XP slipstream install disk rejected by the Mac

[jasimon9]

I am trying to

build a new VM due to inability to resolve problems with my existing VM

(specifically, that Zone Alarm Security Suite is now causing boot up to

take about 6 minutes, after working fine for years).

I was hoping

to use an XP SP3 disk that I slipstreamed. The original install disk is

without any service packs, and the alternative is many hours of Windows

Updates to get all the service packs and patches installed. I have used

this slipstream disk a number of time on Windows boxes, and it works

there just fine.

However, the disk cannot be read by the Mac.

Is there a simple solution for this?

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Make an ISO Image on a system that can read the disc and then use it in place of physical media to do the install. FWIW I never use physical optical media with Virtual Machines since ISO Images are faster and easier to deal with. Even taking into account the time it takes to make the iSO Image it still installs faster then from the physical optical media and adding a few extra minutes to transfer from my Image Server to whatever system I running the Virtual Machine on still will with all the combined times be faster then installing directly from the physical optical media alone.

[jasimon9]

A great answer, as I have come to expect from WoodyZ!

I am still wondering why the Mac cannot read the disk.

Regarding the extremely poor CD performance in VMWare: I have noticed this a recorded it by a benchmark program. Others I work with have also commented on this. Because of this, I have resigned myself to keeping around some old PCs for CD work.

[WoodyZ]

I am still wondering why the Mac cannot read the disk.

I don't have a specific answer however I too have had a few problems on my MacBook Pro with both commercial optical discs as well as user created optical discs that continue to work fine on a Windows system however I too have had different optical discs not work on some Windows systems and would work on others including Macs. So it can be both a hardware/software issues as well as issues with the optical media itself and or a combination of all.

>Regarding the extremely poor CD performance in VMWare: I have noticed this a recorded it by a benchmark program. Others I work with have also commented on this. Because of this, I have resigned myself to keeping around some old PCs for CD work.

I haven't done any benchmarks besides noting a big time difference with using ISO's vs. physical optical media and is one of the reasons I just use ISO's. Also I have a complex network of systems both at home and in the office and it has been cost effective over the years to maintain a file server filled with ISO Images of all the OSes and Applications we use so original disc get used once to make an Image and then stored in a fireproof safe and any time physical optical media is needed it's made for the original ISO or a modified ISO.

One thing I've found over the years and have given up on is building or buying the one computer that would replace all of my other computers and would never need other then that one. It might be possible for someone but it never has been and probably never will be for me as long as I'm in IT however if I was retired and no longer needed computers for work I'd only have and iMac and a MacBook Pro and even then can't get down to one computer.

[jasimon9]

I successfully created an ISO image and got that to work as the install disk.

However, one thing that threw me for a bit was the need to juggle the CD connection between the image and the physcial drive when it asked for the "previous" Windows disk. As my slipstream disk is based upon an upgrade rather than a full install, it wants that disk. VMWare has a place to change from physical disks to images and so forth, and it is necessary to juggle those settings to get it pointed at the physical disk for that purpose, then to point it back to the image.

I actually do have benchmarks from PerformanceTest. For example on a machine that I built in 2003, the CD drive gives a performance of 3.2. However the VMWare CD drive gives a performance of .82. So by this measure, only 25% of the perfomance of an 7 year old piece of hardware.

[WoodyZ]

If you slipstreamed an upgrade disc then it is expected and normal behavior to have to validate by supplying a qualifying product when doing a clean install and swapping discs and or ISO images shouldn't be an issue.

As far as benchmarking is concerned when comparing Host performance vs Guest performance for any particular test, in my opining, it's irrelevant and you may as well be comparing apples to oranges.

[jasimon9]

I was not commenting on the need to put in the upgrade disk. I was referring to the need to use the VMWare functions to point to the different "disks" -- the image, and the real CD drive. It was not obvious to me a first why the disk would not read. It was because it was attached to the image.

The benchmarks have nothting to do with the host. It is simply comparing the relative performance of the CD drive in the VM against a 7 year old Windows box.

[jasimon9]

Actually further testing is showing that the Mac simply cannot read most CDs. Oddly, DVDs have no trouble. But any CDs I created will not read, and most commercial CDs don't work either. On a rare occasion a commercially produced CD does work.

I have resorted to creating ISO images on another machine, and using them.

However, what I really need to do is open a ticket with Apple, and perhaps replace the drive.