bootcamp w/o reformatting ?

[fatflock222]

is it possible?, i dont want to reinstall osx, i tryed getting rid off the xom by using the start up disk utility, but no luck, the firmware wont update

mini core solo...............
thx

[holo]

you have to reformat the drive

[rastaman]

Hi,

I try also to use bootcamp without reformatting the whole drive. It seems to be near ok after having done the following (do it at your own risks obviously) :
- restore the original PMBR of the macbook, see http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=136 "Recovering your GUID partition tabl".
- remove the other partitions than the Mac OS startup volume. For instance i had a first fat32 partition and a third hfs+ partition. I have removed them with gpt remove in a terminal session opened after having started from the mac os x dvd. (man gpt)
Now Boot Camp seems to launch, and according to the docs it should (i have only one partition HFS+ journaled), but it say to me that i must update my firmware when i launch it (or operating system? i don't know this is written in french "logiciel systeme" but so this is not very clear even if i am French :-) ), although i have updated my system to the latest updates (10.4.6) and the latest firmware (i believe; i have updated it but this is version 1.0.0*). So perhaps this last problem is only mine and you can try to clean the disk manually and this will perhaps work, but this is not sure (if i succeed i will post an update),
Best regards,

* the console indicate :
2006-04-06 01:39:21.026 MacBook Pro Firmware Updater[237] MÀJ du programme interne du MacBook Pro version 1.0.0
2006-04-06 01:39:21.030 MacBook Pro Firmware Updater[237] No AppleEFINVRAM <--- well, i'm wondering what this indicate

[jerbare]

I haven't personally verified it yet, but my suspicion is that the firmware cannot update because XOM creates an MBR, eliminating the PMBR which tells the operating system that the hard drive is using a GUID_partition_scheme.

http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=136

Read this post about how to restore the PMBR to its original state and you should be able to apply the update without formatting. I have heard a couple reports on IRC that it works, and will be testing in a little while after I finish backups over firewire (unggh... slooooowwwww)...

As I stated in the post, PLEASE ensure you have proper backups. The worst case scenario in doing this procedure is that you may make a mistake and irreversably corrupt your install(s). Best case scenario is it will save you the trouble of reformatting and reinstalling...

[vttrapn]

The write up worked perfectly. Many Thanks!