Reinstall XP

[JJB]

I am trying to re-install XP but I do not see an option for reformat? It now has 3 different installs on the windows drive. Its like a triple boot XP wrapped in a dual boot MAC.

Any help would be appreciated,
JJB

[cnakeitaro]

I probably shouldn't be posting, but when you get to the option when it lists the partition, isn't there an option to press a key described in the text on the top of the screen in order to delete the partition. You have to delete the partition and remake it, in order to reformat. As far as this goes with the dual boot, I don't know as I havn't actually installed on my Mac yet. I only know about the XP installer cause I have installed it on my now given away PC many times.

[JJB]

I don't know that much about how this patch works. But I think if I delete the partition it will mess up my OSX install. I am sure I will have to redo the whole thing at some point... just did not want to do it now.

[cnakeitaro]

Yeah deleting the partition is the only way to reformat your drive, unless you can do it from the disk utility in MacOS or on your MacOSX Boot CD. You can see if that works, but everything I have seen in posts, seem to point that you have to install Windows first then MacOSX. Can anyone confirm thats true? That might be your best bet if you have the permissions.

[gizzymo]

Do not delete or create partitions using the windows installer!! it will cause the efi hidden partition to be deleted, well its not hidden in the xp install screen, but it is from os x's disk utility.

The only way to get it back if you have deleted it is, first bootup off the os x install dvd.

Open terminal

Then type:

diskutil partitionDisk disk0 1 GPTFormat "Journaled HFS+" "Macintosh HD" 250G

Hit return.


*********You must if necessary replace 250G with the size of your hard disk, ie 120G, 500G etc.************

Once you have done this you can start the install section of the HOWTO on this site from scratch again.....

[cnakeitaro]

IMO, this whole installing windows process is a little more difficult than its worth atm, atleast without all the driver supports. Its like yay, I got windows on it, but you can't rly do much on it, that you couldn't do on MacOSX. I'd personally just bring back MacOSX in full til there is a more refined process to this with full hardware support. Unless your developing of course.

I've personally got a long time to wait, according to the wiki they might make it possibly to boot from an external, and thats rly my goal. I hate partitioning. Besides, it seems that if you brick your install or anything goes wrong, you have to install MacOSX again too. This is my only desktop computer and all I have other than it, is a G3 700 iBook. Yeah....thx, but no thanks.

To everyone working on the drivers and ways to make Windows XP more stable, thank you and good luck.

[JJB]

Simple:
Just boot up to the xp install you want to keep.

Open the HD and delete the windows folders you do not want.
Then edit the bootini file (see below)


Edit Boot.ini
1. Click Start and then click My Computer.
2. Double-click the drive letter where Windows XP is installed.
3. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
4. Click the View tab.
5. Click the Show hidden files and folders button.
6. Click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
7. Click OK.
8. In My Computer, double-click the Boot.ini file to open the file in Notepad.
9. Under [operating systems], remove the line that refers to Windows XP Setup.
10. Change the "default=" line to match the installation location.

For example, the remaining line under "[operating systems]" may be the following line:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
If so, change the "default=" line to the following line:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
11. On the File menu, click Save.
12. Restart the computer.

[cnakeitaro]

Well that works too. :D

Go boot.ini! As a question tho, how were your multiple installs of windows labeled as different folders? Like Windows...Windows1? How were your different installs labeled? Last time I dual booted, it was with different OS' like WinXP and Win2000 or something, so one was called WinXP and the other was Windows.

[JJB]

Yes they were listed:

Windows
windows 01 etc.

When you open the boot.ini it is in the same order as you would choose them at startup so you will know which one to erase.