Boot Camp fails to create partition

Hello,
I've tried to partition my hard drive (unsuccessfully) several times. Boot Camp keeps failing with a "files cannot be moved" error (which shows up at the very end of a lengthy "partitioning" process). I've tried several partition sizes, ranging from 10 to 40 GB. I followed the suggestion to reinstall OS X (formatted the disk when doing so). I restored my files using Time Machine. Again, same error shows up.
I've tried disk utility's repair and everything is OK. Fsck'ing when booting in single user command line mode agrees that everything in the disk is OK. Not sure what else to try.
I should probably point out that when I had 10.4, I did manage to partition the drive and install Windows XP (that was over a year ago). I later deleted that partition and made a fresh 10.5 install.

i have this exact same problem. look at my thread <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1604527&tstart=0> and someone gave me a solution that i have yet to try still.

Similar Messages

  • How to install boot camp on a pre-partitioned HD ?

    Hi,
    I have just done a clean install of my mac. Before installation i used disk utility to create a few partitions, one of them made available for Boot Camp.
    Now when i start the Boot Camp Assistant it tells me:
    "The startup disk can not be partitioned or restored to a single partition.
    The startup disk must be formatted as a single mac os extended (journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing windows"
    What the h.... do i really have to start over AGAIN?!
    I need 3 mac partitions and 1 windows, if i re-install, then use boot camp assistant to create a windows partition i'll be left with just 2 partitions.....
    Any help is very welcome at this point.
    Jay

    You don't need to run Boot Camp Assistant since you've already partitioned the drive. Just boot to your Windows disc and follow the installer set up. All Boot Camp Assistant does is partition the drive for you.
    However, I'm pretty certain with that many partitions, depending on the order in which you've placed them, you will run into some errors trying to install Windows on the Windows partition you've created. I believe the Windows installer doesn't like to install on anything higher than partition 4. If your Windows partition is #3, and your Mac OS partition is #2, you may still encounter an error, but this has a far easier workaround than having the Windows partition be higher than partition #4.
    Let me know how you've set it up.

  • Boot Camp 5 Windows 8 partition

    So I haven't dual-booted in a while, I used to run Windows 7 Ultimate. Boot Camp worked fine. I recently have been trying to install Windows 8 Pro and Boot Camp just will not partition my drive. It keeps saying "An error occurred while partitioning the disk". I've tried it both with a bootable 8GB USB plugged in and an install DVD. I'm giving Windows 45GB and that leaves OS X with 101GB. What am I doing wrong? It's a MacBook Pro 13 inch, Early 2011, 500GB HDD, 8GB RAM, etc. etc.

    Hi Paresh,
    Yes, they are related...
    EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs - Apple Support

  • Boot Camp Is Unable to Partition My Drive

    Hello,
    The first time around I managed to set up Boot Camp and Windows 7 Home Basic very successfully and effortlessly on my MBP mid-2012.
    Then I found out I could not get activation key for it because Microsoft no longer sold the Basic version. I downloaded the Windows 7 Home Premium version and bought an activation key from Microsoft and am now trying to get it on my computer.
    Using Boot Camp Assistant I was able to delete the partition on which old Windows resided. Then using Boot Camp Assistant I built a USB drive that included the new ISO for the Windows 7 Home Premium edition and then the process went well and all necessary support files were downloaded.
    We got to the point where I selected the size of the partition and Boot Camp Assistant tried to partition it except that it is not able to. It doesn't giver any reason, it just says: "Your disc could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk."
    Anyone here knows what could be the cause of the problem and possibly how I can resolve it?
    By the way, I have checked and the base format of the drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and the disk has only one partition.
    Thanks much.
    Farzad

    I am doing a TM backup now. I looked at the iDefrag and the drive definitely needs defragmenting, according to the software, but I thought with Macs we don't need to worry about those things. I want to do one other thing I read somewhere else as a remedy for this inability to partition the drive before taking the leap and doing the full erase and reinstall.
    Here is the link on the internet: http://crounji.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/a-solution-to-your-disk-could-not-be-par titioned-error-on-boot-camp-assistant/.
    And I believe another forum has discussed this topic.
    Here is another approach I want to try: Boot Camp: Partition alert message when using Boot Camp Assistant
    Farzad

  • My boot camp fail to install and at the same time i accidentally deleted Mac OS

    while i was doing my boot camp i accidentally deleted Mac OS. and my boot camp fail to operate. when i restart it only appear window the window keep asking me to reboot due to some missing file.

