I’m thrilled to learn that I can now dual-boot my new Intel-based Mac so that I can live in the warm fuzzy world of Mac OS X or flip over to the business world of Windows XP. I have a shiny new copy of WinXP from my IT people, an Intel-based Mac Mini, and lots of enthusiasm, but that’s about it. How the heck do I actually install Windows XP on my Mac so I can work in either operating system?
There’s been a lot written about Apple’s dramatic release of Boot Camp, a free download that lets you repartition your Intel-based Mac’s drive and install Windows XP as an alternative operating system, but even the magazine coverage I’ve seen doesn’t give you screen-by-screen details. So let’s see what we can do about that!
Your first step is to make sure you have an Intel-based Mac: any G4 or G5 Mac will not install Boot Camp and you won’t be able to dual boot into Windows XP. You can still run an emulator like Microsoft Virtual PC, but it’s an inferior solution and my own experience with VPC has been that it’s glacial and useless for all but the most simplistic of Windows applications. You’ll also need to be able to burn a CD during the process: make sure you have a blank, burnable CD disk on hand.
Now, download Boot Camp from the Apple site and double click on the “.dmg” disk image that’s dropped onto your desktop. Here’s what you’ll see:
Your first step, as highlighted in the “Read Before You Install” document, is to print a copy of the Boot Camp Beta Installation & Setup Guide. Trust me, you’ll want it!
Double-click on the “BootCampAssistant.pkg” icon and you’ll be able to install the Boot Camp assistant:
As with all Mac software installs, this will require you to type in your administrative password. It’s probably the same as your default account password:
A few seconds of activity later, you’ll have the software successfully copied onto your computer and can quit this first installer.
Now your first challenge: finding the new installation assistant! It turns out that the program is installed on your computer in Applications –> Utilities –> Boot Camp Assistant. Launch it and it’s quite possible you’ll see the same message I did:
No huge problem. Quit by clicking the “Quit” button, then go to Apple’s Support Downloads and check their Available Firmware Updates list to click directly to the firmware update for your own Intel system. For my Mini, I simply go back to the downloads page and scan down for the name of my system.
Once the correct firmware update is installed, you need to reboot, but not in the usual fashion. Instead, press and hold the power button on the Mini itself — it takes about ten seconds — until the power indicator light flashes repeatedly to begin the update. Your system will boot and you’ll see the Apple icon and a progress bar:
That will advance, it took me about 90 seconds total, and you’ll reboot again, ready to go!
Finally, we’re ready to actually start working with Boot Camp itself. The first step is to read all of Apple’s warnings:
Okay, now let’s proceed. First choice: do we want to burn a Macintosh Drivers CD, which contains important device drivers for Windows XP so it can access the various hardware parts of the Mac, or do we already have one. I don’t already have one, so I’ll choose the default of “Burn a Macintosh Drivers CD now”:
I slip in the blank disk and the system tells me it’s “ready to burn”. Click “Burn” and it’ll do everything necessary to create the Windows XP drivers CD. This took a few minutes on my Mini, but it wasn’t terribly long.
Next step is much more exciting: it’s time to partition the hard disk!
Partitioning is a geeky buzzword for something that will actually make a lot of sense to you, believe it or not. The idea is that if you have a large hard disk, why not configure it to act like two small hard disks? Or three? In this way, smart system administrators can isolate accounts, minimize out-of-disk-space errors and disruptions, and so on. With Apple Boot Camp, we’ll want to partition the default disk to allow us to have one “disk” that represents the Windows XP world, and another “disk” that represents Mac OS X.
By default, Boot Camp offers up a pretty tiny partition for Windows, as you can see:
I’d recommend that you make it bigger if you’re actually going to use Windows for anything important; Microsoft recommends 10GB as the smallest reasonable and functional partition, for example. If you’re just playing, however, 5GB will probably work fine (until your first big game install). I’ll make mine 8GB to be somewhere in the middle.
Change the partition sizes by clicking and dragging on the vertical bar between the two areas until you have the size or sizes you desire. With my Mini configuration, it left me with 66GB for Mac OS X, of which 20GB is free, and 8GB for Windows XP.
Once the partitions are set up as you desire, click on “Partition” and keep your fingers crossed (there is a slight chance it’ll actually mangle everything on the disk. Not likely, but I would definitely recommend you do one good, clean backup before you start experimenting with Boot Camp).
