Boot Camp -No Drivers in Win and VM Fusion not Connecting to Win Partition

Question

Hello,
I am a new Mac user, but I have used PCs for about 20 years. I am having trouble figuring out a couple of things. Below is a step by step list of what I have done so far and I'll end with a couple of questions.
I have three drives in my Mac Pro - 1-Mac OS, 2-Win OS, 3-empty, 4-Data (two partitions. I went to install Win XP through boot camp and had some problems. For the record, Boot Camp never provided a dialog box that said would you like to burn a CD/DVD of drivers for Windows. All I saw was a screen that said, for drivers please use the Leopard DVD.
1. Ran Boot Camp and selected Drive Bay #2 where I wanted to install Windows. Boot Camp went through the typical stuff (NOTE: It did not ask me if I wanted to make a Drivers CD, which is very strange).
2. I went through the Win XP install and got to the selection of the partition. This was a nightmare because I could not tell the drives apart. They were all 500gb and Seagates, however the drive in Bay #4 was partitioned in half so I did recognize this one. The only way to tell the drives apart were by their letters, which meant nothing since there was no relationship to the names that showed up in Leopard. I saw drives C: E: F: G:.
3. I did not want to screw up the Mac OS so I canceled the install and shut down the computer. I did finally figure out how to get the disc out of the drive and get back into Leopard. Nothing was affected.
4. I came up with a brilliant idea after reading the message boards that I might be able to disconnect all the drives except the one that I wanted Win XP installed on to it.
5. I removed Drive Bay #1-Mac OS and left the Drive Bay #4-Partitioned Data Drive in the system. Since it was partitioned it could be recognized in the Setup.
6. I put in the Win XP Pro SP2 CD and went to town installing the drives.
7. I selected the C: drive and formatted the drive. Everything formatted just fine and I was able to start the Win XP install.
8. After I got into Windows I installed the software that I needed to run. I realized that I can not activate any of it because I am missing WIFI drivers and I look at the other hardware and I see a lot of question marks. That was too be expected. I put in the Leoplard DVD discs and I could only get one of them to read, which was the one that had Boot Camp. I couldn't find any driver information. I put in the second CD and nothing would show up with that CD. Yikes.
9. I finished installing software and made sure all the discs were out of the drives and rebooted with the OPTION key depressed. I selected Mac OS and booted up successfully.
10. I picked up VMWare Fusion to utilize the Boot Camp partition and I started that installation. After it was done I ran the program. I was informed of an update and downloaded and installed it.
11. I ran VMWare Fusion again and selected the Boot Camp Partition and clicked run. After a couple of minutes I received an error message - "Windows did not shut down properly. Please go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES > START DISK and click - Windows as Startup Operating System. Restart System. Once in Windows use the Start Disk Pane in the Control Panel to select Mac OS as the Start Up System. Then click restart to return to Mac OS.
12. I followed the instructions on the Mac side and then booted to Windows. I looked in the Control Panel for Start Disc Pane and I couldn't find it. I am not sure what this looks like.
13. I restarted with OPTION key depressed to get back into Mac OS and that's where I am now trying to trouble shoot these issues.
Everything works well except - VMWare Fusion and my data drive has lost it's partition info.
Can anyone help. I am out of thoughts to trying and get things working again. Here is what I need help with:
A. How do I create a driver disc for Windows XP? I was never given the option to create one.
B. Did I do something wrong by removing the Mac OS Boot Drive to get Windows XP installed.
C. How can I get VMWare Fusion to work with the Boot Camp Partition.
Lastly, I love my new Mac, but I am frustrated at how difficult this process has been the past couple of evenings trying to troubleshoot these problems. Maybe it is better just to install VM Fusion without the Boot Camp drive.
Thanks in advance for anyone's help in this matter.
Rob

Answer 1

Hi
I'm running XP SP3 having recently rebuilt the Windows side after a typically irritating unsolvable browser error. Rebuilt it to have this no sound problem, the 'Instance already running problem', etc.
Install this Windows patch - *http://couponmeister.com/blog/HD_Audio/KB835221.exe* (not on MS for immediate download). Uninstall any drivers associated with High Definition Audio if you're showing any in device manager. Re-install the Realtek Audio drivers off the Leopard disk. Reboot. Hey presto.
Worked for me after a lot of struggling with alternative drivers and research.