    What version of OS X did your MBP ship with? Do you have the original installation disc(s) or did it ship with Lion or Mountain Lion.
    If it shipped with an installation disk, you're just going to have to boot from that disc and erase your drive and reinstall the version of OS X that came with your computer. If your computer shipped with Lion or Mountain Lion, you're going to have to erase your drive and use Internet Recovery to install the OS that shipped with your computer (do this by holding down the Command, option and R keys on boot).
    I hope that you have a backup?
    Clinton

  • Boot Camp can't create a Windows partition

    Hello,
    I'm trying to create a new partition to install Windows 7 on, but I am unable to do so.
    At first I tried to do this with Boot Camp Assistant, but it didn't work.
    Then I tried to create a FAT partition with Disk Utility, which didn't work either.
    So I verified and repaired the disk, tried to create the partition again, yet it still didn't work.
    I verified and repaired the disk and tried to create the partition while running the OS, in Safe Mode and from the Mac OSX Install DVD.
    Neither of them worked.
    I noticed while running the OS, the info of the HD said the capacity is 749.81 GB, while checking that from the Mac OSX Install DVD it only says about 700 GB (I mentioned 698.6 GB).
    Strange..
    It might also be important to mention that I recently (2 days ago) I installed a new HD: Western Digital Scorpio Black 750 GB, and today I swapped my 2x 2GB RAM for 2x 4GB RAM (Samsung).
    On my previous HD, the Fujitsu 250GB, this proces was no problem at all. I installed W7 on that drive just a week ago.
    I made a clone of the Fujitsu HD and "back-upped" it to my new WD HD. The W7 partition on the Fujitsu HD was 50GB, which is the difference in capacity mentioned above. I'm not sure if there's a link here..
    I've got a MacBook Pro from mid 2009.
    I'm not sure what to do next... I'm stuck!
    Any help is greatly appreciated!

    Did you do an upgrade to Leopard? If so, some files may be scattered over your HD, making it impossible for BC to find a single contiguous area on the drive.
    Also, be sure you did not have eDisk installed - that's the thing from the TechTools disk that comes with AppleCare.
    This is not an uncommon problem. It's not just you.
    If you have a complete backup of Leopard, you can use the DU to make a single partition. You may be lucky and not lose any data, but backup anwyay.
    In DU, repair the disk, if necessary and verify/repair permissions.
    Once you have done this try again.
    If BC still fails, you will need to erase the HD and then copy everything back from the backup.
    I always suggest a bootable clone for the backup and be sure to test it first to see it works.

  • Mystery partition after boot camp fail

    I'm on an iMac, OSX 10.10.1.  The entire 3TB Fusion HD was a single partition.
    I attempted to install Windows using the Boot Camp Assistant, but Boot Camp froze while partitioning the HD.  After rebooting, my HD now has a second Macintosh HD partition (~800GB) with a bunch of files in it (which I can't access), and which I'm unable to modify or remove using the Disk Utility (both in OSX and Recovery).
    And of course, my HD now shows only 2.3TB.
    Is there any way to resolve this short of reformatting the HD?  And if that's necessary, any tips on how to go about doing that, plus reinstalling the OS and my Time Machine backup (I'm new to Macs, so I'm a little unfamiliar).
    Thanks in advance.
    Jed