The disk partition is what we Windows folk call non-destructive or dynamic, which means that you don’t have to reformat and then reinstall everything on both “sides” of the partition. That’s a very, very good thing. 🙂
Once the partitioning is done, you’re ready to install Windows itself:
Fortunately, I have a pristine new copy of Microsoft Windows XP Pro with SP2 included for PCs without Windows (who would have thought I’d think of my Mac as a PC without Windows?) and that’s what I’ll use. My thanks to Microsoft for sending it along…
Insert the WinXP installation DVD, wait for it to be recognized by Mac OS X (it’ll show up on your desktop with a cheery name like “VRMFPP_EN”), click on “Start Installation” and kiss Mac OS X goodbye.
After a bit, you’ll see the unfamiliar blue screen of a Windows installation:
Press ENTER or Return on the keyboard to continue, agree to the Microsoft warnings and legal restrictions page, and you’ll finally get to the “choose partition” list:
Take your time here to ensure that you pick the correct partition! You want to use Partition C: which should match the size you just set too: notice on my screen it’s 8407MB, which is about 8GB, as expected. Move the highlight bar down to the correct partition and press Enter to actually install WinXP.
Now you need to pick a partition formatting option. The two main choices are NTFS or FAT. NTFS is more modern and supports very large partitions, but can’t interoperate with Mac OS X. FAT, on the other hand, can’t support partitions larger than 32GB, but is compatible with the Mac. You’ll see why that’s important later. For now, select FAT and do a full, not a quick, format:
Now some time will pass while the partition is formatted using the Windows FAT32 format. It took my system about five minutes to fill in the progress bar:
I won’t document every single step involved in installing Windows XP as it’s pretty straightforward. Just make sure you have your product key available for the verification step of the process. It’s in the package within the Microsoft Windows XP disk, and it’s really a good idea to use a new version of the OS rather than the same key you’ve used with other PCs in your office or home. Worst case, you can skip the verification step and have 30 days of “trial period” before you have to deal with finding a valid key to enter for verification purposes.
Once you’ve finished the full Windows XP install, which can take rather quite a while, your system will reboot and you’ll want to eject the WinXP install disk and slip in the Mac drivers CD you burned earlier in the process.
With Windows, this is done by going to My Computer and right-clicking on the optical drive D: then selecting Eject. Slip in the Mac disk and everything should just automatically launch and start up. If not, look for and double click on the file Install Macintosh Drivers for Win XP.exe. Here’s what you’ll see:
I admit, it’s kind of weird to see a Mac installation program running within Windows XP on a Mac computer, but it’s a brave new world out there.
Probably, during the installation process, you’ll learn that various components of your Intel-based Macintosh haven’t passed the Microsoft Windows compatibility test:
Apple assures us that it’s safe to continue anyway, so I did. Three times!
Then you get to go through a few waves of “new hardware found”, and in all cases you can simply accept all the default settings for each wizard, as those guys in Redmond call ’em, and proceed. Finally, you’ll get to the last configuration screen:
Click “reboot now” and if the hardware compatibility Gods are smiling upon you, the Mac will reboot right into Windows and you’ll be the proud owner of a Macintosh that can run Windows natively, astonishingly enough.
One last tip: to select which OS you want to run, hold down the OPTION key when you start up the Mac and you’ll be able to see both Mac OS X and Windows XP:
Use the arrow keys to move to the choice you desire, then press Enter or RETURN to select it and zoom into that mode.
When you do boot into Mac OS X, you’ll notice that there’s a new hard disk on your desktop too, called “NO NAME”. Click on the name, count to five, and click again, then type “Windows XP” and you’ll forevermore realize what it is. And yes, you can navigate through it and find your data files from when you’re running Windows, but I’ll talk about that in another article!
It’s a long, tricky process, but I hope this explains exactly how to install and get running with Apple Boot Camp. Also, don’t miss my tutorial on how to install Parallels to run Windows XP within Mac OS X, rather than having to reboot each time you want to switch systems.
hi thanks for the press-option-to-choose-which-OS-to-run tip. question: my Windows XP partition is 20GB. if later i decide to jack it up to say, 50GB, is it possible to just do that on the fly? or do i have to redo the whole thing (which means losing the data i have already stored on my XP partition). thanks for your help!
thank you so much Dave 🙂
I have one problem.. I can’t partition my disk, and it says: “the disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.”
when i go to disk utility, it says my HD format is already: Mac OS extended (journaled) and i don’t see a partition option there.. what do i do? 🙁 xx
how to run mac os after install window xp
Should I be afraid of loosing my data while installing windows
Dear Sir
Can i install window server 2003 on mac os?
if it can how can i install, please help me!
