Boot Camp Special Report: Mac OS X not booting properly after Windows installation

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 6:45 a.m. PT

2 min read

Several users have reported an issue where Mac OS X will not startup properly after partitioning the startup drive with Boot Camp and installing Windows XP.

For these users, Windows XP boots normally, but the Mac OS X startup process stalls at the "spinning gear" stage of the boot process, or results in a kernel panic.

Fixes

Starting up from Mac OS X DVD and repairing disk In some cases, this issue can be resolved by starting up from the Mac OS X installation DVD that shipped with the Intel-based Mac in question (insert the disc, then startup while holding the "C" key), then accessing the "Utilities" menu, selecting Disk Utility and repairing the disk.

Boot into single user mode and move swapfile Try booting your Mac into single user mode by holding down the Command and S keys during startup, then entering the following commands (pressing return after each):

/sbin/mount -uw /

mkdir /var/vm/backup

mv /var/vm/swapfile0 /var/vm/backup/

reboot

Re-installing Mac OS X Failing the above, you may have to erase your Mac OS X partition and re-install Mac OS X>

This can be accomplished by starting up from the Mac OS X installation DVD accessing the "Utilities" menu and selecting Disk Utility, then choosing the Mac partition that is problematic and clicking the "Erase" button. You can then proceed with a normal Mac OS X installation on the newly formatted partition.