Boot camp won't format drive correctly

Hi
Im running a Mac Book Pro 2.5Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with Snow Leopard v 10.6.7 with all updates installed, i want to install Windows 7 64 bit using boot camp
Firstly, it asks me if I want to download the drivers needed for windows or if I have the install disc. I select download driver and it says Windows support software is not available, so I select that I have the installation CD. However, the installation CD I have is for Leopard v10.5, I upgraded to Snow Leopard using a snow leopard installation CD that I bought separately, will this suffice or do I have to have an original install disc that came with the mac?
But thats not the main problem, the main problem is that once it partitions my bootcamp drive, it makes it a MSDOS FAT32 format instead of NTFC and therefore when I run the Windows 7 install CD it says it can't install to the drive as its not NTFC
Why is it doing this?

It is there, in black and white, in the PDF guide mid-way thru the 28 pages.
It even tells you to format BOOTCAMP MSDOS/FAT32 to NTFS
Because you are presented with "where to install" target partition when you are doing the install of Windows. DVD.
It isn't that Boot Camp Assistant doesn't, and it is "NTFS" but that Apple doesn't own NTFS and prefers to let Windows create a proper partitions.
The PDF and relevent articles are found:
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

Similar Messages

Installing Win 7 on Boot Camp won't install to the hard drive

Hey, I'm installing Windows 7 64-BIT onto my Mac,
Steps I've taken, logged onto an administrator account, ran boot camp assistant, selected Hard Drive 2 (1TB, practically empty it is not my Mac OSX Boot Drive), selected "create second partition for windows", gave it 131GB clicked partition, I saw the BOOTCAMP hard drive show up on my desktop now.
I inserted the Win764BIT dvd I made, BootCamp prompted for it, I clicked OK...
It restarts, windows 7 setup loads, I get to the point where I selected the Boot Camp hard drive, and click Format, it finishes, I click Next, and it says:
Windows is unable to install to the selected location: error 0x80300024, the partition I am installing to is: Disk 1: Partition 3 (although there is, Disk 0, and 2 other unknown partitions of 128MB for Disk 0, and then Disk 1 Partition 3, and 2 other unknown partitions of 128MB for Disk 1.
EDIT: I did rename the ISO file I downloaded from: "7100.0.090421-1700x64fre_client_en-us_retail_ultimate-grc1culxfrer_endvd.iso" to "win764.iso".
Can anyone help me with this?
Kind Regards
Message was edited by: Steelbom

There should be a selection screen, and try #2. I think that is called EFI Boot. I can't, because of EFI32 1.1, and 64-bit Windows and Apple are looking for UEFI 2.x / EFI64.
I had Windows Vista, and installed Windows 7 to another hard drive partition with the DVD written to disk (8GB) on another partition. Install off hard drive was fast, and never even boot from DVD.
For people with trouble with the boot selection:
http://sergiomcfly.blogspot.com/2008/04/select-cd-rom-boot-type-when-installing. html
I tried to put together a 'journal/faq' of my own experience with 7100, which isn't perfect but has some tips and links.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866970&tstart=0
About GPT -
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT-on-x64.mspx
If you really get stuck on the boot selector, this may help:
http://jowie.com/blog/post/2008/02/24/Select-CD-ROM-Boot-Type-prompt-while-tryin g-to-boot-from-Vista-x64-DVD-burnt-from-iso-file.aspx
but you really shouldn't need that, your 2008 Mac Pro should do fine.

"Booting from Boot Camp Assistant created USB Drive...Failed to load BOOTMGR"

