Now I do not know whether this'll help anyone but as I got so much valuable info from all these Mac-related forums on the internet while installing my 1st MacBook, I thought I'd do my share as well... here it goes:
I had the similar prob with installing Windows XP Pro (with SP2). Bootcamp just did not work for me, after several tries and a lot of bad words coming out of my mouth I gave up and started searching for an alternative solution. I already knew Parallel Desktops so I came to this site and found the "try for free" -option. That really made my day as I got the possibility there to try one more time whether Parallel would do the trick. And it did! With 1st try, without ANY problems!
The way I did it was that I had before made an image file of my Windows XP Pro disc and that was on my MacBook Air desktop. The installation program asked me from where I would like to install and I chose that image file. And, as said above, it worked really, really well. No hangups, no problems. Now I've got my XP on my Mac and everything is running really smoothly. Thanks, Parallels!
If anyone happens to read this and knows the answer, could you guys please tell me whether there is any possibility to use more than one USB-gadget on a MacBook Air? I mean I do have a powered USB-hub but it does not seem to be enough as f.ex. my iphone does not start charging...?