    Thanks for the quick response, Eric.
    When I get to this step -- "Select the top level hard drive, not one of the partitions (as shown in screen shot)" -- the only option I have is to select the partition, not the entire HD.  Note in the screenshot, the capacity is 2.3TB, which is only one partition of the two.
    If I try to select the entire HD, I don't have the option to erase.
    (These screenshots are from Disk Utility in OSX, not the Recovery one, but that's just so I could get a screenshot of what I saw in Recovery).
    If I click to Erase, it notes that I'm only erasing the one partition.  If this will, in fact, reset the drive to a single partition, I'll go ahead and do it, but I'm hesitant to reformat and reinstall if I don't have to.
    It appears this might be a result of the way the Fusion drive operates combined with Bootcamp.  Looking at this thread, there's a possible solution, but before I take that step, another new-Mac-user question -- is the reinstallation of the OS pretty reliable?  Meaning if I go crazy with formatting things, am I always going to be able to reinstall the OS as long as I have a Recovery partition or have an Internet connection to do the Internet Recovery?
    Thanks,
    Jed

  • Cannot install windows 8.1 on imac 5k - apple support says "Correct, that machine can't install windows" Boot camp fail

    I have a brand new imac 5k, with 4ghz i7, 295x GPU, 3.1TB fusion drive.  Bought the machine so I could dual boot - I need windows for VR Dev work.
    I've spent the last week and a half on tech support calls with Apple Senior Tech agents, and Microsoft agents as well, and today have been told that indeed this machine cannot run windows 8.1.  Apparently Apple engineering knows about the issue, but says the problem is microsoft's.  Ugh.
    The latest iteration of the issue comes when installing 8.1 onto an external thunderbolt SSD (without even using boot camp) - I go through the EFI installer, convert the drive to GPT, format it as ntfs, but when I select the partition to install onto, the installer says it can't find the partition it just created.  Smuh? 
    I've also tried the install through boot camp.  This installation actually worked twice, but the install was unstable.  After booting back into osX, then returning to Windows, the windows install went corrupt and couldn't be repaired.  Subsequent attempts to install windows yielded a flurry of different errors, including "windows doesn't support GPT in this mode" or "the disk is locked, please unlock the disk" or "MBR must be converted to GPT" (where once I converted to GPT, the drive could no longer be found, despite the operation completing successfully.)
    At any rate, it's a huge mess.  I'd happily return the machine for a different config, but the company I bought it from will only swap it for a similar model -- so I've spent a pile on a machine that does not function as advertised; apple says "too bad, talk to Microsoft." Microsoft says "too bad, we've never seen this, this is an apple issue."
    Has anyone out there gotten windows up and running on an iMac5k with fusion drive?  If so, did you have to go through a crazy maze to make it work?
    Any help is appreciated.
    Thanks,
    MC

    Michael Conelly wrote:
    After much gnashing of teeth, and a half dozen support calls, I'd all but given up.  I finally seem to have solved this though - sort of - by installing windows 8.1 on boot camp on an older iMac, then cloning the bootcamp disk to an external thunderbolt drive via Winclone.  That worked seamlessly, sticking to winclone's instructions, and I can boot via EFI to Windows 8.1 on the new iMac.  So far so good.
    I usually install W8.1 via EFI by using DU and a Free Space partition. The 3TB Fusion is first split into the underlying SSD/HDD physicals. OSX and Windows OSes are installed on SSD via EFI (no BCA). The OSX part and half the HDD are then used to create a new CS volume. The other HDD half becomes NTFS for non-Windows OS files. The Hybrid MBR method is completely unsatisfactory with the 3TB Fusion drive.
    How is the TB/Winclone image for performance of the OS (since pagefile.sys is also on the TB)?

  • Win 8.1, iMac Retina 3TB Fusion, Yosemite, Boot Camp fail!

