[mark1711]

hey guys, this is going to be a long one, and any help would be GREATLY appreciated as i am about to lose it and throw my mac out of the window!!! lol
so, basically i want xp on my mac, just for some old games that ive got, that im itching to play. i have a genuine copy of windows xp pro, with sp2 ready to install, but it seems like everything is against me to install it.
so first of all, i try to install using bootcamp everything goes fine, until i find the disk i am using has a file on (winnt.sif, im sure some of you will be familiar to it) anyway, this file forces a step to be skipped in the installation, meaning the partition for the xp to run on isnt formatted properly so it doesnt work. so i thought id solve this from advice of forums, i made a copy of my xp disk (bootable) without the winnt.sif file on, as this appears to have worked for some people.
so now i have another problem, i got rid of the partition i made earlier through boot camp, and made another, ready to install by new disk, without the winnt.sif file.
boot camp partitions the disk, the new partition is visible on my desktop, and also in the disk utilities application HOWEVER the partition is not available on start up (when holding down the option key, only my macintosh HD shows up) and it is not available in the 'startup disk' section of system preferences. it is as if it just ISNT THERE! when it is blatantly on my desk top, and visible through the disk utility!? therefore i cant continue with my quest to install xp devastation!
so any help would be greatly appreciated! i just dont understand why this partition isnt visible! argh! ive tried getting rid of it, and re-partitioning it about 7 times to no avail! if any one has any idea how to resolve this, or if they have experienced something similar....PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks in advance!
p.s told you it was a long one!

[ghporter]

First, welcome to our forums. Second, NEVER double post or cross post; it's not nice and it wastes your time and ours.

Now to your problem. Why aren't you using your "new and improved" XP install disc while still in Boot Camp? The Boot Camp process first makes the partition, then marks it as either FAT32 or NTFS (your choice), and THEN asks for the install disc. This side steps the nasty "I can't find the partition to install Windows on" problem you're running into.

[mark1711]

hey, thanks for the reply.
when i attempt to install the disk in boot camp, my mac restarts as normal, and boots from the disk (as it should), then i get the usual black screen, lots of white writing typing across, and doesnt attempt to install.
what bugs me is that previously, the windows partition was viewable through holding the option key at start up, and now its not, which makes me think that this has something to do with why xp is not installing.
also, i thought maybe it could be the 'new' xp disk i made that could be the problem, however, when i try with my original xp disk (installing it through boot camp when prompted) no installation takes place, when previously it did.
any more suggestions?
thanks

[ghporter]

Hmmmm... That's really odd. Maybe you could work out building a new disc, like through nLite. And not just removing that one file, but building it as close to a straight "factory install disc" as possible. This may mean working with someone else to compare the contents of their factory discs...

And again, use the Boot Camp Utility to delete the Windows partition you created. I'd restart with the OS X disc and again use Disk Utility to fix everything before going forward.