Hi Apple Ppl of the Wrld: I need help I been working on installing windows 8 on my Mac.
Spec of equipment:
Mac Book Pro Mid 2012
Bootcamp Version: Version 5.0.4 (473)
Bootable USB Flash Drive: Type Scan disk 4 GB windows 8 pro iso image but without the driver and the 2nd Scan disk USB flash drive with 32 GB with the Bootcamp Drivers downloaded and saved to this drive.
Please Note: I also have the original back up installation disc for Microsoft 8 Prof 64 from Microsoft where I purchased it from.
1st Bootcamp is not recognizing the Original Microsoft 8 Pro backup disk from microsoft itself.
Solution: I created the New Image from the Original Microsoft installed disc in my desk top and changed the extension to .ISO then burned the ISO image into the newly purchased DVD+R. Then I ran Bootcamp Once again and it get the following error message "The installer disc could not be found -- Insert your Windows installer disc and wait a few seconds for the disc to be recognized. Solution
2: Created a bootable usb drive with bootcamp assistant successfully with bootcamp. Yes I close, ejected or un-mounted any image that was open or had been previously used then i restarted the Mac. Next, I start the bootcamp assistant tool once again then i get the same insert your windows installer disc message.
3: Then I try to resolve the installer disc not found issue: this are the steps i took: a). Lauch disc utilities
    1. Selected the top most drive 750 GB Macintosh HDD
    2. On the right you’ll see 5 tab buttons: First Aid | Erase | Partition | RAID | Restore.
    3. Choose Partition. Then I clicked + to add another partition size of the partition was 222 GB
    4. Change the Name of the Partition to BOOTCAMP
    5. Change the Format to MS-DOS (FAT)
    6. Click Apply to save the changes and then reboot your Mac and we’ll begin Windows installation.
    7. During reboot, press and hold the alt/Option key and you’ll be presented with drives to boot from.
    8. Use the arrow keys and return button to select the Windows yellow USB key drive containing your Windows 8 installation files.
    9. This will begin the Windows install. --> then i get the following message: "Booting from Boot Camp Assistant created USB Drive...Failed to load BOOTMGR".
4: Take the Mac to best buy and let them resolve the issue and charge me like a million dollars for it :'( since i have no other idea who to get this bootcamp working at all. This has been a terribly lengthy issue and it is not as simple as it is claimed to be since i started with the Original Windows Disc Purchased from Microsoft and I have the Optical disc drive which it should be simpler from what I understand.
Please can you help It would be of great help.
<Email Edited by Host>

from what i understand you are trying to install win 8 pro from a "backup disk" the one that you purchased from microsoft.
this will not work, it is not an installer disk.
you need to start the process again. erase the partition you made on your hdd. in disc utility click the minus button after selecting the bootcamp partition, then manually drag the divider down fully then apply.
next, erase your usb then format it.
download win 8 iso from here;
http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/download-windows-8-pro/
it is perfectly legal to use your purchased product key in this install.
in bootcamp select the iso image you just downloaded, select your preferred partition size, check all 3 options.
you have the support software on another usb but you wont need it so it can be discarded. the install will work far better with the iso and support on the same drive.

Installing boot camp on a second drive

Hi All,
First let me apologize for this long-winded post and also for my lack of basic knowledge when it comes to mac computer skills.
I would like to install windows 7 on a brand new 500gb drive in a brand new mac pro.
I was reading through the installation & setup up guide for boot camp and was stonewalled on page 6 it says;
“If your computer has more than one internal disk and you want to install Boot Camp on a disk that isn’t in the first hard drive bay, remove the drives in the lower numbered bays. You can reinstall the drives after you install Boot Camp.”
Ok that makes sense but if I remove the first drive how do I install boot camp since the first drive contains boot camp on it?
The next question I have is; Can I make the whole 500gb drive one partition that will have boot camp, windows 7 and all the windows files on it or does it have to have just boot camp and windows 7?
Thanks
Mike

Shutdown - pull OS X drive(s) - continue with install.
You'll have to change to NTFS when you get to where to install.
At that point you can even format or partition.
As for the Assistant, well, some install Windows 7 on a drive without it (that can't be done with XP) and just leave one drive and boot from Win 7 DVD.
"that will have boot camp...."
There IS NO "boot camp." The assistant modified the partition table to include a standard MBR for booting Windows. And that would be on the #2 500GB.
Until you install the Apple setup.exe drivers and services after Windows is installed from your OS X DVD, there is nothing in or on Windows that is faintly about boot camp. Unfortunate term. It also gets to become a control panel in Windows to change the default startup OS (why not call it Apple OS Switcher / Apple Startup Disk).
There will be AppleTimeServices and AppleOSSwitcher services along with HAL and device drivers to enable them in Device Manager.
As for lowered numbered and first drive bay, they must think Mac Pro owners are locked into and only boot from drive bay #1. and that Assistant is a very limited not very smart partitioning tool is true.
So run Assistant but instead of restarting with the DVD and install, just shutdown. Pull all the other drives but 500GB. Then boot off the DVD.

Boot Camp For Lion -- USB ISO Method --"Booting from Boot Camp Assistant created USB Drive...Failed to load BOOTMGR"

Hello, has anyone had experience with dealing with this speciifc problem?
In short, upon rebooting, I am getting a black screen with a line of text that says, "Booting from Boot Camp Assistant created USB Drive...Failed to load BOOTMGR." Nothing happens after that.
I am using Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4. I have an ISO of Windows 7 Prof. along with an 8GB usb drive. I changed the coding in my bootcamp program to allow for the normally first invisible option that allows creation of a USB Installation program using an ISO that is normally only for computers without an optical drive.
I have that box checked, the check for new software box, and the install windows box checked. I went through the process of creating the USB, downloading the software, and partitioning the drive. Then on restart, I get the failed to load bootmgr error.
Some people have suggested using two usb drives for this. I am trying that method but it does not seem to help thus far.
Can anyone offer any help?
Thanks.

