#20 Legacy Loader Problem iMac 24
When I try to boot from from my Windows CD after installing rEFIt on my new Intel iMac 24", I get the "Error: Not Found while loading legacy loader" problem. I have the most up-to-date firmware per http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303880. I found the thread on MacRumors forum (http://216.218.211.127/~forums/showthread.php?t=226003) where chrisp noted from nvram efi-boot-device-data that the firmware rom format on Mac Pro was different and then accommodated it in rEFIt 0.8. Mine looks like this:
efi-boot-device-data %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%02%1f%03%12%0a%00%02%00%00%00%00%00%04%01*%00%02%00%00%00(@%06%00%00%00%00%00 %19%12%1d%00%00%00%00gx%ec<o%93WI%89%f8t%e1%03%dc%9e%fd%02%02%7f%ff%04%00
In the interest of full disclosure, and in case it helps in diagnosis or interest quotient in this problem, here is the longer story behind how I got to this sad state of affairs...
After installing EFI Firmware 1.1 (thanks, Software Update!!!) underneath a working version of Boot Camp, I could no longer boot from my Windows partition. Boot Camp Assistant indicates I need a newer version of firmware, but I have the most recent version. (My guess at this point is the Boot Camp Assistant is barfing on the efi-boot-device-data info just like rEFIt is.) After asking on the Boot Camp Beta forum with no success (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=774215&tstart=15) I decided to wipe everything out and try rEFIt. I planned to set up a bootable Windows on a USB drive using the information at http://tubeshards.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/install-windows-to-a-macintosh-usb-drive . After dutifully following instructions, I've realized I could have avoided the entire sequence if I had just glommed onto rEFIt earlier. Sigh. In fact, just installing rEFIt and trying to boot from the original Windows XP SP2 CD gives me the legacy loader error, leave aside the hackery to deal with booting from a USB drive that I set out to do. There just seems to be a common problem with the mechanism used both by Boot Camp Assistant and rEFIt to see if the firmware is up-to-date -- at least on my particular machine. The firmware installation went without a hitch and appears to be working fine with OSX. All attempts to reinstall firmware tell me I can't, because don't need it. Resetting NVRAM does not help. Starting from a clean disk and O/S doesn't help.
Thanks for any response or suggestions.
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FWIW rEFIt 0.9 behaves the same way as 0.8 did.