Skip to Content

Reader questions: Can you install XP via Remote Disk on a MacBook Air?

by Michael Rose Jan 18th 2008 at 9:30PM

The MacBook Air's idiosyncratic approach to peripheral access and software installation has raised an interesting question: how to do OS installs? My assumption had been that you'll need the external DVD drive (or a NetBoot/NetInstall infrastructure) to reinstall Leopard, should you be unfortunate enough to need to do that. Readers want to know for sure, however, whether or not they can install an OS via Remote Disk -- some even want to know whether they can install XP into Boot Camp via the over-the-LAN disk mounting tool.

I felt kind of silly even asking this -- remember, XP installs start in a bootstrap DOS environment a stripped-down XP preinstallation mode, which has as much awareness of Remote Disk as a Siberian yak does of the iPhone -- but I dutifully trooped back to the Apple booth to get a comment on this capability. Here's the scoop as they have it right now (and since the product's not shipping yet, specs are subject to change): You can install Leopard via Remote Disk. The host app for RD creates a miniature NetBoot server via Bonjour, so if you've got a bootable OS X DVD in the host machine you can use that disk to boot your MacBook Air. As for Windows XP install disks... well, not so much. Apple reps would not say definitively that you can't do it, but as far as the three people I spoke with are aware, there's no support for booting XP over Remote Disk. If you've got to install XP in Boot Camp, it's an external drive for you (assuming you can get the machine to boot from a USB device). Otherwise, as pointed out in the comments, you can take an existing XP image and use NetRestore or Winclone to restore the Windows partition; however, since the MBA is new hardware on a different processor, you might need to do some work on the Windows config to achieve bootability. Another (admittedly Rube Goldberg) approach: use Parallels or VMware Fusion's support for accessing the Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine drive, and install Windows that way.

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Macworld MacBook Air

The MacBook Air's idiosyncratic approach to peripheral access and software installation has raised an interesting question: how to do OS...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

29 Comments

Filter by:
Dave

I received my Mac Book Air Friday and cannot get remote disk to install a new (overpriced) full version of Vista Basic. I had no trouble installing Bento from a PC and Boot Camp created a partition for Windows just fine but when it tells you to put in the Windows install disk--it can't see it. Love to know a solution cause the super drive I ordered hasn't shipped yet.

February 03 2008 at 7:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
paul

I have a Macbook Pro where the optical drive stopped working, and while I was able to install Leopard with my external drive, it simply won't install XP. It just won't recognize the disc in the external drive while in the DOS environment. It asks you to insert the disc, you do, it restarts, and then you get a blinking folder.

January 21 2008 at 12:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Louie

Ouch. I was going to suggest booting into target disk mode, but without firewire, that may also pose a problem.

January 20 2008 at 1:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Euan

You can create bootable USB drives to install XP. I did that last week to get XP on my EEE PC. Whether creating a bootable version of the XP install disc on a USB key will work with Bootcamp, I don't know.

January 19 2008 at 6:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Omri Gilad

The moment I heard the first rumor of an optical drive-less keyboard, I thought "so what about the OS restore disc?" I soon came to the assumption that Apple would be smart enough to put put Leopard on a bootable USB stick. I hope they soon realize how rude it is to use a restore DVD on a DVD-less computer and assume the users have another computer around to use remote disc, otherwise they're either fucked or forced to buy an external superdrive. Then again, that's Apple; excellent products, evil business practice.

January 19 2008 at 11:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Omri Gilad's comment
Omri Gilad

I meant optical drive-less laptop. Dunno where that came from....

January 19 2008 at 11:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
andrew

Would it maybe be possible to use Parallels or Fusion to install Windows on a previously created boot camp partition? I know Boot Camp partition shows up when I run Fusion, but obviously it already has an install on it.

January 19 2008 at 7:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
virusdoc

Could one not make an image of the XP install disk on another computer, place that image in a usb disk, and then use the Option key during boot to access Startup Manager and instruct the Mac to boot using th XP ISO? I'm new to Mac OS, but just preordered a MBA and was hoping to install boot camp this way. If I can't, then I will need the external CDROM.

January 19 2008 at 7:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to virusdoc's comment
virusdoc

Here is a tutorial for doing essentially what I suggest.

http://lifehacker.com/338574/install-leopard-with-your-ipod

The tutorial is for installing Leopard from an iPod, but I can't think of any reason why the image you place on the external disk couldn't be that of XP, and the external USB disk could be any form factor in addition to an ipod. But this should work, assuming you first create your bootcamp partition and point the XP installer to it during the install.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, since as I said this is my first foray into Mac OS.

January 19 2008 at 8:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mo

The XP bootloader knows how to read the files it needs from CDs, but doesn't (as far as I know) have the ability to read them from USB devices—the USB drivers aren't loaded until much later on in the process.

You can do it with Leopard (or Tiger, or Panther, for that matter) to/from USB and Firewire, because Mac OS X is a bit smarter that XP in this regard.

January 19 2008 at 10:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mo

XP (and W2K and NT) don't have a “bootstrap DOS environment”; the installer doesn't run under some anaemic 16-bit operating system with no drivers for anything. What you boot into when you boot of the CD is actually XP itself, it just lacks the GUI. Just because it's a character-mode UI doesn't mean it's anything remotely connected to DOS :)

Also, last I looked, Windows was installable across a network, though the technologies Microsoft uses are slightly different to Apple's. Whether you can make them interoperate or not is an entirely different matter…

January 19 2008 at 4:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jbelkin

Um, yea. Aren't you overthinking this? Shouldn't nearly every USB optical drive show up? THe only reason for the specific Apple Air USB DVD drive is its thinness & portablibility for those people who absolutely have to have an optical drive with them but that for many if nor most, they can skirt by with using a remote drive at the office/home?

January 19 2008 at 3:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jbelkin's comment
Simon Arch

I think the question is can it be done as-is, without involving an outboard optical drive. Not everyone who buys a MacBook Air will plump for the SuperDrive option, nor will they necessarily own (or indeed want to buy) an external DVD burner just for this application.

It's nice to know you can boot a Mac install DVD remotely though.

January 19 2008 at 4:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Randy Spencer

Even if you did get it installed via a remote disk, windows doesn't know about remote disks, so any software you wanna install on your Window will require an optical drive. Might as well get the $99 one if you are a windows person...

-Randy

January 19 2008 at 1:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.