Boot Camp : MCE 2005

[JayMac]

I managed to get a basic driverless install of MCE 2005 using Boot Camp on a Mini Duo, but 2 problems...

1) During the install, XP installer asked for Disc 2, could not figure how to eject disc one, so I hit cancel and the install proceeded, not sure what I missed? (Does XP home and pro just have 1 disc?)

2) The boot camp driver disc does not install in MCE, after extracting it reports "This software does not support your hardware."

Any ideas?

[rastaman]

Slipstream your MCE2005 on a DVD perhaps ? My Windows XP Borg is on a DVD. This will perhaps require a lot of work if this involve merging files, but perhaps not if this is just a matter of copying the files of CD2 in CD1 only. Good luck!

[JayMac]

Thanks for the tip but the slipstreaming is over my head!!

I just want a simple install if possible, might just pick up XP HOME OEM instead, but I seem to be so close here.

The XP Pro drivers will work fine on MCE I'd think, if I can get the boot camp installer to proceed?

Or maybe someone can extract the drivers for the components?

Still confused on the install asking for the 2nd disc, does XP Home or XP Pro just have 1 disc, or how do I eject from teh windows installer?

Thanks for any help!

[03blueSI]

There was a guy who was able to get MCE 2005 to install by putting both cds onto one dvd under the XOM.efi. You might contact him, I am sure it would probably also work for bootcamp. I think the problem is that the eject button isn't mapped to anything so there is no way to get the first disc out and install the second disc. By putting everything onto a single DVD you bypass this issue.

[Steve1496]

Using an XP upgrade CD may work. I am not sure why nobody has spoken/tried this yet.

When it asks for the second disc, try sticking a little pin in the top corner of the DVD drive. There should be a small lever you can push/pull on and it will eject the disc. I don't think the OS has anything to do with this, so it may work.


If anyone tried this, let me know!


Steve

[JayMac]

Trying to get the drivers extracted , I found the dir they went to but they are in msi files...no luck getting at them yet.

Maybe I'll just see if I can exchange MCE for PRO...I assume PRO has just one disc, and the drivers will just work from apple?

[JayMac]

MCE Update ... Someone reported elsewhere that if you hook up a external CD drive you can install MCE by inserting the 2nd disc in it. They also reported the bootcamp drivers work?

I did not try that ended up exchanging MCE for XP Home OEM. The OEM version of XP home installs without issue.

[chiefsalami]

What you need to do is create a single DVD that includes both MCE CDs. The way to do that is copy the contents of both CDs into a folder, and edit the txtsetup.sif file in the \i386 folder. Change any entries that you see that say "cd2name" to "cdname" and "cd2tag" to "cdtag". Essentially just removing the reference to cd2, and telling the installer the files are on cd(1).

Then burn the DVD, and don't forget to make it bootable (like what was done for the customized XoM XP install).

[flurby]

I made it work by copying the CD2 files onto the FAT partition in OS X...

After the first reboot in the Windows installation process (after the Windows installer formats the partition) hold down the Option key during the reboot and boot back in the OS X. In OS X , copy the contents of CD2 to the Windows drive. Then, put CD1 back in your drive and reboot back in to the Windows partition and continue the install. When it reaches the point where it asks for Disk 2, hit OK and it will let you browse to the files you copied on the C drive.

After that, the install proceeded smoothly and the Macintosh Drivers installed without issue (on my Mac Mini).

(This will only work if you format your Windows drive as FAT. If it's NTFS you can't copy files to it from OS X.)

[JayMac]

Wow the last 2 posts sound great, I wish I had of held on for a couple more days to MCE.

I'm missing having Media Center and Remote Desktop server on the mini, both would be useful.

Maybe I'll sell the XP Home OEM copy I purchased and try again its not activated.

[toothpicks4me]

I can also confirm that copying all the Install Files from both MCE CD's onto a DVD works great. I just burnt the files with Nero 6. Installed with no problems and the drivers work great. Its pretty cool.

[JayMac]

Just did an install by simply attaching an external USB drive to the mac with disc 2 of mce copied to it...

Here's a quick how to install Windows MCE OEM 2005 using Bootcamp...

1) Attach a external CD or DVD drive to your computer with disc 2 of MCE 2005 inserted in it, or copy the contents of disc 2 MCE 2005 to a external USB drive. Might work with a firewire drive too.

2) Follow Apples Boot Camp instuctions to install XP.

3) During the XP install process when it asks for disc 2, hit OK, and change the path to your external drive. In my case I just changed the drive letter to D: . Note if you try to browse to the external drive it will not be seen but if you just change the path it works.

Thats it, complete the install and install Boot camp drivers, in my case I ended up with a Mac Mini running MCE, which I think is just perfect for using as a media center.

If you have the MCE remote and sensor they work just fine too.

[gFizzle]

I installed MCE 2005 successfully using a DVD that had both CD's..everything works BUT sound. The Sigmatel drivers just tell me the hardware is not on the machine.

Has anyone else had this problem? I'm thinking I may just do a format and reinstall...

[pm5k800]

Well I can also verify that external drives will work. I was able to boot my xp cd from my external drive.

Unfortunately Im having problems which is a bit embarassing as the xom.efi solution was a breeze for me.

Anyway, I can manage to actually finish the first part of installation (im using a custom single disc wmc 2005 disc) and everytime it gets to the second phase of installation (after it formats/copies files/restarts) it checks the cd a minute then an error happens and it quits installation.

So basically im wondering if anyone else has experianced this and or conquered this problem and if they would be willing to lend a helping hand as I quite badly want to get this sorted. My email is powerman5k800@gmail.com

Id be willing to help anyone with any questions for the xom method too.

Thanks

[prethip]

i tried it using the external drive... it just worked like a charm

[mark_marvin]

Bingo. I too was getting the "This software does not support your hardware." message until I reinstalled MCE with the second CD in an external CD drive. Problem solved. Thanks for the tip.

-Mark

[bdp]

MCE on my MacBookPro 2.0 GHz worked like a charm. You don't even need to slipstream DVDs or have external drives ready, if you're just willing to take a small "detour":

When the XP setup reboots for the first time during the setup process, boot into OS-X for a minute. Copy the content of MCE CD2 to the Windows drive, restart into Windows and continue with the setup. Works perfect, and all the drivers installed onmmy system, too.

Note: For easy data exchange I've formatted the Windows drive with Fat32. I don't think this solution works with an NTFS drive,too, as OS-X is not able to write to NTFS as far as I know...

Good luck! :)

[McoreD]

Barb's Connected World - Here's How I did it - Mac MCE
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/2006/04/07/Heres+How+I+Did+It++Mac+MCE.aspx

Cheers,
McoreD

[Zepp]

Barb's Connected World - Here's How I did it - Mac MCE
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/2006/04/07/Heres+How+I+Did+It++Mac+MCE.aspx

Cheers,
McoreD


Thank god for these forums, and for you posting that link :)

Following the instructions in that link, I made a working install DVD from the 2 Media Center install CD's, I even included the apple drivers on it too (which install and all work fine on MCE 2005).

Media Center works great on my iMac 20". The main reason I installed it though was so I could stream movie files from the imac through my xbox360. Microsoft doesnt allow the 360 to play xvid files by default, so I had to install a 3rd party addon to media center called Transcode 360. The iMac handles transcoding (faster than real-time) on the fly to the xbox with no problems at all, cpu usage for both cores sits at about 30-40%.

[Jerry]

I was only given one CD of MCE OEM... will it still work? or shall I just put the new drivers in place of the drivers already on the CD...?