UPDATE: the18thletter wins with his sugestion to hold alt during boot, and select the mac partition! Congratulations, and special mention goes to Dan for the mouse button force eject.

Last night, after receiving a review copy of Sam & Max Episode One, I attempted to install Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. Boot camp did its thang, I created a ten gig partition and stuck my XP disk in and hit OK. The Book restarted itself, booting into Windows Setup. It crooned, Hit ENTER to continue. I did so, dutifully.

Nothing.

Okay, that wasn't really Enter, it was Return (silly Mac keyboards), so here's Enter.

Nothing. F3, ESC and aklfhsfgrjkeghksdjhfk;dh likewise.

Fine, have it your way. I reboot. Right back into Windows Setup. I reboot while holding down various reboot modifiers (X, shift, command-option-shift-f, etc. etc. etc.). No dice. I drove all the way to godless, christpunching Auburn, Washington to their hideous "SuperMall" because it was the closest open Wal-Mart. I purchased a USB keyboard and drove back home at four in the morning. Windows Setup everywhere I turn, thus exhausting my technical knowledge of this subject.

This is where you come in. Let's review, for the TL;DR crowd:

• Boot Camp successfully created a 10-gig partition
• Boot Camp rebooted the machine with the XP setup disc in the drive, thus booting to Windows Setup
• This is an old copy of Windows XP Home
• This disc probably does not have Service Pack 2 on it, which Boot Camp said it requires
• My copy of OSX is up to date
• Windows Setup is not responding to keyboard input of any kind
• Using a USB keyboard doesn't work, either
• Mac no longer has a manual ejection hole, where formerly one was able to jam a paper clip and eject a stubborn disc
• I don't think I've actually lost any data, since nothing has been installed/formatted/deleted yet. So OSX is presumably still in one piece, on the other partition

The first person to give me a working solution (and isn't a dick about it) will get an original, full-color digital illustration of themselves in a top hat, fending off a swarm of giant hornets. Or, instead of a top hat, a very pretty tiara. Your call. Eliza "oh god help me" Gauger

MISSIVES FROM THE FRONT LINES:
- Thanks, Dan. holding mouse button while booting successfully force ejected the Windows XP CD. Now the Book can't find a bootable disk, period. I assume this means it's blind to the OSX partition. Next step is switching in a newer XP disc to see if the Service Pack thing is the problem.

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