Problem Installing XP on separate HD.. AHCI issue?

[Bonesetter]

I changed my SATA cables to what you suggested, erased and repartitioned the drive, unplugged all drives but blank one, edited the BIOS, installed using the retail XP home edition with SP2, and the same exact thing happened. It copies all the XP files but when it goes to reboot:

Loading operating system…Missing Operating System

The drive I'm trying to install on is a WD Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5. It doesn't appear to matter what SATA port I use, whether the Z68 or the Marvell chipset, I can never get setup to finish after the reboot. It doesn't make sense to me that I can have everything unplugged, basically like a new computer, but can't install XP.

Could it be a problem with my partitioning using Disk Utility? I've been doing a 1gb partition MacOS Extended named "Boot" and then a second partition named "WINXP" MS-DOS FAT 32. When I go to install XP, would reformatting to NTFS do anything when prompted? Or should I try maybe making my "Boot" partition the second partition? Not sure that would change anything though...

 

[Going Bald]

Could it be a problem with my partitioning using Disk Utility? I've been doing a 1gb partition MacOS Extended named "Boot" and then a second partition named "WINXP" MS-DOS FAT 32. When I go to install XP, would reformatting to NTFS do anything when prompted? Or should I try maybe making my "Boot" partition the second partition? Not sure that would change anything though...

Drive format should be MBR partition tables, first partition 100Mb format OS X Extended (Jornaled) named Boot, second partition just for kicks, let's leave free space and let WinXP installer format it.
So boot the install DVD, and tell it to install, let setup do its thing until you get to the screen after you accept the license legalese and select the unformatted free space on the HDD. and hit enter.
At the next screen, just copy whatever the maximum size is for the rest of the drive if you want to use the whole drive, or some value in between the min and max allowed and hit enter.
The next screen should show you your 1Mb partition and your new C partition and any unformatted space if you left any. Select the C partition and hit enter.
Now select the Format the partition NTFS file system (do not use the quick format - make it do it right) It may take longer, but is worth the wait.

So, after formatting, setup should proceed to copy over all the files. When done, it should reboot automatically and do the actual install.

From what I gather from previous posts, this is where your install fails to boot, yes?

 

[Bonesetter]

So, after formatting, setup should proceed to copy over all the files. When done, it should reboot automatically and do the actual install.

From what I gather from previous posts, this is where your install fails to boot, yes?

Yes, this is exactly where it keeps failing to boot. I thought I figured out what I was doing wrong, not checking the MBR option in disk utility, but after wiping the drive twice and using the retail XP SP2 Home Edition disc and the XP Pro SP3 disc I still was getting the same error. "Missing Operating System_"

I did as you suggested and only formatted one partition and let the XP install disc format the other partition NTFS during the install. All the files copied over, and then on reboot I got a different error, "Error Loading Operating System_"

I feel like I have to be missing something simple, yet very critical. Thanks for continued support, I've sunk enough time into this now where I don't want to give up lol.

 

[Going Bald]

Yes, this is exactly where it keeps failing to boot. I thought I figured out what I was doing wrong, not checking the MBR option in disk utility, but after wiping the drive twice and using the retail XP SP2 Home Edition disc and the XP Pro SP3 disc I still was getting the same error. "Missing Operating System_"

I did as you suggested and only formatted one partition and let the XP install disc format the other partition NTFS during the install. All the files copied over, and then on reboot I got a different error, "Error Loading Operating System_"

I feel like I have to be missing something simple, yet very critical. Thanks for continued support, I've sunk enough time into this now where I don't want to give up lol.

Suggest trying a WD black HDD or some other non-"green" brand. The power saving firmware on the WD Blue and Green drives just interferes too much, i am thinking. The Green drives are really a PITA.

 

[Bonesetter]

I decided to give it one last try installing XP on this "blue" drive. As much as I want to get XP running on a separate drive, I don't really want to sink anymore money into it as it really isn't a necessity per say.

I really didn't think this would work, but I decided to slipstream the AHCI drivers found on Gigabyte's website into the XP Home Edition SP2 disc and just try installing without changing the BIOS to IDE. When visiting Gigabyte's site, I noticed that there were 2 versions of my board, 1.0 and 1.3 revision and they had different links to drivers. I read a few more articles on slipstreaming using nLite. I wiped and reformatted using Disc Utility and made a MBR with 2 partitions, just like the tutorial. I unplugged all the drives except my blank one, edited BIOS to boot from CD first and then HDD. I left all my settings the same, including the AHCI setting.

Lo and behold, if the XP didn't install and work the way it was suppose to!