    I've got a new iMac Retina with the 3TB Fusion drive on which I wanted to install Win 8.1 using Boot Camp. I have VMWare Fusion installed and running, but figured Boot Camp might be better for my needs.
    I read the Boot Camp Assistant instructions and it looked like it would be pretty easy to install Win 8.1. WRONG!
    I hooked up a USB HD for the driver download, hooked up the USB Apple DVD drive with the Win 8.1 installer, and started up Boot Camp Assistant.
    Assistant downloaded the drivers, created the BOOTCAMP partition, then I got into the Win 8.1 installer. Reached a screeching halt when the installer got to the point of selecting where Win 8.1 would be installed. Got the error message about BOOTCAMP partition not being an NTFS drive.
    Only one button "Format" to click to make the format NTFS. Confirmed I wanted to format, saw a brief spinning wheel, then supposedly formatting was done. Now Drive 1 Partition 4 lost the "BOOTCAMP" name and displayed no name. The "Next" button wouldn't do anything. I was stuck!
    So no go on installing Win 8.1! Booting back into Yosemite and opening Disk Utility I see the Boot Camp partition, now named "untitled," identified as an NTSF volume!
    I see a number of posts here where by using Terminal it is possible to work around problems with Fusion drives and Boot Camp.
    My solution was to start Boot Camp Assistant and select the third option on the first screen to remove the Boot Camp partition. Well at least that worked!!! So I'm back to ground zero!
    For now I think I'll just surrender and wait for Apple to figure out how somebody, who doesn't want to dig deep into the bowels of Fusion drives via Terminal, can install Win 8.1 on a 3TB Fusion drive (or any Fusion Drive?).

    Thanks Loner T for your response. I don't have any third party NFTS software. At this point I don't think it is worth the effort to attempt to do anything complicated.
    I did take some screen grabs and photos as I went through the install for the fourth or fifth time.
    1) Disk Utility before start:
    2) Create the Windows partition:
    3) Initial Windows partitions:
    4) Windows message on why can't install
    5) Hit the "Format" button, and get this confirmation:
    6) Results in partition name getting wiped, and still no active "Next" button:
    7) Still can't install Windows, hit "Show Details" and get this error message.
    8) Another attempt to "Format" results in the same problem. Still can't install. Boot back into Yosemite. Here's what Disk Utility now shows -- an "untitled" NTFS volume:
    Here's the finder window showing the "untitled" volume:
    The NTFS partition is there, but the Win 8.1 installer can't use it. Yes, it makes no sense, but that's what is going on!
    Here's info from Terminal on CS I see used here if it helps any:
    iMac-Retina:~ victor$ diskutil list
    /dev/disk0
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
       2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
       3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
    /dev/disk1
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
       2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         2.8 TB     disk1s2
       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
       4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         198.9 GB   disk1s4
    /dev/disk2
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:                  Apple_HFS iMac Retina HD         *2.9 TB     disk2
                                     Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2
                                     5A16E295-8476-4500-A588-7DE44FE207B4
                                     Unencrypted Fusion Drive
    iMac-Retina:~ victor$ diskutil cs list
    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
    |
    +-- Logical Volume Group 26BFCEFD-67DB-4AAE-BA18-4CC5EC205697
        =========================================================
        Name:         Macintosh HD
        Status:       Online
        Size:         2921855311872 B (2.9 TB)
        Free Space:   114688 B (114.7 KB)
        |
        +-< Physical Volume 88BDD48F-B9A0-42F9-A05A-26B828B211C9
        |   ----------------------------------------------------
        |   Index:    0
        |   Disk:     disk0s2
        |   Status:   Online
        |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
        |
        +-< Physical Volume BEDB41F3-F2BC-4F31-B08F-A4B3E476A153
        |   ----------------------------------------------------
        |   Index:    1
        |   Disk:     disk1s2
        |   Status:   Online
        |   Size:     2800866459648 B (2.8 TB)
        |
        +-> Logical Volume Family 536F7EC4-2FC3-4878-989E-233DF25AE1E7
            Encryption Status:       Unlocked
            Encryption Type:         None
            Conversion Status:       NoConversion
            Conversion Direction:    -none-
            Has Encrypted Extents:   No
            Fully Secure:            No
            Passphrase Required:     No
            |
            +-> Logical Volume 5A16E295-8476-4500-A588-7DE44FE207B4
                Disk:                  disk2
                Status:                Online
                Size (Total):          2915999940608 B (2.9 TB)
                Conversion Progress:   -none-
                Revertible:            No
                LV Name:               iMac Retina HD
                Volume Name:           iMac Retina HD
                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
    iMac-Retina:~ victor$
    Unless you see a simple solution, it's not worth the hassle at this point for me.
    Thanks for your interest.

