Windows XP for Boot Camp?

[sscutchen]

My son is a UTexas freshman, but according to the Micro$oft web site, there is no such thing as an academic version of full Windows XP. Only the XP Pro Upgrade is available ($99 from MS, could be different from authorized EDU resellers.)

So what is the best way to get a copy of XP for use with Boot Camp?

[pinkoos]

XP Pro Upgrade shows up as $18 here:

http://www.campuscomputer.com/subpages/m...t_stw.html

[karsen]

BitTorrent? Just kidding.

How 'bout reclaiming the OS from an old, unused PC?

How 'bout Amazon.com has the full version XP Home for $98 shipped. Why does he need Pro? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000242...oding=UTF8&v=glance&n=229534

[MGS_forgot_password]

Pinkoos is right. Tell your son to go to the campus computer store and buy a copy of XP upgrade.

Then do a google search on how to do an full install with an upgrade disc. There is a way.

[pinkoos]

Though I'm not sure if he can buy the full install. Looks like just the upgrade if I read the web page correctly.

MGS_forgot_password Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pinkoos is right. Tell your son to go to the
> campus computer store and buy a copy of XP.

[sscutchen]

karsen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BitTorrent? Just kidding.
>
> How 'bout reclaiming the OS from an old, unused PC?
>
> How 'bout Amazon.com has the full version XP Home for $98 shipped. Why does he need Pro?

Looks like an upgrade disk.

Eligibility for upgrade consists of current users of Windows 98/Windows 98 SE and Windows ME only

[Racer X]

weird, Win2K can't be used as an upgrade to XP Home?

[onthedownlow]

I would be quite certain that U of T (you didn't mention what site, but the entire System should be covered) has full versions, as well as upgrades, of XP Home/Professional for Faculty/Staff/Students under the Microsoft Select and Microsoft Campus program...for either FREE, or very cheap.

I would check into that. I briefly looked at their System site and saw they are in those programs, much like many institutions are.

[sscutchen]

Well, as I mentioned at the top, M$ says there is no such thing as a full academic version of XP.

I had to go into Google's cache, but here is the procedure for using an XP Upgrade disk and a W98 disk to make a BootCampable XP disk. I'm not a Eunichs person, so this s Greek to me. Any severe pitfalls here? Does this look safe enough for a novice Terminal user to try? Is step 18 right, with the backslash?

(This is 100% legal as long as you own the both the copy of Windows XP Upgrade *and* a copy of Windows 9x. We're not changing the disc type from Upgrade to Full, as that would be illegal. Instead, this method combines a Windows XP Upgrade and Windows 9x CD onto one disc, so that the XP installer, sees that you have a legal previous version of Windows, without the need to eject the CD.)

=-=-=-=-=

Windows XP Upgrade Boot Camp Instructions, by Timothy Brown (sysop@timb.us)

This solution allows you to insert Windows 9x into a Windows XP installation disk, fully under Mac OS X. No Linux or Windows required!

Note: These instructions assume you are using Windows XP Pro Upgrade and Windows 98 SE, if not you might have to change a path here and there.

You can check for the proper name of a volume by inserting the CD into your drive and looking at the name that appears on your desktop.

Special Thanks: balamw and Dr. Cheesesteak of MacRumors and Will Holcomb's page on El Torito.

1. Insert Windows XP Upgrade CD into your Mac.

2. Open up System Profiler.

3. Under "Hardware" click on ATA, then under ATA Bus, look for your CD/DVD drive.

4. Scroll down until you see "BSD Name", what we're looking for will look like "disk4", we do NOT want the entry that reads "disk4s0".

5. Open up Terminal.app.

6. Type dd if=/dev/disk4 of=win_xp.iso (Assuming the BSD Name for your optical drive was "disk4".)

7. Go get a drink, this might take a few minutes...

8. Once step 6 finishes type the following at the prompt: bash

9. Now type: dd if=win_xp.iso of=boot.img bs=2048 count=1 skip=$(((v=0x125));echo $v)

10. Now close Terminal.app and then re-open Terminal.app.

11. Type: mkdir WXPCCP_EN (This assuming you are using a Pro upgrade CD. If you're using home, the volume label of the CD might be different.)

12. Type cp -R /Volumes/WXPCCP_EN/* WXPCCP_EN (Same warning as above applies.)

13. Wait for it to copy.... Grab a sandwich this time.

14. Now, eject your Windows XP CD.

15. Insert your Windows 9x CD into the drive. (Everything below assumes you're using a Windows 98 Second Edition CD. Your paths may be different.)

16 Type: mkdir WXPCCP_EN/win98

17: Type: mkdir WXPCCP_EN/drivers

18: Type: cp /Volumes/Win98\ SE/win98/* WXPCCP_EN/win98

19: Type: cp boot.img WXPCCP_EN

20: You'll need to download and compile cdrtools (http://freshmeat.net/projects/cdrecord/) to get access to the mkisofs program. (Quick overview on compiling it: Download it, extract it, change into the directory you extracted it into, type make, wait for it to finish, then sudo make install).

21: Type: /opt/schily/bin/mkisofs -relaxed-filenames -d -D -l -N -o WXPCCP_EN.iso -b boot.img -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot WXPCCP_EN

22: Now you should be able to burn the WXPCCP_EN.iso file, that's sitting in your home directory with Disk Utility.

That's it! You should be good to go now!

Addendum: Dr. Cheesesteak of MacRumors confirms this method *does* in fact work, with one caveat; "BootCamp Assistant doesn't care for the CD. However... If you simply select "Restart OS X" and then hold down the Option key, all is well. You'll really need to babysit the install though as everytime it reboots (twice I believe) it will boot into OS X if you don't hold down the option key and select the Windows partition."

A very important distinction here is that EULA for the retail Upgrade CD for Windows XP explicitly allows for the transfer of said license to other compatible machines, unlike for example a Dell OEM CD. Which is why I would consider using my XP Home CD instead of the XP Pro disc that came with my Dell and is NOT (legally) transferable.

To complete the installation, you still need a valid Windows XP CD and corresponding CD Key, as well as a copy of a previous OS install CD. So this and the previous threads are not condoning piracy, they are merely trying to find ways around a hardware limitation of the Macs Apple is actively helping us install Windows on. (They lack a hardware eject button).

[onthedownlow]

Well, having one in my hand right now...there are 'Academic' versions of a full version XP edition.

Again...check with the UofTexas system for software purchases.