2 days ago my Macbook's (2 GHz, black with 3 GB RAM and 120GB HDD) WIndows installation was struck by spyware. I tried my level bets to remove all the offending dlls and registry entries but in the end felt it would be a good idea to re-install windows as it had been almost a year since windows were first installed.
I searched everywhere on the web but did not find a topic for 're-installation' of windows - all topics seemed to be around first time installation of windows on Macbook with Bootcamp.
During the process, I figured that Bootcamp Beta also had expiration dates. After all the research, this is my learning on expirations:
1. If you have windows already running, the expiration of Bootcamp will not harm anything.
2. If you want to create a backup cd of drivers, simply set the date to June 2006 using OS X set time and date and you should be fine.
3. I think Bootcamp 1.2 will work in either case and it may not expire. 1.3 and 1.4 will probably expire.
Anyway, not sure whether my Bootcamp will work or not, I booted my Macbook using a Windows XP Pro SP2 bootable disc. Please note that all data in my windows partition was backed up before I started doing anything else.
I followed the Windows XP fresh install procedure till I reached a point when I had to select the partition where I wanted to install. I selected the last partition marked (windows) and did a quick format on it.
Next, the installation started and it seemed like everything will go smoothly. Everything did go smoothly till my system rebooted and got stuck at the following error:
'Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>system32hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file.'
There are a gazillion posts about this error message but there is no way to fix this easily when using bootcamp on a Mac. The easiest and recommended solution was:
1. Boot up in OS X
2. Set your date to June 2006 (to be on the safe side and thats what worked for me)
3. Fire off Bootcamp 1.2 (thats what I have)
4. Create a driver CD if you dont have one already
5. Restore the partition to a single volume
6. Using bootcamp again, partition the drive for windows
7. Feel free to choose as big a partition as you want (ignore the FAT32 restriction). I chose 55 GB.
8. After the partition is ready, use bootcamp to continue with windows installation.
9. In the windows installation prompts, choose the last partition marked by C: and do a complete format using NTFS.
10. Then proceed with the installation.
System will boot a few times and will automatically start windows as needed. Once all is done, run the driver CD to install all the drivers. All my devices were installed perfectly fine.
Once this is done, download and install all windows updates and install away all the software you want on your windows.
I hope this helps those folks who are looking for a 're-install' guide on a Macbook using Bootcamp.
Oh and if you have ever wondered whether or not 3 GB of unpaired memory will be faster than 2 GB of paired memory on a Macbook, I would say that 3 GB is faster if you really have the need for so much memory. If you barely use 1 GB 90% of the time, then things may seem slow at some times.
-- All the best