Here We Go Again! NBI 2 Guide Updated for Windows
It had better work for everyone this time.
dylar at MyDellMini pointed me to Image Writer, which is way better than the dd command that I’ve been using in the guide forever. Plus, it shortened down the instructions quite a bit. Since the whole Windows section has changed, you’ll want to reread it through if you were having trouble before. And as always, leave a comment or send a message about how it worked.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Image Writer does not work for me, “An error occured when attempting…” Error 8:
Using XP, having many harddrives with different filesystems (Linux, Windows 7, Mac, XP…). Some partitions do not have a letter in XP.
Installed yesterday using dd, worked like a charm, so it would be convenient to keep that information somewhere.
Many thanks for the great guides!
December 31st, 2009 at 10:00 am
Using NI2. I get to the grey screen and am able to choose “Mac OS X Install DVD”.
But then I get the “Apple” logo and then after that a window saying “You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again”. I follow these instruction but keep ending up at this screen…
It looks like I’ve managed to get both images onto the 2 USB’s okay (using ImageWriter), but can’t seem to get any further…
Any ideas?
December 31st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Okay I decided to reformat the USB drives and try again. Managed to start the Mac OSX installation process and got upto number 13 on your installation guide (“Press Done (10.5) or OK (10.6), then press Install. Installation can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on the condition of the DVD disc, speed of the DVD drive and the amount of items you selected.”)…
But it said installation failed and to restart. I did that but now when I boot from USB I get a grey screen with a flashing message at the top left hand corner saying “Can’t find mach_kernel”.
If I load from the hard drive I get a message saying: “PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating system not found”
Any help would obviously be much appreciated…
I’m sure I’m not far away, but don’t know what to do now…
Thanks in advance!
January 1st, 2010 at 12:06 am
I’ve added two alternate methods to the guide, those might be able to help a little.
January 1st, 2010 at 12:21 am
Image Writer works only with flash drives? I have an external Maxtor 120GB drive. Is it possible to use it instead of a usb flash drive?
January 1st, 2010 at 12:33 am
It should work just fine with a hard drive. Flash drives are typically used, but there is no good reason it shouldn’t work with a hard drive. If that fails, you can always try the alternate methods I added tonight.
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Everything was going great (so I did get further than before) until installation. After about a minute it said it had failed, then when I tried to restart and boot back into chameleon on the small usb drive, it brings up a grey screen saying “can’t find mach_kernel”.
January 3rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
I’m having the exact same results as sevi and Jake….Exactly the same. I’ve tried every combination — 2 flashdrives, flashdrive and 1 CD rom optical drive, 2 Cd rom optical drives. The only thing I have not tried is using a Mac to transfer the Snow Leopard install disc to the flash drive, because I don’t have a Mac. I know my computer is not bricked because I was able to use a Linux Ubuntu flash drive distro and that worked fine…..trouble is, right now I also have no OS, having gotten only through Disc Utility in the Mac Setup….my progress bar said install would take 14 minutes…..not the 30 minutes to 3 hours. Right then I knew I had a problem….it then failed and said to restart, but it brought me right back to ground zero. Help ?? Thanks……
January 4th, 2010 at 2:11 am
Hey Doug – you need to reformat the netbook using your original WinXP CD and then try the MacOSX installation process again.
I think the issue we’re all experiencing maybe to do with the choice of our flash drives – Mechdrew has updated the guides to include a requirement for a 16GB flashdisk. I’ve been using a 8GB one so far and only get as far as the “can’t find mach_kernel” error. I’ve ordered a 16GB drive and will update once I’ve tried that! *fingers crossed*
January 5th, 2010 at 6:05 am
Drew,
When I boot from the USB keys I’m getting 2 Windows Icons and 2 Hard Drive icons. I’ve used the arrow keys to select annd then press Enter for each one and am not getting a Install OSX prompt.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Yeah, I’ve tried the Win32 Disk Image program on several machines now, and it does not work in XP at all as far as I can tell. I also seem to have trashed one of my USB drives. I’ll try again on a Win7 Machine and report back.
January 8th, 2010 at 2:10 am
Downloaded the win32 disk image program with the NBI_083F.img and write to usb flash drive. My question is does any files show up once the write is complete on the flash drive on windows? It just says it needs to be formatted before use.
Im doing to on my Gf mini so I can’t just test it out my flash drives to see if they work.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
does not work with external hard drives. it dosen’t show up as drive
January 11th, 2010 at 10:20 am
help, Snow Leopard won’t mount. i get “Install Failed, The installer could not copy the necessary support files” i’ve come across this several times. help? no idea what to do.
January 14th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Alright, I guess hard drives are out for Disk Imager, just use one of the two alternate methods.
As for everyone, there have been several changes, but the major one is the fact that there are two alternate methods. If the first one doesn’t work, try *both* of the others. That’s all the troubleshooting I’ve got, after that you’re on your own.