  • Am I able to install Windows 7 in Boot Camp with this HDD partition setup?

    I recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion, and my Boot Camp partition was obliterated beyond recognition. Fortunately I have backups, but I'm having issues re-installing Windows 7. This is what my disk looks like:
    Mac OSX - Current Lion partition
    Untitled - Where Boot Camp / Windows 7 used to live...
    Shared - 1TB of shared data... Media/Documents/etc
    This is the error I get when trying to install Windows 7 with Boot Camp Assistant...
    From what I can tell, this means I won't be able to do it without wiping the Shared partition? Or is there a workaround I can use? I'd really hate to have to move all of it over to an external hard drive, since I don't have one with 750GB of free space handy...
    And would this probably happen again once Mountain Lion comes out? I'll be getting that pretty much on launch, so should I hold off on messing around with this if I'll likely have to do it all again in a few weeks?
    Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
    - Mark

    Why don't you invest in a 1.5TB drive and case? And add to that a TimeMachine drive (and a small 40GB or even less "Emergency OS X" partition on it... a must - could even have clone of Lion and Lion Recovery on it, AND  TimeMachine partition.
    If you don't have a backup, it almost always will "rain" on the parade.
    If you try booting from Windows 7 DVD and aim it at the parittion, what happens? tried?
    To use BCA yes it is one partition and one way only.
    You could remove " - " the UNTITLED volume and then expand Mac OS volume to fill that area, or plan for and setup Lion Recovery space too.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
    People have managed. Usually planning ahead up front for a setup like this.
    CLONE OS X and ~ or install Lion on an external drive and create a Lion Recovery partition.
    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
    http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
    http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html

  • I have a MBP and have used boot camp to make two partitions.  I screwed up and reformatted the PC side.  I'm trying to use boot camp to get to the pc side now and it says it can't.  I have to download some helps for windows.  I did that, but it still won'

    Then... I tried to reformat using the start up disk and reloaded everything.  When I tried to use boot camp I still get the same message.  When I check disk utility, I still show two partitions...same as before... I just can't use the pc side.  What's up, please?

    I also have Jolly's problem. I found the iMovie 9.0.9 folder and tried to launch the older version of iMove. It would not launch. I removed all of the iMovie preferences from the Preferences folder, removed iMove 10 from the applications folder, and restarted my Mac. iMove 9.0.9 still won't launch and I can't access my videos created with the older version of iMovie. Is there a way to uninstall iMovie 10 and reinstall iMovie 9.0.9?
    I am running Yosemitie on a  iMac.
    Paul

  • Windows 8-Parallels 8-boot camp-disk cannot be Partitioned

    Ok, I wanted to try out Windows 8 on my Mac, so I got the Parallels 8 bundle pack...but after looking into it...I was led to believe that initially using boot camp and then migrating that to Parallels is a better route. So first question is...Is that true? Should I really start with Boot Camp?. Secondly...(which is what led me to ask if I should really do it this way) I tried to run Boot Camp Assistant and I got "The disk cannot be Partitioned because some files cannot be moved...Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."  Backup, Format, and Restore scares the crap out of me...I'm terrified that I'll lose everything. I have a TB external HDD to which some is partitioned for Time Machine and the rest partitioned as personal storage...personal storage is where I have my iTunes library and iPhoto library stored and a bunch of other stuff. Now some of what I've read is to get a new external HDD, zero it, back up and restore...my question is do I really need to do that with my current set-up? If I already have the external HDD with my time machine back ups on it? I've also read that this may not be necessary...and that it may be possible to restart in recovery mode and "Repair". I apologize for the long winded question...I just want to make sure I give enough info and that someone can help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