Of course, then I went to try and update to SP3 and spent about 30min trying to get connected to the internet. Then it dawned on me, I should probably install all the drivers that came with my board and I bet it will work. (I haven't had time to confirm, but I'm pretty certain that's my issue)

I'm assuming that if I'm leaving this drive in the current SATA port, than once my XP is updated as much as it can be, I can skip down the guide to step 16, and move my /Extra folder and install Chimera to the boot partition of the XP drive.
http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html

Thank you for the assistance Going Bald, even though I was about ready the throw my XP hdd out the window and spent several hours working on this, I definitely learned a lot about IDE vs AHCI, SATA ports, partitioning hdds, and slipstreaming WinXP cds!

 

[Going Bald]

Then you didn't waste your time. Good you got it working.

Hope it is smooth sailing for you from now on.

 

[Bonesetter]

Then you didn't waste your time. Good you got it working.

Hope it is smooth sailing for you from now on.

So much for smooth sailing, I can't get any of my operating systems to boot now!

I copied the /Extra folder over to the Boot partition, repaired permissions, and then installed Chimera on the Boot drive. When I fire up the machine, it now defaults to Windows NTFS and if allowed to boot says "Missing BootMGR". Did I do something wrong?

If I hit space when starting, I see my normal drives, Lion, Cloned HD, Windows NTFS, and Reserved. (but no XP drive) If I try to boot into Lion or Reserved (Win7), both of them hang and it never boots up. Now I'm not even sure how to get booted back into my main drive. :-/

 

[Going Bald]

So much for smooth sailing, I can't get any of my operating systems to boot now!

I copied the /Extra folder over to the Boot partition, repaired permissions, and then installed Chimera on the Boot drive. When I fire up the machine, it now defaults to Windows NTFS and if allowed to boot says "Missing BootMGR". Did I do something wrong?

If I hit space when starting, I see my normal drives, Lion, Cloned HD, Windows NTFS, and Reserved. (but no XP drive) If I try to boot into Lion or Reserved (Win7), both of them hang and it never boots up. Now I'm not even sure how to get booted back into my main drive. :-/

You installed Chimera to the boot partition you made on the XP drive and made the XP drive first in HDD boot order in the BIOS?
If you boot and hit F12 to select a boot device and the XP drive boots, what do you see when you hit a key during the Chimera time-out?

 

[Bonesetter]

You installed Chimera to the boot partition you made on the XP drive and made the XP drive first in HDD boot order in the BIOS?

Yes and Yes

If you boot and hit F12 to select a boot device and the XP drive boots, what do you see when you hit a key during the Chimera time-out?

I unplugged my spare drive and my Win 7 drive. When I boot from my XP drive, it only shows "Lion" and if I hit a key, all I see is lion. If I try to boot the lion drive it hangs at a bright screen after the apple logo splash. I'm assuming because there is no /extra folder for it.

I should have left my boot order alone and just used F12 whenever I wanted to use XP...
Is there a way to use my time machine copy to restore my /extra folder?

If I unplug all my drives except the XP drive, it shows up on boot but then says,"Can't find /mach_kernel" press any key to continue. If i do I get the tonymac logo with chimeras info in the upper left corner and a dark grey bar that says "boot:".

Please tell me I don't have to reinstall everything.


Update: I was able to command+r with my backup drive attached and OSX loaded up. I went into time machine and retired my /extra folder back into my Lion HDD and now can boot back into Lion. So at least that is working.

 

[Going Bald]

Yes and Yes


I unplugged my spare drive and my Win 7 drive. When I boot from my XP drive, it only shows "Lion" and if I hit a key, all I see is lion. If I try to boot the lion drive it hangs at a bright screen after the apple logo splash. I'm assuming because there is no /extra folder for it.

I should have left my boot order alone and just used F12 whenever I wanted to use XP...
Is there a way to use my time machine copy to restore my /extra folder?

If I unplug all my drives except the XP drive, it shows up on boot but then says,"Can't find /mach_kernel" press any key to continue. If i do I get the tonymac logo with chimeras info in the upper left corner and a dark grey bar that says "boot:".

Please tell me I don't have to reinstall everything.


Update: I was able to command+r with my backup drive attached and OSX loaded up. I went into time machine and retired my /extra folder back into my Lion HDD and now can boot back into Lion. So at least that is working.

OK, OS X drive and XP drive connected, Boot to OS X, download Chimera stand alone installer, run it and select the boot partition on the XP drive to install it on and install it, right?

Reboot and make sure the XP drive is first in boot order, right?
If you show all files, do you see a file called boot in the root of your Lion install?

EDIT: never mind, since you restored from backup.
Getting XP to work right was really a pain and it has been so long since I messed with it I don't really remember what tricks I pulled to get it working. I would try installing per the old guide I wrote and try to see where you might have gone wrong (or where I did when I wrote it) but I no longer have XP - sold the DVD along with the old computer.

Why not do what I did? Have a HDD/SSD for each OS and get a hotswap bay like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2E114X4573 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2E114N4820 and only have the OS you are currently booting in the computer. Sure has made it easier to boot the OS I want when I want without having to worry about a bootloader other than the one provided with the OS.