Hi Dave! need ur help
I am having a problem while installing Win XP SP2 on my mac OS X. that is when I select the bootcamp partition, windows installer is not asking to select the file system and format that partition. instead it starts copying windows files on it…when my computer restarts, it does not boot into windows….plz
this is going to be good
I am having a problem while installing Win XP SP2 on my mac OS X. that is when I select the bootcamp partition, windows installer is not asking to select the file system and format that partition. instead it starts copying windows files on it…when my computer restarts, it does not boot into windows….plz help
Dear Dave
cam you help me i have big problem with imac ealy 2006. mac 10.4 with xp home and boot camp 1.1 . in 2007 boot camp was expired in 2010 few months ago win xp also not working. icant select dual boot thing.its also not working only apple icon showing. i have tried to install with xp cd but came black screen and i can’t see any thing but i know cd reading is progressing.
i start with mac and change sys date to before date boot camp expired. and tried with boot camp “start installation” then imac was restarted and came with black screen then i get xp cd out and boot to mac nothing happen always it trying to start with cd.
then i start with mac cd and its ok its progressing and then shows me to select language then i select english click next arrow. it’s show “preparing to install” then i press and holp power button and turn it off. then turn on it and take out cd try to boot with mac. nothing happening always come with black screen .
can you tell me what should i do. i have lots of data with mac and i never backup with it.
please mail me yasmithasar@yahoo.com thank you.
I HAVE A PROBLEM!
my computer is skipping some steps. It doesn’t ask me to burn the cd, and rebooting my computer doesn’t work either. it goes right to ”creat a second partition.” Does it matter?
sir,
i have windows vista black 2009 ver.sp1 every time
i start the system it is blocking reboot.exe file
and i cant fix this problem please helpme overcoming this problem,
thanks.
Dear Dave
one problem that when i insert disk window xp2 and click on start installation a few min it’s appeared not recognized disk, why?
Dear Dave
when i finished with install xp2 on mac completely
i should to setup mac OS again or no need but when start up window when i press option key i can see only window. please help me
Dear Dave
i am theary i have problem with boot camp when i set up window xp2 completed it appeared only one window i can not see mac, why? can u help me? now how can i do if i lost my mac this?
Comment regarding internet connection under Windows…
After installing Windows XP Profesional 2002 on a Macbook the internet connection continued to work with Mac, but did not work in Windows at all (no ip settings and no internet signal or wireless signal from the wireless router). While in Windows I inserted the Mac OS X install Disc and selected the Broadcom installer file. It installed a bridged network connection and allowed the reception of a wireless network signal from the router to appear but still no ip settings were being recognized. Then, while in the “Network Connections” window, I deleted the bridged network connection icon and this deleted the broadcam connection icon also and two new connection icons appeared, the “Wireless Network Connection Enabled Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter” icon and the “Internet Connection Icon both appeared in the “Network Connections” and the internet connection under Windows running on the Macbook was up and running.
Now the next step in completing the Windows XP Pro set up is to download all updates and Windows XP SP2 from the internet and finish installing on the Macbook while running Windows.
Thank you Dave for starting this forum, it has been most helpful.
Posted by: Father Michael at October 19, 2010 5:15 PM
Hi Dave,
I made a post on 10/19/10 At 515PM, Since then I have tried in vain to load Windows XP Home Edition the OEM Version 2002 includes service pack 2. I erased the partitioned volumes for FAT 32 and Unix. Which I noticed Mac OX X 10.6.3 doesn’t have an option to partition with Disk Utility for Linux operating systems. I reformatted the hard drive into:
Mount Point : /Volumes/Untitled Capacity : 640.16 GB (640,155,648,000 Bytes)
Format : Windows NT File System (NTFS) Available : 639.48 GB (639,476,383,744 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No Used : 679.3 MB (679,260,160 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0 Number of Files : 3,225
Then I got Parallels 5.0 from my external drive which I use as a Time Machine backup when I had the 150GB hard drive, and now I have a Western Digital 1.0TB hard drive. I was installing the same OEM Version 2002 with service Pack 2 into the Virtual Machine when I got this error message SXS DLL System error in manifest or policy file “D:\I386\asms\10\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN” on line 4
Ultimately this happen;
Error Installatiion Failed: D:\I386\asms. Error Message: The request could not be performed because of an I\o\O device error.