from what i understand you are trying to install win 8 pro from a "backup disk" the one that you purchased from microsoft.
this will not work, it is not an installer disk.
you need to start the process again. erase the partition you made on your hdd. in disc utility click the minus button after selecting the bootcamp partition, then manually drag the divider down fully then apply.
next, erase your usb then format it.
download win 8 iso from here;
http://getintopc.com/softwares/operating-systems/download-windows-8-pro/
it is perfectly legal to use your purchased product key in this install.
in bootcamp select the iso image you just downloaded, select your preferred partition size, check all 3 options.
you have the support software on another usb but you wont need it so it can be discarded. the install will work far better with the iso and support on the same drive.

Boot Camp won't partition, files cannot be moved.

I'm sure this has come up more times than anyone can count. I've searched for answers but still haven't found the solution. Boot Camp won't partition because some files cannot be moved.
I have defragmented my computer, it is all just one partition. I have 150+ GB of free space. I am only trying to partition 5 GB for windows, honestly that is more than i will need. The error of course tells me to back up my computer and reformat it. I have not done this yet because I believe it will be a last resort and will be unlikely to actually solve my problem. I'm sure there is at least 5 GB of continuous free space on my computer that could be partitioned. I am wondering what else i can do?
Also, if it does come down to backing my computer up, is it possible to back it up to another macbook? I don't want to waste money on an external just because Boot Camp is being picky.

First, way too many people choose too small, and I though 10GB was the smallest for XP, and often was not enough to allow updates, patches, page, hibernation and temp space, let alone games, apps etc.
The only defrag I can think of that works are iDefrag and Drive Genius 2. But a backup + erase + restore is the best. Otherwise, your free space may still be fragmented or have files that prevent you, as is happening.
5GB for Windows doesn't sound like more than needed, or even enough.
External backup drives are never a waste. Even for just Mac OS.

Boot Camp won't let me remove my windows partition, please help

I am trying to remove my windows partition and boot camp won't let me. It gives me a message +" The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."+ Please help!!!!!

Use the Disk Utility to delete it and resize the partition immediately above of it so it takes up the released space.
(51550)

Boot Camp Won't Let Me Partition

I have been trying to set up a Windows XP partition on my Macbook just to play some games, but Boot Camp won't let me partition my hard drive, saying that some files are unmovable and that I should reformat my entire hard drive. Any ideas how to get around this without losing all of my work?

None that I know of. If you have access to an external hard drive, go ahead with the backup. This way, you have a fallback no matter what happens.
In theory, when a backup is restored, files are laid down in a manner that minimizes fragmentation; so if successful in backing up, reinitializing and restoring the hard disk, you should be able to create the Boot Camp volume.
You could also experiment with creating a smaller Boot Camp volume. What the Assistant is looking for is an unbroken string of free space blocks--something between 5 GB and whatever your chosen partition size might be. Strange as it might sound, depending on your habits as a user, you might not have that unbroken string even when you have something like 100 GB free.
Hopefully, I've pointed you in a good direction here, though you may disagree with the solutions offered. They are simply the only known methods for dealing with this issue.
Nate

Yosemite boot camp install on /separate/ drive?

i have an existing windows 7 boot camp install that resides on a drive in my 2006 mac pro with my LION OS.
i now have a 2012 mac pro.
should i install windows 7 with boot camp on a SEPARATE drive or can i put it on a partition on the same drive as yosemite?
thanks

OK. thank you.
so i /like/ the idea of having an internal CLONE of my OS in bay 1 on the drive in bay 2.
in the past i have set this to happen nightly and i use WinClone (thanks hatter) to create a BACKUP of the Boot Camp install of Windows 7 and i drop this backup on the DESKTOP. this way i have a BACKUP of Windows on my boot OS and i also have one on the CLONE.
just to confirm - no reason as far as you are concerned to change this?

Boot camp WINDOWS 7 hard drive formatting and back up

Hi
I have many questions with boot camp.
I want to back up my windows 7 side of my computer and my apple mac side.I have 6 black caviah 1tb drives.(3 for each side,3 formatted with windows and 3 formatted with mac).I have noticed I can use the hard drives on each side of the computer no matter which side they were formatted on.Surely this is not the case and there are restrictions in what each drive will do depending on which side they were formatted on.
Another question . Do I need to change sides to back up windows then go to mac side to back up mac.It seems both side are accessible from either windows 7 side or mac side.
wow thanks in advance to anybody can read all that and help.
Regards
John

I think I have the same problem; When I click Shut Down in Windows 7 (via Bootcamp), the shut down process proceeds as it should, except it does not properly signal the computer to physically shut down. What typically happens is the spinning circle beneath "Shutting down" freezes, and my fans spin up to max. speed (although there is no processor load).
My "solution" is just to hold the power button down to shut it off... it's not really a big deal since the shut down process has already been completed, and also not something that bothers me since I rarely shut down Windows (I either put my computer to sleep or restart in OS X, both of which don't require the hard shut down).

