ScoobyDoo555

OK to cut a long story short, I bootcamped a copy of XP sp2 onto my Intel Mac Mini.

I'd lost the Boot manager. No joy with pressing "option" upon chimes. Nothing. Even though at the time i could see the other partitions in XP.

So, I'm trying to reformat the drive and start afresh. I've got an Retail version of Tiger, but I've left the Mac Mini install disks at work

So I've got a couple of choices -

1. Take out the Mac Mini sata drive and put it in my G5 as an extra drive (if the connections for sata are the same. (?)
2. Find (clutching at straws) a usb bootloader app that will allow me to format the mac mini. Is there one?
3. Wait until Monday to get the Installation disks - although no guarantee that this will work.


All I want is to get the computer back to OSX.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Dan

ps won't even boot up in Firewire Target mode

Machine is an old 1.5Ghz Intel Core jobby.

Markus

Ok, first up, you're not using a wireless keyboard are you? I ask as I know single user boot won't work with wireless as it does not pick up the press as the keyboard is not initialized at that point, the same is probably true for trying target disk mode, boot manager (option key), and C to book from a CD/DVD. So, if wireless, grab a USB keyboard, ideally Mac to avoid key-mapping issues and plug it in and try the option key at boot.

Next up, Tiger should work for you, as the machine would have shipped with 10.4.5, though your retail tiger might be 10.4.0 and might not install, but the installer should tell you this if you try and install.
The installer will have an Administrator or Utilities menu which has Disk Utility in it so you should be able to use that to reformat the machine.

As for bootloader, there is rEFIt. Very nifty too. I've just given it a shot. I downloaded the .cdr file, and a) burnt it to a DVD and b) stuck it on a USB key (formatted the key as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - it MUST use GUID partitioning - then one formatted, mount the .cdr of rEFIt and copy the efi file on it, jump into terminal and cd /Volumes/nameOfUSBStick/efi/refit/ and then ./enable.sh enter your admin password. Then reboot, hold down option, and whack the USB key in, it should show up as disk to boot from).
I also rebooted, chucked in the DVD and held down the C key and it booted from the disk and gave me the refit menu which allows you to choose what to boot from.

ScoobyDoo555

Thanks Markus

Using a wired keyboard. Found a load of issues.
1. The aftermath of Micro$haft had rendered my low profile (new) Mac keyboard useless at boot!
Changed the keyboard (as a straw-clutch) to an older all-white clunky keyboard, and even a previous black clunky keyboard, booted up with "alt" and hey presto!!! a boot screen.
2. Before pressing anything else, I firewire-targeted the Mac Mini to my Macbook pro...... this time it worked so I ran disk utility and it found loads of issues. Repaired the disk, dismounted the firewire connection and rebooted.
3. Went into BOTH XP & OSX and ran the disk utilities from there to double check....

They are now running fine (I've just got an additional XP boot-loader screen to get shot of tomorrow)....

what a total pita. Just re-affirms the ease of the Apple install. Something we take for granted.

Thanks for the info though - will file this for future use

Dan

Markus

No problem at all sir, always happy to help out and glad it's resolved

Whilst googling this evening it seems Boot Camp and wireless keyboards, specifically the BT apple ones are a no-go, it's unreliable at best from what I've read.

Had a couple of chaps in the office trying to access boot manager and could not, so they had to borrow one of my wired keyboards. People had asked why I had a wired keyboard and this is exactly the reason why.