[SOLVED] Old wine in new bottle: WinXP on Mac OS X 10.9 macbook?

[lowep]

I am trying to find a way to get an old photo editing program that will only run on WinXP to run on my Macbook Pro with OS X 10.9 and figure the best way to do this is by using boot camp assistant to install WinXP as a dual boot system. But am not sure if this will work or not?

When I start the boot camp assistant it asks me if I want to download the boot camp software from the internet to a usb drive, which I have done, and in the same box also asks if I want to install windows 7 or higher, which I don´t want to do so did not check.

Now the internet download is done and the program just tells me it has the stuff it needs for after I install windows?? So am not sure what to do next: just put my win XP DVD into the drive, or re-run the boot camp assistant, which I suppose will just give me the option to install Win7 or higher again that is no use, as the program I want to use is not compatibe with Win7 - only Win XP.

So would like to ask if it is possible to use boot camp to install WinXP on my OS X 10.9 macbook? If so what do I do next, and if not is there any other way to do this apart from via boot camp assistant?

Of course there are many other photo editing programs floating around but I want to use this one that is specially designed for my old camera.

 

[USAFRet]

What is the "old photo editing program" that only runs under XP that there isn't a suitable replacement for in the Mac world, or that runs in Win7 or 8, that would cause someone to go through all this hassle to run?

I've used a LOT of photo editing applications, and I can't think of one. Old camera or no.

 

[lowep]

Epson Photo Raw 2.1 for the Epson RD1 rangefinder.

Epson does have a plug in that can be downloaded free and enables the user to open proprietary Epson RAW files with Photoshop but what I particulalry like about the original Epson program is that it has a very sweet black and white conversion filter built into it so you can do the conversion before outputting the raw files to psd, tiff or other formats. Probably the reason is that it does this so well is Epson´s experience with printing... but that is another story.

Anyways here is a link to the program:
http://esupport.epson-europe.com/ProductHome.aspx?lng=en-GB&data=qze2x01i0DMeRhGiOONmziiq2IJDnfkv&tc=6

I actually had this program running on my old macbook but it doesnt want to work with 10.9

 

[USAFRet]

There are a zillion B&W filters for Phototshop. You might also try Lightroom.

 

[Ijack]

BootCamp does not support XP on modern Macs. There may be ways to install it without using BootCamp, but you would have a big problem trying to find hardware drivers.

Are you absolutely sure that the program won't run in compatibility mode in Windows 7? Most do. Other than that, your only option would be to install XP in a virtual machine and see if the performance is good enough for your purposes.

 

[lowep]

Yep USAFret there are a zillion B&W filters for Photoshop but as far as I know only one of them supports RAW processing of proprietry Epson .erp files. The conversion could be done after the raw files are converted but unfortunately the results are not the same.

Good idea Ijack to try if the program will run in compatibility mode in Windows 7. Is there any comparable "compatability mode¨for Mac that permits 10.9 dual boot with older OS X or enables compatability with older OS X?

 

[Ijack]

Dual booting a Mac with an older version of OS X is easy. Just install it to another partition or an external drive even. But that won't fix the BootCamp problem. There just aren't XP drivers for modern Macs.

 

[USAFRet]

Adobe Lightroom apparently supports the RAW format of that camera natively.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.html

Epson
R-D1
R-D1s
R-D1x


That may be an option.

 

[lowep]

Thanks very much Ijack, this I think solves my issue, as the program I want to use also runs on older versions of Mac os X.

To dual boot with an older version of OS X all I need to do is create an extra partition, put in the older Mac os DVD, follow the instructions to install then restart?? Even I can manage that! If I do this will I get an option when I restart as to which OS X I want to run?

Thanks also USAFRet I will also try to compare the lightroom filters with Epsons now that I can install both on my computer.

You guys just made my day! 🙂

 

[lowep]

Hmmm... dual boot mac os x downgrade not so simple as thought. When I inserted the Mac OS X 10.6 dvd into the drive of my macbook pro that has 10.9 on it I got to the X picture screen but when I hit install all that happened was I got this message: "You can’t use this version of the application “Install Mac OS X” with this version of OS X." :-(

Next I tried to restart with DVD in the drive and a formatted external HD connected via USB holding down the option key that gave me a screen with a picture of my internal HD and a picture of the 10.6 install DVD. When I selected the install DVD all I got was a stuck computer that kept repeating three beeps until I figured out how to force quit. So that didn´t work either...

 

[Ijack]

Unfortunately, there are limitations as to which versions of OS X work with which Macs. In essence, it needs to ne new enough to recognize the hardware in your computer. The safest is to go back to the level originally supplied with the computer and to install (as you attempted) to an external disk. Installing on the internal disk is slightly more complicated as you have to use disk utility to shrink your partition and create a new one. Although perfectly safe if done properly there is a potential for error here.

When it comes to which version to boot, you don't get a boot menu. You either specify the boot drive in preferences then reboot else hold down the option (alt) key as the computer boots to get a choice.

 

[lowep]

"it needs to ne new enough to recognize the hardware in your computer"

Thanks Ijack that expains that so need to persist in trying to figure out how to do this. Good to know. Instead I will try your original suggestion to dual boot with win7 then run the program in compatibility mode.