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valnos · Jul 6, 2010, 07:32 PM

I deleted the Boot Camp partition a little while ago and am now trying to reinstall Windows XP. Unfortunately, I can't seem to do this. I partitioned the HD again, and put the Windows XP installation CD in the drive, and clicked on the installation button. The computer restarted, and just returned to the Finder, never giving me the chance to install Windows.

Does anybody know what I can do to fix this? Thanks.

ghporter · Jul 6, 2010, 08:39 PM

Welcome to our forums! Just how did you delete the partition? That could have a strong bearing on what happened, and what you should do next.

valnos · Jul 6, 2010, 11:49 PM

Thanks for the welcome. I opened the Boot Camp Assistant and pressed the "restore" button to delete the Windows partition. Would doing this also have an effect on the Mac? My computer's been running unusually slow lately.

-Q- · Jul 6, 2010, 11:58 PM

Was this the same XP disc you used for the previous installation? Try installing again, this time hold down the option key. You should see the option to boot from the XP disc in the drive.

valnos · Jul 7, 2010, 12:13 AM

I tried holding down the option key, but it only showed the Mac HD. I'm pretty sure that this is the disc I use. I have another XP disc, but that one caused a lot of problems the last time I tried installing with it. The Apple logo at the beginning started flashing and turning into stop symbol and a folder with a question mark on it. I'm a little afraid to try that one again.

Big Mac · Jul 7, 2010, 12:44 AM

If it refuses to show that Windows disc when you hold down option, you'll have to try a different disc. Since you already have a valid disc and license presumably, you can go to "less than official channels" to get what you need, IMO.

ghporter · Jul 7, 2010, 07:39 PM

Gen-uuu-wine Windows XP discs sometimes go belly up; I've found that using disc copy software manages to allow you to create a usable disc from a "it won't boot" or "it won't install" XP install disc. Valnos, assuming your disc is valid, is it absolutely clean and scratch free?

valnos · Jul 7, 2010, 11:28 PM

There's no more wear and tear on the CDs than there is on my working, non-Windows CD. I'll just have to get a new CD somehow. Thanks for the help.

ghporter · Jul 8, 2010, 12:01 PM

As I suggested, make a copy of your genuine disc; the Windows installer is notoriously bad at error handling, and it won't tell you "can't read disc," it'll just quit. Often a decent disc will get you into the installation process and then it'll stop; this is because the optical drive driver in the installer is built for the lowest common denominator, the most basic 1991-vintage CD reader around. No hardware error correction, no software error correction. One bad byte and the install can grind to a halt. But disc copy programs are good at error correction, and they can identify such errors and fix them while making the copy.

Believe it or not, you could probably do a good job of copying with Disk Utility; make a disk image (it doesn't have to be an ISO) and then burn that image to a fresh disc. Give it a shot and see if that gets you going.

valnos · Jul 8, 2010, 12:19 PM

I'll look into that.

My computer's also been running slowly ever since I deleted the partition. Things take longer to load. I initially thought it limited to online activity, but it seems to be slowed down on my computer as well. Does anybody know why this might be the case? It may not have anything to do with the partition, though that seems to be the most likely culprit. I used disk repair already, and that did not seem to help (at least, not very much).