I have an Intel-based MacBook Pro whose hard disk was formatted before I received it. It had no OS installed, and I have no Mac OS X installation disks.
I’m trying to get the machine to run some version of WindowsXP or later version of Windows with all hardware (especially network adapters) working with proper drivers. I would like to do so legally and for the lowest price possible. How do I do this?
I have installed a copy of Windows XP SP2 onto the machine using an old CD and key I had lying around. This is the only OS installed on the machine.
The machine boots into XP without problems, but some devices—most notably, the Ethernet and the Wi-Fi network adapters--do not have drivers. I have tried all of the following steps to get the network adapters to work:
I have attempted to run the Boot Camp - Windows XP Drivers Update 2.1 executable. Unsurprisingly, this did not work; the failure message stated that I did not have the appropriate drivers installed and the documentation clearly states:
Important: Installation of Boot Camp 2.1 is required before installing
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)From another MacBook Pro, I ran the “Boot Camp Assistant.” I selected the option to “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple,” put the download onto a USB flash drive and attempted to run the executables on the Windows XP MacBook Pro. This too failed: “The file is not a proper executable” or somesuch. This too is unsurprising, considering
- The hardware differences between the different MacBook Pros.
- The fact that the Windows XP machine has never used any form of Boot Camp.
- The fact that I am using a USB flash drive when the “Boot Camp Assistant” states that I need a FAT32-formatted external external hard disk drive. Due to budgetary constraints, I do not have access to an external hard disk drive.
I have done the digging here on SuperUser. I have found two SuperUser questions—this one and this one—to have relevant questions but inapplicable answers.
No comments:
Post a Comment