Installing Windows

[moschino]

Hello,

I have Leopard for over 6 months, on a HP Notebook.

Now I just want to install a windows on it, and remove the Leopard from my Notebook.

The problem is that any windows cd/dvd does not boot.

The bootloader it's always booting Leopard, and I can't reinstall windows on my Notebook.

There must be a way to solve this problem,... does anyone know how ?

 

Thanks in advance.

[fishmaven]

Hello,

I have Leopard for over 6 months, on a HP Notebook.

Now I just want to install a windows on it, and remove the Leopard from my Notebook.

The problem is that any windows cd/dvd does not boot.

The bootloader it's always booting Leopard, and I can't reinstall windows on my Notebook.

There must be a way to solve this problem,... does anyone know how ?

 

Thanks in advance.

Just a guess… Probably one of 2 things:

1. the bios made need to be changed to boot from the optical drive instead of the harddrive.

2. If you have data that's important you may have to back it up and then reformat the drive.

Dan

[moschino]

1: The BIOS has always been set to have the first boot device CDROM.

2: I don't have any important data because all the data was moved safely, but if you can tell me how to format the drive it will be much appreciated.

[srs5694]

If you insert a known-bootable CD/DVD into the drive, wait for it to become ready, and the system still shows a boot loader that's based on the hard disk, or boots a hard disk-based OS, then your BIOS is not set to boot from the optical disc first. Note that the "wait for it to become ready" part is important; some BIOSes will skip over a bootable optical disc if the drive takes too long to spin up and register the medium, so you may need to reboot after inserting a disc. I suggest you check your BIOS boot setting again; it could have been changed somehow without your knowledge, or you might have changed it and forgotten you'd done so. Alternatively, it could be that your Windows install CD is damaged. Try booting it on another computer. If that works, try creating a copy on another computer; it's conceivable that it's damaged just enough to give problems on one system but not on another.

 

If you're absolutely positive that you've backed up all data on your hard disk and that you want to start over from scratch, I recommend you wipe your partition table and boot loader before you begin installing Windows. If you don't, it's conceivable the installer will get confused, or there may be remnants of your old boot loader left behind to cause problems. If your system is partitioned using MBR, you can do this by typing, at an OS X terminal prompt, "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=512 count=63". (The "count=65" parameter is probably overkill; "count=1" will wipe out the MBR, but "count=63" ensures that you'll get any data in the unallocated space between the MBR and the first partition. Some boot loaders use this space, so wiping it clean is a good idea.) If you've used GPT for partitioning, the dd command will get the MBR and the main GPT tables, but the GPT tables at the end of the disk will remain, and they could eventually cause problems. In this case, I recommend you use my GPT fdisk program to wipe the GPT data. Launch the program on /dev/disk0, type "x" to enter the experts' menu, and then type "z" to destroy the GPT data. Answer "y" when you're asked if you want to clear out the MBR. In either case, you'll then need to define fresh partitions. The Windows installer should do this, or you can prepare them ahead of time with any MBR partitioning tool.

[srs5694]

In a PM, you wrote:

 

i got the GPT, i've putted it on a flash drive, but it wont boot from it.

 

If you mean you downloaded my GPT fdisk program, put it on a flash drive, and tried to boot from it, you've missed the point. GPT fdisk is a utility program that can be run in Linux, FreeBSD, or Mac OS; it's not a bootable OS.

 

also, i've tried to boot from an XP bootable flash drive and it says: Non System Disk or Disk Error.

i don't get it how to solve my problem.

can you explain me a bit more detailed about what to do ?

 

The error you report means that what you've got is not a bootable disk. You don't say where you obtained or how you created this "XP bootable flash drive." The answer may explain why it's not booting as you expect it to -- but I personally am not the person to answer this question, since I've never attempted to create a bootable Windows flash drive, and I don't know much about the topic.

 

I suggest going back to the basics of your first couple of posts. First, verify that you've got a bootable Windows install disc. AFAIK, any legitimate (retail) Windows XP or later disc is bootable. AFAIK, Microsoft didn't make any Windows 9x/Me discs that were bootable; they required the help of a floppy disc. I'm not sure about Windows NT 3.x/4.x or 200x, offhand. If you've got a pirated disc, all bets are off.

 

Second, go into your BIOS to check its settings. On most computers, you can do this by pressing Delete, F2, or some other key early in the boot process. Watch the screen carefully after you turn on the computer -- there's usually a message about what to do, but it often comes and goes very quickly. You may need to press the Reset button a few times before you spot the message. Once into the BIOS setup utility, look for an option relating to the boot order. The details of where it is, what it's called, and how to change it vary from one BIOS to another, so I can't provide exact details.

 

Alternatively, most modern BIOSes have an option to change the boot order on a one-time basis. This is usually activated by pressing F10, F11, or F12 early in the boot process. You can hit this button and then pick the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive as the boot device.

[moschino]

finally i solved the problem, thanks for all the help.