Going back to XP

[brettbennion]

I like leopard a lot but I honestly think I just like XP more. Plus I just got an xbox 360 and the media center function seems pretty cool. Anyways I am trying to reinstall XP and as soon as the installation starts I get error message that it cant find any hard drives. I'm not sure why but I'm guessing it's because I formatted all of them to be HFS+?

[Conn]

Hi,

the easiest way would be if you'll format the hard disk using "disk utilities" on another mac. you have to select format as ms-dos(fat) instead of mac os extended. then you will be able to use the disk in windows or to format it within the installation process of xp again.

like i said, this would be the easiest way. i had the same problems, even acronis couldn't format the harddisk as ntfs or fat.

i hope this will help you!

[mattrb]

theres a osx 360 media center function for itunes, but it costs money, or you could just get the illicit version for free

 

heres the illicit version link

*****link deleted*****

Edited April 21, 2008 by lord_muad_dib
illegal link deleted

[yamcha]

I like leopard a lot but I honestly think I just like XP more. Plus I just got an xbox 360 and the media center function seems pretty cool. Anyways I am trying to reinstall XP and as soon as the installation starts I get error message that it cant find any hard drives. I'm not sure why but I'm guessing it's because I formatted all of them to be HFS+?

 

 

Use the Leopard CD and format it FAT32, and then run WinXP setup and it should format it NTFS without a prob, thats what I would do, although I haven't tried b4, but should work. GL! :]

[BigPimpin]

Doesn't XP have an option to delete and create partitions? HFS+ shouldn't be a problem since the disks and partitions are independent of formatting. Did you use GUID partitions or MBR? That might be your problem. Use the Leopard DVD to boot like yamcha says. You don't have to format them to FAT32 but you do have to delete the existing partitions and put MBR-style partition tables on them.

[thefinalprophecy]

You should be able to reformat to NTFS right from the XP setup CD. Also, if you just got a 360, you might want to use Vista instead of XP because it has better 360 support. I started Vista once SP1 came out and it's a hell of a lot better than it was before.

[brettbennion]

in Disk Utility(from the installation disk) is formatting my hd in MS-DOS(FAT) the same as formating in FAT32? I tired FAT and XP couldnt see it. I also tired "free space" and it still count see any hard drives. Currently I have my 74gb raptor formatted into one HFS+ GUID partition.

[drabak]

Maybe this is an MBR issue as BigPimpin pointed out. If so, you could use dd to wipe the MBR and then the drive should be recognized. The comand below will wipe the MBR and partition tables. Not sure if this can be done from a Leopard install disk but any live GNU/Linux disc should work.

 

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/YOURDRIVE count=1 bs=512

[mac_cute]

@mattrb

 

Delete that link please

[BigPimpin]

Currently I have my 74gb raptor formatted into one HFS+ GUID partition.

Ka-ching! Do you have more than 1 disk? Do they all have GUID partitioning? Use Disk Utility and make sure you're on the Partitions tab. There has to be a way to re-write an MBR partition map on them, but I've never done the GUID thing so I don't know the exact steps to follow.

 

drabak has the right idea.

[BJMoose]

in Disk Utility(from the installation disk) is formatting my hd in MS-DOS(FAT) the same as formating in FAT32? I tired FAT and XP couldnt see it. I also tired "free space" and it still count see any hard drives. Currently I have my 74gb raptor formatted into one HFS+ GUID partition.

I do this all the time since I'm constantly experimenting with different OS's. There are some compatibility problems with formatting to FAT in OSX and then trying to install Windows. Here's what I do and it's not failed me yet.

 

I use a bootable floppy disk with dos fdisk on it. Fdisk the appropriate drive making sure that you choose the option to delete the 'non-dos' partition. This completely erases the partition and on reboot you now have a drive that has 74gb (approx) free space. I then use partition magic or acronis disk suite to partition the drive to NTFS the way I want. I think you could probably use the XP disk to make the partition on the free space, but I've not tried that. Hope this helps.

[brettbennion]

Ka-ching! Do you have more than 1 disk? Do they all have GUID partitioning? Use Disk Utility and make sure you're on the Partitions tab. There has to be a way to re-write an MBR partition map on them, but I've never done the GUID thing so I don't know the exact steps to follow.drabak has the right idea.

I have 1 74GB Raptor, 2 250GB, and 1 500GB. Right now I am trying to clear media off one of my 250's because i am sick of formatting my raptor then not having this {censored} work and having to reinstall leopard to get back on here. I'm pretty sure I tried repartitioning one of my drives as MBR but I'm not sure. At this point I am getting desperate.

I do this all the time since I'm constantly experimenting with different OS's. There are some compatibility problems with formatting to FAT in OSX and then trying to install Windows. Here's what I do and it's not failed me yet.I use a bootable floppy disk with dos fdisk on it. Fdisk the appropriate drive making sure that you choose the option to delete the 'non-dos' partition. This completely erases the partition and on reboot you now have a drive that has 74gb (approx) free space. I then use partition magic or acronis disk suite to partition the drive to NTFS the way I want. I think you could probably use the XP disk to make the partition on the free space, but I've not tried that. Hope this helps.

I dont have a floppy