My Dell Mini Forum

moof · **Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-19-2008, 06:55 PM

Could someone throw a few tips my way? I unwisely installed MSIWind and now want to re-do with Type11. I can not boot off an external drive. I have tried all the standard tricks (press 0, plug in the drive, choose boot from drive) because I never get to the boot: prompt. Instead, several lines of text always fly by on the screen, something about Loading Darwin followed by something about EFI followed almost immediately by the gray apple/white background and onto my normal boot up.

I do not mind doing a complete refresh of my system. I would, however like to get to the boot: and then [##] options
so I can reformat my drive and then install via Type11.

Thanks in advance for any help, advice.

Edited to add: Here is a screen shot via movie mode on my camera. After attempting to boot from the DVD, here is what the screen says: http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?i...icture2zj7.png

fgodfrey · **Re: Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-19-2008, 08:11 PM

Once you boot, does your DVD drive show up? I had tons of problems until I realized that my DVD drive wasn't getting enough power over USB to actually work. Hooked up an external DVD drive with its own power supply and then everything worked great. That may not be your problem, but I suspect it might be...

malcolmct · **Re: Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-19-2008, 08:15 PM

Try enabling legacy USB in the BIOS or resetting it to defaults. That worked for me when I had similar problems...

moof · **Re: Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-19-2008, 08:15 PM

The DVD drive does show up. I will however, look for a power supply.

Legacy *is* enabled.

fgodfrey · **Re: Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-20-2008, 12:43 AM

One other snazy "feature" of the BIOS that I discovered is that it doesn't seem to be capable of booting from a device behind a USB hub so you could try that...
I suppose one other potential issue is that the disc just didn't burn correctly. You have any other machines you can try booting it in? (Not to then go ahead and do an install, but just to see if you get to the prompt).

UnaClocker · **Re: Recovering from Ill-chosen MSIWind Install -** 11-20-2008, 12:50 AM

I had to get a different DVD drive for my external USB enclosure, it turned out that the one I had was completely incapable of seeing a CD-R. Very strange, given that the DVD drive was a DVD-RW drive.. Being a burner, you'd think it'd be able to read burnt media.. But nope.. I confirmed this by plugging the USB cable into a properly working computer that was already booted up. I inserted the CD and it never saw it. But it booted DVD's just fine.. Very strange.. Ended up yanking a DVD drive out of one of the dead iMac's in my garage and sticking it into my USB enclosure. That did the trick.