So for my 21st birthday my parents bought me a MacBook Pro, After a few days playing with OSX i found myself playing with the Boot Camp Assistant so i can play Team Fortress 2. I have installed windows at least 40-50 times on all different types of hardware and software configurations, so i thought installing it on a MacBook Pro would not be any different. A task that should have took just one hour turned into a two day adventure with support calls to both Apple and Microsoft.

The setup i was trying to use was a 15GB partition for Windows XP Home w/SP2, I have a OEM system builders CD that i bought from PC Club about two years ago and have used on a CarPC system that is no longer in use.

So i start the process by printing the 22 page manual that Boot Camp recommends printing, I start the Partition process and chose to make a 15GB Windows Partition and press next, It resizes the hard drive partitions and asks me to insert my Win XP CD.

OSX shuts down and i get the nice old Windows blue installation screen, So far so good.

I get to the partitions and pick the 15GB one labeled [BOOT CAMP] and then format it using NTFS (quick), all is good the files are copied and then the system reboots to complete the installation.

This is where it goes from good to bad, After it starts up it says 39 minutes remaining and thats where it just sits and wont move on.

I was reading the Apple Discussion Boards that this might be more of a common issue then i had thought but there was not one good answer to the issue.

I tried it at least four or five times.

So the next morning i gave Apple a call to see if they had any ideas why this was happening, after about one minute on the phone with them they forward my call to Microsoft support (kinda odd how they had them on auto dial) at this point my call got transfered to a Call Center in India, At first the call was going good until i mentioned that it was being installed on a Mac at that point my call got transfered to a Manager and they where explaining that they will support the installation after it is running but not the install process, So i was now back where i started.

So not having another Disk to install from i burned many different home brew Slipstreamed disks and had many failed attempts.

A few weeks ago we had a power outage and my HTPC got its hard drive corrupted, i was thinking that maybe the install media was damaged.

Working on a hunch i tried to install Windows with the same disk, but this time it would not format and it popped up with a message saying that the disk may be damaged. Finally some clues, so at this point with that being the only working disk i had i tired copying the disk using Nero 6.

After the disk was copied i popped it in and hit enter to retry the format and BINGO it worked, so i immediately took the disk out and put it in my MacBook Pro and restarted the installer. With my fingers crossed i got close to the 39 minute mark, it sat for about a minute and then changed to 36 minutes left. Success! The install completed with out issue at this point.

After i booted into Windows for the first time i inserted the Leopard Disk one and a Windows installer opened up, After running though the installer all the drivers where then installed and Windows was fully functional.

My first task now was to get Steam installed and TF2 downloaded and installed.

So now i am able to game on my MacBook Pro.

I plan on running some benchmarks on the MacBook Pro XP, and will make another post for that.

I found this wonderful Desktop Background and just thought it fit the bill perfect.