After reformatting middle swap partition, boot error, help!

[boscord]

Hey there!

So I installed OS-X and WinXP with a middle FAT32 partition to use as a media swap between the two OS's. This was done using the guide for a triple-partitioned drive using OSX's diskutil.

So, then to clear my middle swap partition, I used OSX's diskutil and used:
sudo diskutil reformat disk0s3

But now when I go to boot Windows, where all of the files reside as per checked under Mac, I get a boot error with something to the effect of:

"Remove disks or other media". Any thoughts on how I may go about fixing this? It should be noted that I also tried using a WindowsXP boot cd (BartPE) and quick-partitioned the swap partition, with the same result. Any thoughts?

Any help you may be provide would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Rob

[OptimismPrime]

if your FAT32 Partition wasn't hidden when you installed XP,
XP will have seen the FAT32 Partition as "Drive C:" and your NTFS one as "Drive D:".

So Windows would have installed Windows on D:, but will have had its bootloader, and important startup files (boot.ini, bootfont.bin, NTDETECT.COM, ntldr...) on the FAT32 Partition (Those are hidden files, and by default invisible in Explorer)

When you format the drive you would have removed all of these files, in wich case XP will crap out on you, since it's told by the bootloader "use the startup files at xyz" - they aren't there - so XP sees that disk as non-bootable and can't proceed with the startup process.

What i'd try to do is use a generic running PC with XP on it. (i.e. a Parallels Desktop windows install you might have)
Use the option of the explorer to show hidden files, and copy each and every hidden file from the C:\ root to your Mac with OSX to your FAT32 partition
see if starting XP after that will get you further