 2.5 to come out (it will support direct x apparently)