Despite the bumpy problems I remain optimistic about every thing I envision have on my MAC BOOOK PRO
with your prayerful help,
Father Michael
Dave,
I recently upgrade my MacBook Pro 2007 unibody model with 4 GB RAM, it now has the maximum amount of RAM memory and a new hard drive. I partitioned the system as this:
Intel ICH8-M AHCI:
Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported
WDC WD10TPVT-00HT5T0:
Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: WDC WD10TPVT-00HT5T0
Revision: 01.01A01
Serial Number: WD-WXB1C1012325
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 5200
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 333.93 GB (333,930,000,384 bytes)
Available: 316.28 GB (316,276,363,264 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
WINDOWS HD:
Capacity: 332.96 GB (332,964,823,040 bytes)
Available: 332.36 GB (332,356,288,512 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk0s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/WINDOWS HD
UNIX HD 3:
Capacity: 332.96 GB (332,964,823,040 bytes)
Available: 332.88 GB (332,881,756,160 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk0s4
Mount Point: /Volumes/UNIX HD 3
I have updated my OS to version 10.6.3 and now I am trying to use my OEM disk with Window XP, so I used the alt/option button and loaded Windows XP Home Edition, I convert the file system from FAT 32 to NTFS and so I thought everything was working good. I checked using the System Preferences and I can restart using the Start up disk to Windows on Windows HD but I get a black screen with this message disk error press any key to restart. So, now I am creating a disk image of my OEM disk and I hope that I can get Windows XP to work. My goal is to upgrades to Window 7 Home Premium on my Windows HD. Then on my load Ubuntu 10.10 on my partition UNIX HD 3 can you help me?
Father Michael
if u hold alt on startup it should let you switch between them both
Hi, I´ve installed the windows XP on my mac and windows works fine… but i have a little problem, my original Mac OSX is missing, and now i cant switch to them… someone a reported that problem?
How can i return to my riginal os?
Dear,
I’ve had a problem in that whenever i open word/excel/powerpoint/entourage, i receive an alert as below.
Microsoft word cannot load the Microsoft office shared libraries.
The files may have been moved from their original location. try the following.
– Move word back to the Microsoft office folder (or the folder where it was originally installed)
– Reinstall word to make sure that all files are installed correctly.
Note that if i open Excel/Powerpoint/Entourage, it responds the same
i.e. Excel cannot load/Powerpoint cannot load/Entourage cannot load.
HOW DO I SOLVE since i lost my installer discs?
Others
1. My drive produces a loud vibrating sound even if there is nothing (CD/DVD) in it.
What could be the problem?
2. Is it possible for one to download and install a DJ-ing software free?
3. Is it true that Apple products are virus free?
With compliments,
Gilbert.
Hi, i have Mackbook air and I didn’t have a Super Drive. I have a CDRW on Dell latitude. If i buy a cable usb2sata, will work to install Windows?
If I have a stick usb boot with Windows will work?
ive got a mac and i like downloading stuff but it all ways says that it cant be run with dos on how do i turn it off?
Hi, Dave. Firstly, thank you for this article, it works fine… up to a point. I’ve gotten everything to work up to ‘Setup is copying files’ on the blue screen, and it starts out fine, but it stops at 16% and has gone no further in the last two hours. I’ve restarted it twice, and always stopped at 16%, at ‘copying: irdasmc.inf’. What can I do?
Efraim, the easy way is to just go to the Apple icon on the top left of the screen, click on it, and choose “About This Mac”. The “Processor” field will tell you what you have. Mine, for example, says “2.53 Ghz Intel Core i5”.
Hello Dave,..
I feel great to use macBook Pro for the, first time..
But, how can i makesure that the macBook is g3, g4, g5 and so on. Thanks.
This is a wonderful & useful article Dave
Thanks a tons for your time…
hi dave,
i’m having ibook g4 n i’ve downloaded the boot camp n i’ve also extracted the files from boot camp and after that i clicked on the instant boot camp.mkdp after i agreed all the terms but during the licencing time it dosen’t go further it gets halted (ie.,)it dosent goes to next step … and if i check the logs it shows it has no files … so u plz help me out …
I was able to get Mac OS back by holding both option keys during the startup until I got a bootup option for Mac OS or Windows. thanks
Dave, I was able to use bootcamp and load windows xp on my macbook pro. when I tried to load the mac OS drivers, I was given a message saying that a newer version of windows installer was needed but that “the resource update was not available”. Moreover, my macpro will only boot up in windows xp even when trying to reboot holding the option key — how can I get my Mac OS back? I would greatly appreciate your help.
thanks,
Joe
Hello Mr. Dave, great article. i was wondering if this works also on a Macbook pro?
“windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file.”
this message pops up after i installed the win xp software…
how should i go about solving this problem
Kayla,
Just start bootcamp again and select the Windows partition. Then you’ll be able to remove it and OSX will automatically add the space to your Macintosh HD partition.
Really easy to do!
Kayla, as far as I can tell, there’s no graceful way to free up the partition from Boot Camp. I think you need to reformat your entire hard disk and reinstall Mac OS X. Not so easy. 🙁
I’ve had windows on my computer for a while now, doing this with bootcamp.
I don’t really use it anymore and I want it off my Mac, but I’m not sure how.
Any help?
Hey Dave
Ok tried to use Boot Camp Assistant to partition my HD, but then it says that there are files that can’t be moved, and that i need to format my drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. I have no idea whats happening and why this thing came up, and i dunno what files are there that can’t be moved. Hope you could help.
Cheers
Hey Dav 🙂
Listen i really need your help!!!
I turned on my macbook today and it opened in windows xp and i dont know how to change back to the norman veiw on a macbook? OS X..
Please help me??
THnx
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the article. It appears I have a bit of problem that no one at Apple can figure out. I have installed Windows XP through boot camp but the drivers for my wireless card and the ethernet are not working. It does not recognize that the hardware is installed. Ever come across anything like this?
Looking for Boot Camp? You probably already have it on your computer, actually, if you look. It’s a bit confusing, though, because it goes by the name of “Boot Camp Assistant”. Look for it in your Applications –> Utilities folder, launch it, and you can then follow the above instructions along…
I’ll also note that I now don’t use Boot Campt but instead use VMWare Fusion (a commercial product) because it lets me run Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 *simultaneous* to Mac OS X, which I find a lot better.
THANK U VERY MUCH. IT IS VERY USEFUL AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND. THANK U SPEND U R VALUABLE TIME FOR US
Can anyone give Boot Camp download link?
My disc don’t have it ==
Hi Dave,
Great site! I followed and have win XP up. However, when I try to install XP drivers from the Mac OS CD, I get a blue screen error toward the end of driver installation. I’ve tried restoring and repartitioning to no avail.
My split is 80/140 Mac/XP. Thanks
Hi Dave,
Great walkthrough on installing boot camp!
So what I wanted to know is once you have Windows installed on your Mac and you’ve had it for a while, can you go back to the original Mac home with a Dock, Safari, etc…?
Dave,
This is by far, the most helpful publication I’ve ever found. It was perfect, step by step, easy to follow, and right on the money every step of the way. Couldn’t have done it without this article. Thanks. Will be back to your site again I’m sure, glad I found your site.
Hello a bit of problem here,
I had Windows XP running a Macbook MAC OS.
Strangely I am now unable to access windows xp and it has reverted back to Mac leopard screen when the computer is turned on opposed to the blue windows XP screen.
Trying to think, why is it case that Bootcamp expires over a certain period of time and then revert back to Mac?
ok… i already removed the dvd… and restore the partitions.
i didn’t know about the alt (option) key -.-‘
<– NOOB!
but still, got the same error when tried again.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1722 <- here says something about format BOOTCAMP partition, but i didn’t get how can i do it…
Ok, i got a BIG problem here… After inserted the windows xp sp2 DVD, i got a black screen that says “Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key”
The question is… how the heck i can eject the DVD if i always get this black screen message?
-.-‘
Please help if can…
Lin, here’s what I dug up for you: “The Control-Alt-Delete problem is fixed by remapping the keyboard using the remapkey.exe file that is part of the Microsoft Resource Toolkit – all command line tools that seem to work as advertised.”
Robert, yes, you can sorta/kinda do that but you’ll need to reboot each time to switch between operating systems. Should work pretty well, though. Good luck.
I have a question. I currently have a Mac but there are a few games that I would like to play that only run on Windows. I am thinking of buying an external harddrive. Can I split that like my internal harddrive and then run the windows programmes and games when that is plugged in? I should buy an external hard drive anyway, what do you recommend?
I have macbook air 1.6ghz with OS X 10.6.3. I stall window XP Sp3. Everything went through well.
After the windows installed then automatic reboot window. But aks me do ctrl-alt-delete to start login in the account to start window. I cannot find a way to get into the window because the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys not working. How can I solve this problem.
In this case, I have no way to install driver for window.
Please give suggests. Thanks.
that was a great help.. thanks for posting this article 🙂