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erankin42 · Aug 9, 2008, 10:14 PM

I created a Boot Camp partition and attempted to install Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit). I put in the disk and Boot Camp apparently booted off of the CD. Windows copied files and then displayed a black screen that has nothing on it but a progress bar and "Microsoft Corporation".

After a few seconds, I get a blue screen of death. There's certainly a lot of info on the screen, but the error is "STOP: 0x0000007E" and the file referenced is acpi.sys.

I'm pretty much dead in the water. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
- Eric

erankin42 · Aug 9, 2008, 11:12 PM

I went into safe mode after Windows finished copying the files and the installation began. I let the installation run and when I came back to the computer to check on it, I found it rebooting, beginning to start windows (green progress bar) and then rebooting over and over.

So while my blue screen of death is gone, I'm not having any better luck getting Windows to boot.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

- Eric

ghporter · Aug 10, 2008, 07:33 AM

Boot into OS X. Use the Boot Camp Utility to restore the drive to a single partition. Restart in OS X. Now redo the partition and start over. Before you insert that Vista disc, clean it VERY carefully; it could have finger prints, dust, lint or other gunk that could keep the machine from reading it properly, which could lead to Bad Things, not the least of which is BSODs during installation.

Good luck!

seanc · Aug 10, 2008, 10:48 AM

If Glenns suggestions don't work, then can you let us know what type of Mac you have?

Was this a fresh install of Vista or were you upgrading from XP?

erankin42 · Aug 10, 2008, 08:34 PM

Hi all. Thanks for the suggestions. I had recently (the same day) deleted the partition that I had made earlier and created the new on in Boot Camp. The disc looks fine to me so I don't think that's the issue.

Anyway, it is a Mac Mini and it was a clean install of Vista.

I decided to just try the install with Windows XP Pro and that went well, so I'm just not going to worry about Vista for the time.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I really appreciate it...

- Eric

ghporter · Aug 10, 2008, 08:42 PM

Forgive me if I'm unsurprised that XP installed without a hitch, while Vista was "not as easy." I'm glad you're up and running, and I hope that you don't need Vista any time soon. I don't think it's "ready for prime time" even now. I have a copy of Ultimate. It's sitting there in a stack of stuff. I'm not going to install it on anything, both because I dislike the new user interface changes, and because it's a lot of bells and whistles without a lot of horsepower in places that matter—like "ease of use".

OK, I'll stop ranting in YOUR thread.

Again, I'm glad you're up and running.

msellis · Aug 13, 2008, 01:22 AM

Hey - does anyone have any thoughts as to why I might be having the same BSOD problem when installing Windows XP Home Edition, SP2 on a MacBook via Boot Camp?

After I partition the hard drive and boot up using the Windows XP disk, the installation process starts up, but before all the files are loaded from the Windows XP CD, I get a blue screen with the following message: Session 3_Initialization_Failed.

Also, the following stop code appears at the bottom of the screen: 0x0000006F.

Thanks,

-Mike

ghporter · Aug 13, 2008, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by msellis

Hey - does anyone have any thoughts as to why I might be having the same BSOD problem when installing Windows XP Home Edition, SP2 on a MacBook via Boot Camp?

Welcome aboard, Mike!

The first thing I'd do is go back to the beginning, as I suggested above, and get rid of your current Windows partition using the Boot Camp Utility. Now clean the ever-lovin' snot out of that Windows CD! The Windows installer uses a CD device driver that is "functional" at best. It's only real benefit is that it will run any CD drive ever made, even those from way back in the 1990s. Not the best sort of compliment, eh? But because it's ancient, it also doesn't handle errors very well, and it's not at all uncommon for a "made for Windows" PC to have this same sort of problem. Clean that disc and try again. If that doesn't work, you might actually make progress by burning a copy of the disc. Really. You'd do that in either Windows or OS X, and that would mean that an actual, running OS would be handling the optical drive, rather than the Windows installer, and that should recover all the data on the install disc and burn a workable disc. Consider it a "back up disc."

Anyway, good luck! Let us know how it goes.

stirrell · Sep 11, 2008, 11:11 AM

I had the same problem installing XP with Parallels on a MBP. I made a copy of the disc (via Toast) and that worked great. So, strange as it may sound, this solution could work for you.