xp

Tweaking XP for your MAC PRO

$FIXED! (updated on the 23rd September 2006)  As you may or may not be aware, during the first month of the release of the Mac Pro, there existed a small compatibility problem between the Mac Pro and the recommended installation procedure for XP service pack 2 using Apple’s BETA boot camp application. The problem degraded a single modern SATA hard drive performance from 60-100 Megabyte/s throughput down to a mere 3792 Kilobytes/s. This affected all users running XP on the Mac Pro. On the 19th of September, Apple released an EFI Firmware Update for the Mac Pro. This firmware (software that initializes the hardware devices before the operating system is loaded from the hard drive) corrects the SATA performance problem. Apparently it also corrects some Windows XP-64 large-memory problems. I recommend installing the EFI Firmware Update (through OS X) as soon as you can. The EFI fix can be installed BEFORE or AFTER you have installed XP and it will always fix the SATA problem. You will need to install the EFI update using a single-drive (normal) installation of OS X. If you are booting OS X off a RAID volume, you will need to reinstall OS X on another drive, and boot of it to install the firmware update. For instance, you can install OS X on your iPOD hard drive. While the Intel XP, Mac Pro, SATA problem has been fixed there exists many good reasons to continue reading this document about how to upgrade your windows XP installation disc using a process called slip-streaming. The first is that Apple’s Boot-Camp only supports Windows installation disc with Service Pack 1. Slip-streaming allows you to upgrade your installation disc to Service Pack 2. Not only this, but slip-streaming allows you to install all the hot-fixes BEFORE you boot up your operating system, removing several system vulnerabilities. The second is that slip-streaming allows you to make significant modifications to your original configuration, such as removing the Windows MSN instant messenger, etc, etc. The third is that slip-streaming allows you to install many common applications onto the installation disc. This reduces your turn-around time when you inevitably have to reinstall. If you wish to view the original XP fix with device drivers, please click here. Requirements You will want to download (or own a copy) of the following items: * Any legitimate copy of Windows XP Home or Professional (full installation disk) * (conditional) Download Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package (if required) * (optional) Download WPA_KILL by searching www.filewatcher.com * (optional) Download RemoveWGA from www.FirewallLeakTester.com * Download nLite for free (and make a small donation) * Download .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package * (optional) Download RVM XP Hot Fix Package (website) * (optional) Review other add-ons on that website * Download ImgBurn bootable CD burning tool (and make a small donation) * Download SiSoftware Sandra Light from here (benchmarking tool) * Download Apple’s Boot Camp for remaining essential Mac Pro Drivers. (Now available as version 1.1.1) Optional steps are optional! Building your custom XP boot disk The first step is to download all the files into an installation directory (lets say C:\MacXP) on a working Windows box. This might be your currently booting XP on the Mac Pro, or any other modern windows box. I strongly recommend spending a few hours searching through the AddOn’s for nLite. These packages allow for Adobe Acrobat Reader, AVG Antivirus, and other freely distributable tools to be installed auto-magically in your installation. The custom XP boot disk *should* work on other computers as you are simply installing optional drivers for the Mac Pro. Second step is to install the .NET framework required by nLite. I would also ensure that service Pack 2 is installed on your operating system your are building the XP boot disk from. Third step is to install ImgBurn if you don’t already have a CD burning tool installed. (I selected ImgBurn because it was donation ware. We will use the nLite tool to build the custom bootable cdrom. By following the steps above you have all the modules ready to pass into nLite when it requests it. The nLite installation process is very well described here and I recommend you follow its instructions. There is no longer any reason to install drivers directly onto the XP disc. While technically it may be possible to install the Boot Camp Windows drivers directly onto the XP disc, I don’t recommend it at this time. Apple are continually improving their drivers and installation process. Fourth Step is burn the .ISO image file generated by nLITE. Fifth Step is to perform a re-install of Windows XP using your custom boot disk. (*updated*) This must be a complete CLEAN reinstall of XP. If you are using the “Mighty Mouse” supplied with the Mac Pro, please disconnect it before booting up the custom XP CD. Windows XP first-stage installation (text mode) and the Mighty Mouse do not like each other, resulting in the keyboard not accepting input in some systems! Plug the Mighty Mouse back in when you are in the graphical stage of the XP installation. From this point on the Mighty Mouse and Keyboard should work without problems. I also recommend disconnecting all non-essential peripheral during the XP installation, based on the following Forum Positing: “Had a problem with the Windows XP installation stalling at 34 minutes during "Installing Devices" and found the solution. I shut down the computer and unplugged all of my Firewire devices (includes iSight, iPod, disk drives, etc.) and then restarted onto the Windows XP disk. The Mac Pro tried to boot the aborted installation and then restarted the installation. No stall this time, so apparently one or more Firewire devices was causing the trouble. Looking good... finalizing installation now” When selecting a File System for XP, the modern NTFS file system can be read but not written by OS X. If you want easy file transfers, ensure you have at least one FAT-32 partition in your system. In most cases you will want to use FAT-32 for your XP installation. Sixth Step is optional. You might like to run SiSoftware Sandra Light software to double-check that you have reasonable hard drive performance that reflects the drives installed in your system. You can also double check the results / settings using Hd Tune. Seventh Step is to install the Boot Camp drivers to get the audio, keyboard, video, networking and other important devices operational. Be sure to reboot as required after XP announces drivers are installed, do you want to reboot? You Do! !!! Party !!! Question: Do I need Apple’s Boot Camp tools? Answer: YES, you specifically need the Windows drivers included in Apple’s Boot Camp tools! Boot Camp has 2 stages. The first stage repartitions a default Mac OS X installation, so that OS X sits on the first part of the hard drive, and XP can sit on the second part of the hard drive. This step is not required. You can avoid this step by installing a new hard drive and installing XP on its own dedicated drive. The second stage builds a device driver CD that includes essential device drivers for Mac Pro devices on XP. You MUST install the device drivers to get the best XP experience on the Mac Pro. Question: Will i need to re-install Windows XP at a later time? Answer: Definitely. I have found that windows installations degrade over time and become unreliable. I tend to reinstall Windows every 12 months or so. I suspect when Apple release a significantly revised Boot Camp that there may be reason to perform a clean install simply to benefit from updated drivers.$ shapeimage_2_link_0