Reinstalling Boot Camp on your Intel-based Macintosh computer lets you delete the existing Boot Camp partition used by Windows and start over. As you are removing the current partition, reinstalling Boot Camp lets you create a larger Windows partition or install a different version of the Windows operating system. The reinstall process deletes all information stored on your Windows partition, so a backup must be made if you want to restore files and applications on the partition after the reinstall process.
Delete Boot Camp
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Step 1
Turn your Mac on and log in to Mac OS X.
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Step 2
Quit any open applications.
Step 3
Double-click on "Macintosh HD" and open the "Applications" folder.
Step 4
Open the "Utilities" folder and double-click on "Boot Camp Assistant" to launch the configuration program.
Step 5
Select the radio box next to the "Create or remove a Windows partition" option and click "Continue" in the bottom-right corner of the window.
Step 6
Select the disk on which Boot Camp and Windows were configured, and click "Restore" or "Restore to a single Mac OS partition," depending on the number of hard drives installed in your Mac.
Step 7
Click "Continue" to remove the Windows partition.
Configure New Installation
Step 1
Open "Macintosh HD" and then double-click on the "Applications." Select the "Utilities" menu and then double-click on "Boot Camp Assistant."
Step 2
Create a new partition. Use the onscreen slider to select the amount of hard drive space you want to devote to Boot Camp and Windows. The partition must be at least 5 GB in size.
Step 3
Insert the Windows installation CD or DVD, depending on the version of Windows you want to install.
Step 4
Click "Start Installation" and wait for the Mac to reboot into the Windows installer via Boot Camp.
Step 5
Select the partition to format using the Windows installer. The partition is titled "BOOTCAMP" and must be formatted before installing Windows. In Windows XP, use the arrow keys to select the correct partition. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, click on the "BOOTCAMP" partition using your mouse.
Step 6
Select the option to format the drive using New Technology File System (NTFS). This is the only choice for volumes larger than 32 GB in size and NTFS offers increased security and faster performance than the File Allocation Table (FAT) format, which is not available in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Step 7
Install Windows by following the onscreen prompts shown in the installer. A progress bar is shown to detail the status of the installation.
Step 8
Insert the first Mac OS X installation DVD after the installer finishes and your Mac boots into Windows via Boot Camp. This automatically installs the Boot Camp drivers necessary for certain Apple-specific features to function in Windows. After driver installation, the computer reboots automatically.
Step 9
Advance through the Add New Hardware screens after the Mac reboots into Windows. This is only necessary in Windows XP.