    You do not need to use Boot Camp nor install Windows on a Boot Camp partition in order to use Parallels. I think you may have misunderstood. If you already have Windows installed in Boot Camp, then Parallels is able to use that installation for it virtual machine.
    On its own Parallels creates its own disc image on which it installs Windows. That disc image functions as a normal Windows hard drive. You can create any number of virtual machines where each one has its own separate disc image.
    "The disk cannot be Partitioned because some files cannot be moved...Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
    The above error occurs because you have asked for an amount of space for the Windows partition which cannot be accommodated because Boot Camp Assistant was unable to find sufficient contiguous space to satisfy the request without having to move some files. However, those files could not be moved. The solutions are: 1. reduce the size demanded until Boot Camp is able to accept it; 2. re-partition the drive back to a single volume, reinstall OS X, create the desired Boot Camp partition, then restore all your files.

  • Boot camp - Disc cannot be partitioned....

    I am trying to install boot camp but can't seem to get past the screen dealing w/partitions. When on the screen that shows Mac OSX 106 GB 87 GB free, Windows XP 5GB...I chose the 32GB and partition. Then I keep getting the "Disc cannot be partitioned because verification failed. Use Disk Utility to repair this disc. Then, when I go to Disk Utility, it is "greyed out" and I cannot select it. HELP! I need Windows to run a program asap. Thanks!

    Hi Kimberly!
    Try posting your question in the Boot Camp forum <http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165>.
    Good luck! bill
    1 GHz Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

  • Boot Camp Assist can't partition hard drive

    Boot Camp won't partition my 500GB internal HD. I get the message:
    "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again." I had recently used SuperDuper to replace my original single partition internal HD with the new 500GB HD with three partitions. I had not setup Boot Camp on the original HD. After getting the Boot Camp Assist error message on the new HD I used SuperDuper to clone back from my original HD (which was now external) with a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. I then ran Boot Camp Assist again and got the same message. I ran Disk Utility Verify Disk Permissions and got some errors which I then successfully repaired. I still get the same Boot Camp partition error. Any suggestions?

    When you partition your drive you are given the option to format it for OS 9, if you choose this option your drive will be formatted to be incompatible with Boot Camp. This incompatiblity will remain when you put it back to a single partition unless you go to options and select the top radio button (format for Intel Mac) to create a GUID Partition Table (at least that's what I did and it fixed the problem).

  • Boot Camp Assistant couldn't partition the drive

    Hi everyone,
    I recently deleted my windows partition, and wanted to create a new one, however, boot camp assistant told me that I couldn't (I do not know the exact wording). Boot camp assistant said to save my mac drive as an image, reformat my hard drive, and restore the image using disk utility.
    SO, I tried to, but something went wrong, because the disc image I have will not mount....
    In disk utility, I created an image of Macintosh HD, but I'm thinking I should have created an image of my hard drive "320.07 GB WDC3200..."
    Can anyone confirm this?
    Also, if anyone knows how I can view the files in my dmg that I created, that would be great.
    The message I get with disk utility is: Unable to attach "Macintosh HD.dmg" (No mountable file systems)
    So I click okay, and verify the disk, and I get ALOT of incorrect block counts (should be 1001 instead of 1020220) for example..
    After checking multi-linked files and such, disk utility tells me to "repair disk" But I cannot mount the image, therefore I cannot repair it. I tried to repaid the DMG itself, but nothing happens.
    Any info would be awesome.

    converted corrupt DMG to CDR with disk utility. Some data loss occurred, but I got the majority of my files back.

Maybe you are looking for