Installing Windows 2000 on a Mac - Any Solutions?

[whistler2250]

I have tried several times to install Windows 2000 on my mac, and I've never made it past the partition screen as it doesn't want to format any partitions. Any solutions?

[user99672]

Maybe consider a more reasonable goal- Windows XP. Bootcamp is not going to work for every version of Windows, it is only supported (including drivers...) from XP and up. Further, if you're asking for help, I highly implore you to post your system model/emulator or hypervisor and its specifications.

[whistler2250]

It's a Late 2008 Aluminum Unibody MacBook with a Core 2 Duo CPU at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, a 250 GB Hard Drive, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip.

[whistler2250]

Maybe consider a more reasonable goal- Windows XP. Bootcamp is not going to work for every version of Windows, it is only supported (including drivers...) from XP and up. Further, if you're asking for help, I highly implore you to post your system model/emulator or hypervisor and its specifications.

As for Windows XP, I really tried that out with Windows FLP on my mac for a while.

[adun]

For Windows 2000 on a mac please have a look at
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175775- ... n-mac-pro/

In short, you must copy NTDETECT.COM from Win XP into your Win2k \i386 folder to allow the created disk to boot on your mac
During boot press F5 and select "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Computer" to be able to proceed
Lot of drivers are missing and you will be able to use only one single core (uniprocessor mode) unless you write a new HAL for Windows 2000. The one from XP doesn't work
You can also install BlackWingCat's Extended Core and Extended Kernel to gain full PAE support and allow newer apps to run like Firefox 50+ etc

[Goldfish64]

As far as graphics support, the only Macs that would have official support under 2000 would be ones with GMA 950, GMA X3100, and perhaps GeForce 7xxx series GPUs. For later NVIDIA GPUs such as that 9400M, I believe you could try older drivers intended for XP.

[perry]

thats impossible...

[Helegad]

I personally wouldn't invest any further time into this. Why don't you just get an older laptop for Windows 2000? Everything is native, and it'd be damn cheap too.

[whistler2250]

For Windows 2000 on a mac please have a look at
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175775- ... n-mac-pro/

In short, you must copy NTDETECT.COM from Win XP into your Win2k \i386 folder to allow the created disk to boot on your mac
During boot press F5 and select "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Computer" to be able to proceed
Lot of drivers are missing and you will be able to use only one single core (uniprocessor mode) unless you write a new HAL for Windows 2000. The one from XP doesn't work
You can also install BlackWingCat's Extended Core and Extended Kernel to gain full PAE support and allow newer apps to run like Firefox 50+ etc

I already tried that, and it thinks my disk is 137 GB, not 250 GB.

[whistler2250]

I personally wouldn't invest any further time into this. Why don't you just get an older laptop for Windows 2000? Everything is native, and it'd be damn cheap too.

I don't have an older laptop.

[whistler2250]

As far as graphics support, the only Macs that would have official support under 2000 would be ones with GMA 950, GMA X3100, and perhaps GeForce 7xxx series GPUs. For later NVIDIA GPUs such as that 9400M, I believe you could try older drivers intended for XP.

I think I have a 2006 MacBook laying around with GMA 950 graphics, I'll try that when I get a hard drive for it.

[MSUser2013]

As far as the hard drive size goes, the Windows 2000 setup thinks you have a 137GB hard disk because it doesn't support 48-bit LBA, I think you'll have better luck getting it to work on your 2006 Macbook if you really want to run Windows 2000 natively on an Intel Mac (mainly due to better driver support), why don't you run it in a virtual machine? there's no reason not to especially since Win2k is a light enough OS to not cause issues when virtualized on those older Macs.

If I still had my 2006 Intel Mac Mini I'd personally be interested in trying this out myself because (ironically) Windows 2000 with unofficial updates has better browser support than OS X 10.6 due to the last XP-compatible Firefox being newer than the last version compatible with OS X 10.6-10.8 (FF 47 vs FF 52ESR), I'll be sure to save this for when I come across another old Intel Mac.

I personally wouldn't invest any further time into this. Why don't you just get an older laptop for Windows 2000? Everything is native, and it'd be damn cheap too.

I don't have an older laptop.

Offtopic Comment

There are ways to get an older laptop at a cheap price, you can find one on eBay, frequent craigslist searching to see if anyone's selling one, or even look for one at a local thrift store or recycling center.

[whistler2250]

As far as the hard drive size goes, the Windows 2000 setup thinks you have a 137GB hard disk because it doesn't support 48-bit LBA, I think you'll have better luck getting it to work on your 2006 Macbook if you really want to run Windows 2000 natively on an Intel Mac (mainly due to better driver support), why don't you run it in a virtual machine? there's no reason not to especially since Win2k is a light enough OS to not cause issues when virtualized on those older Macs.

If I still had my 2006 Intel Mac Mini I'd personally be interested in trying this out myself because (ironically) Windows 2000 with unofficial updates has better browser support than OS X 10.6 due to the last XP-compatible Firefox being newer than the last version compatible with OS X 10.6-10.8 (FF 47 vs FF 52ESR), I'll be sure to save this for when I come across another old Intel Mac.

I personally wouldn't invest any further time into this. Why don't you just get an older laptop for Windows 2000? Everything is native, and it'd be damn cheap too.

I don't have an older laptop.

Offtopic Comment

There are ways to get an older laptop at a cheap price, you can find one on eBay, frequent craigslist searching to see if anyone's selling one, or even look for one at a local thrift store or recycling center.

I haven't found any older laptops where I live anyways.

[whistler2250]

I tried using the newer ntdetect.com and the unofficial SP5, the full size of my hard disk is recognized, but the partitions aren't. Any solutions?

[Wheatley]

I tried using the newer ntdetect.com and the unofficial SP5, the full size of my hard disk is recognized, but the partitions aren't. Any solutions?

Yes, use a virtual machine.

[whistler2250]

Nope. I think it has to do with the fact that my hard disk partitioning is whacked up. I think I need to try again later.

[AlphaBeta]

How many partitions do you have?

[whistler2250]

All macs have 3 by default, and every time I try to add a new one and then delete it, the Recovery Partition grows by 10GB.

[SistemaRayoXP]

If what you said above you made it within the installer try this, try this too if you didn't tried to shrink, just deleted the partitions:
Try partitioning before the Windows 2000 installation, while the Mac is booted up, use some partitioning software to shrink any of your partitions and format it with FAT, not with HFS+. After this if the full disk size is recognized and the new partition is visible and installable (There is 1 partition more and is FAT) install there but DO NOT convert to NTFS. The Windows 2000 installer is too sensible and may crash if you try to convert at the installation. After you completed the installation, convert (f you want) to NTFS.

If not, try shrinking the hard disk until all your partitions doesn't go more than the 128 GB (Or 137, I'm not pretty sure), then try the above and make a change in the Windows 2000 registry (Once is installed):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Parameters
Add the DWORD Value: "EnableBigLBA" and set it to "1"
That enables 48 Bit LBA