Cannot use keyboard w/ Bootcamp - installing XP

[clavedog]

I am in the process of installing XP using bootcamp on my MacBook Pro. (10.4.7 OS). I put in my XP installation disk and it goes through the process of installing the necessary drivers, etc. (blue Windows screen). Then it prompts:
"To set up Windows XP on the selected item, press Enter"

In the installation instructions, it says there should be partitions ("selected item"). There may have been one partition, but certainly not several. I know in a previous step I created a 7G partition for Windows.

Regardless, the keyboard is not responding to any commands. I noticed the warning, "Windows installer does not support Bluetooth. Unless you're using a portable computer, you'll need a USB keyboard and mouse during installation." This obviously doesn't apply, so how can I get my keyboard working?

In the mean time, I was able to get my XP install disk out, but now I can't boot up Mac OS either. Please tell me I don't have to re-install Mac OS and wipe everything out???????

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

try rebooting and hold down the option key, see if it gives you the choice of booting from OS X...

regards

Ric

 

[Ric]

When you initialy ran Boot camp assistant, it would have asked you to create a partition...

Then when you run the XP installer you should install onto the c drive.

Is that what you did ?

regards

Ric

 

[clavedog]

Thank You, Ric!!!
The option key at least brings me back to Mac OS.

Yes, the partitions are exactly what I did. I'll take another look now that I know how to come back.

I'll keep you updated.

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

just make sure you select the correct partion (Drive C, normally !)

When doing the XP install. If you select the wrong one ie the Mac OS X partion...then it will get overwritten and you would lose all your data and have to reinstall OS X to get it working again.

If any one else is reading this, make sure you back up allyour important data before installing Bootcamp and XP...just in case. Remember that at the minute, BootCamp is still beta sofware !

With that said is does normally install okay and works very well !

regards

Ric

 

[clavedog]

OK, I retried the process. This time, I paid attention to the partitioning. It asked me to create the amount of partition that I wanted for Mac OS vs. Windows OS. I just left this at default, which was 5G for Windows, the rest for Mac OS.

After partitioning, I started the Windows install. Same thing happened; installed the necessary drivers, etc. then came the the "Welcome to Setup" screen.

"This portion of setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on your computer."
"To set up XP now, press Enter"
"To repair XP installation using recovery console, press R"
"To quit setup without installing XP, press F3."

None of these options work, which was my original post; is there a way to get the keyboard to respond?

By the way, there was no partition at the bottom of this page. In the instructions that I printed out, there were several partitions like E:/, D:/, and C/:. There were no choices in my case. I just assumed that's because I only created one partition, which should be the C:/

Can anyone help out???

 

[cran]

It may sound strange because you have a MacBook which has an integrated keyboard: Try with a USB keyboard. If I remember correctly I had the same problem.

 

[Ric]

Hi there cran and welcome !

thanks for the tip...

regards

Ric