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BootCamp-XP not SP2: not more boot

post #1 of 9
10/7/08 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
Hi there,

I installed the wrong XP on my BootCamp...
Too many CDs, no enough caution.
I stopped when I saw the "C:137GB" formating option
I knew I was in trouble..

Now I'm stuck
My Macbook (Coreduo 2.16) does not boot at all.
Light grey screen, and that's it
Spinning gear does not shows up
Holding "C" does not help , bootable CDs are not mounted.
Holding "D" gives me the question mark folder.
Holding "T" does not works either
Holding "Option" gives me a pointer, but no partition to boot from.

How to force a Macbook to boot on a CD. external drive, usb, whatever ?
I guess I have to perform some sort of EFI fix-up ?

BTW, I'm on a remote island and the closest apple store is 1/2 day flying away...
Hopefully I got other macs (G4) if needed to burn disks
I does not have an external 2.5" USB drive to swap it. too bad.

Any recommendation ?

Thanks
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post #2 of 9
10/8/08 at 10:01am
Try booting holding command-s. If you reach a command prompt, type fsck -f and it will run through a Disk Utility style drive check/fix.

Did you actually install XP or did you just reach the prompt that asks you which partition you want to use?

If you have a firewire cable, you can try booting the Macbook holding t to put it in target mode and plug it into another machine. It would mount as an external drive and you can have a look to see if all your stuff is ok.
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post #3 of 9
10/8/08 at 11:09am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Try booting holding command-s. If you reach a command prompt, type fsck -f and it will run through a Disk Utility style drive check/fix.

Did you actually install XP or did you just reach the prompt that asks you which partition you want to use ?

If you have a firewire cable, you can try booting the Macbook holding t to put it in target mode and plug it into another machine. It would mount as an external drive and you can have a look to see if all your stuff is ok.

1 - cmd-s does not works, like most shortcuts.

2 - I stopped at the partition selection

3 - T does not seems to work. I tried it connected to my PC, just to see if it would declare itself on the IEEE1394, no result. And I guess it should show some sort of FireWire logo, right ?
I just tried with a Mac, a G4 under 10.4.10, and it didn't see any drive

/bernard/
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post #4 of 9
10/9/08 at 12:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mendiburu1 View Post

1 - cmd-s does not works, like most shortcuts.

2 - I stopped at the partition selection

3 - T does not seems to work. I tried it connected to my PC, just to see if it would declare itself on the IEEE1394, no result. And I guess it should show some sort of FireWire logo, right ?
I just tried with a Mac, a G4 under 10.4.10, and it didn't see any drive

If you stopped at the partition selection, that shouldn't have affected anything other than the selected boot drive. The fact that the option key doesn't let you boot is odd though.

You can try resetting your PRAM holding command-alt-p-r at boot and hold it until you hear the chime a couple of times.
You can also try to force boot by holding X.
Safe boot probably won't make a difference but holding shift does that.
You can also try command-v, which gives you some text output showing what's happening.

After that, you'd be best booting from the installer or a backup. Do you have any Intel machines nearby? You can boot from them if they are set to target mode.

There is also a firmware restore disc you can get:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...ationcd14.html

Choose the one for your model of machine. This would be a last resort. It shouldn't do any harm but try everything else first.
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post #5 of 9
10/9/08 at 6:18am
Thread Starter 
I agree, it's super-strange.

AFAIK, Pram, "V"erbose Boot and X does not works.
I'll try to put another MAC in T-arget mode, good idea.
My bet would be the restoration CD, if only he accept to load it !

support.apple.com says :

6. Make sure that the computer you are trying to restore is plugged into an AC outlet.
7. Turn on the computer and continue holding the Power button. The sleep LED will blink rapidly, then slowly, then rapidly (3 quick blinks, 3 slow blinks, 3 quick blinks).

On Macs that don't have a sleep LED, tones are used instead. Hold down the power button until you hear 3 long tones, then 3 short tones, then 3 long tones.

On Macs that use a tray-load optical drive, the tray will open to allow the Restoration CD to be inserted.

8. Insert the Firmware Restoration CD while the lights are blinking or tones sounding, then release the Power button. A long tone is played once the recovery process has started.

A progress bar appears beneath an Apple logo on a gray screen. The progress bar indicates the firmware is being updated. Do not disconnect power, shut down, or restart the computer during the update or you will need to start the restoration process again beginning with step 6.

The computer will restart automatically after the firmware is updated.

My computer gives a series of fast flashes, no longs, and a long beep,
and then the boot chime and that empty gray screen...

Inserting the CD and/or releasing the power button at any step does not change anything.

This looks bad...
Any suggestion ?

I'll wait for the battery to be fully charged, it may prevent the upgrade...

/bm/
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post #6 of 9
10/13/08 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
My macbook refused to perform ANY boot.
I eventually removed the drive, put it in a SATA enclosure and it shows, on a G4/0.4 as unformated.
My Macbook is now booting on the 10.5 upgrade CD, sees its HD as external.
The disk utility can't do anything.
I'll try to get a recent boot camp disk patitioner.

Temp conclusion :
There's a BootCamp/Parallel/XP confirguration that put your drive in such a state that no boot would kick in. No external, no verbose, no CD, nothing !

I'm now looking for a magical tool that would remove the wrong MBF/Whateve it's called now in 10.5, and get me a chance to grab some data from the disk before I wipe it.

Any suggestion ?
A linux distro ?

Thanks
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post #7 of 9
10/13/08 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
I"m doing the reponses and the RTFM, hoping it'll end up in a search engine and helps other uers.

Actually this utility does exist, it's DiskTest.
super powerful, multi-os, multi-systems.
too good to be true ?
check it on wikipedia !

I'm now running it, and's it's real stuff...
Remember Norton's Disk Edit in the 80's ?
It had a better GUI !

In the meantime, I'm trying to save my datas...
Talk to you later...

Anyone on this forum, beside me ?
Cheers !
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post #8 of 9
10/13/08 at 8:10am
Thread Starter 
http://phail.net/2008/04/13/bootcamp...th-a-solution/

Keeping you posted
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post #9 of 9
10/13/08 at 9:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mendiburu1 View Post

Actually this utility does exist, it's DiskTest.
super powerful, multi-os, multi-systems.
too good to be true ?
check it on wikipedia !

TestDisk is available here:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

for people referencing the thread. There is also a photo/document recovery tool there called PhotoRec. I've never heard of it before. It might be a good alternative to Data Rescue and is free.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mendiburu1 View Post

In the meantime, I'm trying to save my datas...
Talk to you later...

Let us know how it turns out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mendiburu1 View Post

Anyone on this forum, beside me ?
Cheers !

Too busy with the new product rumors.
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