It's not like it's the fault of Big Brother Microsoft. To be
completely honest, it's mostly my fault, but still it's a tale of
woe.
First of all, the college that my son attends demands that students
use a PC laptop or a MacBook or MacBook Pro using Windows Vista
or XP installed using Boot Camp. It seems the college runs a Novell intranet, and
it only works on Windows - no emulators need apply.
From a Restore Disc
My son has a MacBook, so I thought it would be no problem using the
restore disc from the
Dell XPS 200 to put Windows on the MacBook.
Experienced Windows users are already shaking their heads. "John,
John, you silly naive, newbie waif. It is not going to be that easy.
You will have to bow down and cross Microsoft's (PBOGH)* palm with
silver. No matter what you do. There is no escape, Apple Fanboy."
They were right, of course, but first I had to suffer.
The installation with Boot Camp went fine. Windows ran pretty well.
I figured that as long as I didn't register the software, I would be
okay.
Activation
Silly Fanboy, tricks are for Windows, not for silly users. My son
went to college, and thirty days passed. Surprise! Activation arrived,
and the product key would not work. Phone calls to Microsoft resulted
in nothing.
I called Dell, and they told me that if I removed the software from
the Dell, then the Product Key should work with the installation on the
MacBook.
Windows users are convulsed with laughter at this point. As you can
guess, the Dell representative did not know what he was talking
about.
I talked to Microsoft; the code was supposed to work.
I called Dell, and guess what? A different Dell representative broke
the news to me. The copy of Windows I have is "locked" to my Dell
computer. The motherboard has some hardware on it that links it to the
copy of the Microsoft Windows. You can only use it with the Dell.
Microsoft. It's nice work if you can get it.
OEM Windows XP
So I bought an OEM version of Windows XP Home. I planned to install
it over the weekend, along with the Windows applications that the
college requires. Cutting my losses, I reinstalled XP on the Dell - but
I also stuck a blow for freedom. I have a copy of Ubuntu Linux. I'm going to put it on the
Dell and make it a dual boot machine.
And Microsoft and Dell, guess which operating system I'm going to
use?
Try - and Try Again
I had envisioned an easy Saturday. Drive over to my son's college
(an hour away), install Windows XP on his MacBook, and then drive down
to my daughter's college (about another 30 minutes) to visit and buy
supplies for her.
Not all things go as planned. I arrived at the college and wiped out
the old installation of Windows. I had purchased an OEM Windows XP disc
from NewEgg and started
the install.
There is a point in the Boot Camp process where Boot Camp reboots
the computer using the Window partition on the MacBook's hard drive and
Windows takes over. A cursor showed up, and I got a message that read
"Disc error. Strike any key to continue." I did - and it didn't. The
cursor and message remained unchanged.
Then the MacBook booted up from the Windows XP install disc and went
into setup again. I took out the disc and restarted the computer. Back
to the cursor - and the same error message came back.
I could use the Option key and boot into OS X (the
comfort of the Apple start up process), but it could not, would not
boot into Windows.
Hmmmm.
The caravan had to move out, and with my son's MacBook in tow, we
drove down to the second college campus on our tour. I wiped the drive
of the Windows partition and started all over again. Same thing.
I did notice that when I booted into OS X, the drive read "Boot
Camp" instead of "No Name", as it had when I installed Windows with the
restore disc.
Much head scratching at this point.
'Take It to the Apple Store'
My wife, who is in charge of my sanity, was going to go to the mall
with my daughter (situation normal). She suggested that I take the
computer to the Apple Store at the mall.
"They have an Apple Store at that mall?" I asked.
Assured that they had one, off to the mall we went with the MacBook
in tow. One of the Apple Genius staff let me set up shop at a counter
and watched me attempt to install Windows XP. Same result. This nice
person pointed out that it was when Windows took over - and he could
not help me with any Windows situation.
Fair enough. I thought that I might as well wipe the Windows
partition, install any updates, run Disk Utility, and try one more
time. At this point, I was thinking that perhaps something was going on
in that section of the hard drive where Boot Camp installed
Windows.
In the middle of all this, another Apple Genius came by. I explained
what was going on, and he asked how I was formatting the partition. I
told him that I had followed the other Apple Genius' advice and left
the formatting as it was.
My Savior
Rob, my savior, was an ex-Windows system manager, and he suggested
that I use the formatting option of Boot Camp. He explained that the
Windows install was picky about the hard drive formatting. At that
point of the process, we formatted the partition as FAT 32
and ran the full format option. This took a lot of time, put it was
worth it. The Windows install went perfectly, and I was never more
happy to hear the musical notes of a Windows start up.
Props to the Apple Store in the Holyoke Mall (in Ingleside) in
Holyoke, MA. They saved my bacon, as I was under time pressure to get
Windows installed and the MacBook back in my son's hands by the end of
the day.
It was a valuable lesson to me - and now to you. If you are
installing Windows with Boot Camp, use the long partitioning method
when you format your hard drive partition for Windows.
A day later, I remembered that when I first installed Windows from
the Dell restore disc, which had worked perfectly until Activation Day,
I had use the long install option.
Some days, I hate my brain. 