Boot Camp won't make a Windows XP driver disc, OS X disc only works with Win7

First time Mac user. Just got a new Macbook Pro.
I have successfully installed Windows XP on the Mac using Boot Camp. But I need the driver disc. The right mouse button doesn't even work and Windows is impossible to navigate without that. The disc eject button does not work, one has to eject a disc using laborious menus. Very frustrating.
When I run Boot Camp it only has the option to make a Windows 7 driver disc. I don't see any way to make a driver disc for Windows XP.
Everywhere I have searched on the Net the information says to put the OS X Leopard disc in the drive when WinXP is running and it will automatically install drivers. When I try that a window comes up saying it only works with Windows 7.
This web site shows screen shots of a Beta version of Boot Camp that makes Windows XP drivers discs.
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_my_mac_using_boot_ca mp_1.html
How can I make a Windows XP driver disc?
I really hope Apple didn't discontinue/eliminate the option to make a Windows XP driver disc altogether, forcing everyone to use Windows 7 only...
Is there a way to install an older version of Boot Camp over the latest version I'm running? Where would I find it?
Macbook Pro
OS X 10.6.7
Boot Camp 3.0.4
Thank you for your time in helping me on this.

The retail OS X 10.6.3 DVDs unlike your OEM DVD does have a complete set of drivers for $29 w/o having to deal with questionable bitorrent.
Microsoft EOL'd XP and Vista SP1.
Your Mac has Intel Thunderbolt and you don't see Apple doing backward compatibility. You can't run 10.5 on new Mac. So yes it comes with those limitations, but XP is also 20x more vulnerable, IE9 is more secure and XP has not kept up with the latest hardware, besides which I don't see a place or need for a 32-bit OS, any platform today.

Boot Camp Windows install format to NTFS not working.

As a preface I am new to Apple and more complex computer issues in general. With that said I have spent several hours trying to get Windows 8.1 installed from the DVD media to a partition created using Boot Camp Assistant. I have tried several suggestions and looked through many threads, blogs and articles and none seem to have the correct answer. Below are the steps that I have followed and the issue that I run into every time.
Open Boot Camp Assistant
     Select Download the latest Windows support software from Apple
     Select Install Windows 7 or later version
     Download support software to USB Drive (leave connected)
     Create a Partition (200GB)
Hold Option on Reboot and Select Windows
Begin the Windows install process
Select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)
Installation asks: Where do you want to install Windows?
Select Drive 0 partition 4: BOOTCAMP
     Error Message Details:
          Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.
          Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS.
Solution I found from many threads is that I need to "Format" the partition. To do so I:
     Select Drive 0 Partition 4: BOOTCAMP
     Select Format
     Select Drive 0 Partition 4 (No longer titled as BOOTCAMP after the reformat)
          Error Message Details:
               Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.
I cant seem to find a solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. I have tried removing all other connected drives and devices, and recreating the partition several times with no luck.
Machine Info:
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
Mac (27-inch, Late 2013)
Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
I also have VMware Fusion installed on the machine and already used the Windows installation media to create a virtual machine. Is it possible to transfer my virtual machine to a Boot Camp partition? I did a little research and it looks as though thats not possible (at least not easily) but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Sorry for the delayed response. I'm still working to get a solution so any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
The installation media I purchased is for windows 8.1. Is that the issue? Do I need to install 8 not 8.1?
Output for sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0:
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167
       start        size index contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 1560546816      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1560956456     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1562225992         696
1562226688   391297024      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1953523712        1423
1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
1953525167           1         Sec GPT header
Output for sudo fdisk /dev/disk0:
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 - 1953525167] <Unknown ID>
2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

Boot Camp won't let me partition because files cannot be moved

Hello, i just purchased Leopard so i could use windows (again) on my mac... after uninstalling it a long time ago back when i had Tiger and bootcamp beta.
anyway, the problem i'm having is the same as a few people: it won't let me partition my disk because some files cannot be moved, and that i need to format the disk to a single partition - Mac OSX (Journaled), even though it already IS.
most suggestions have been to erase and restore, or back up your computer on time machine... but the problem with that is i have a large amount of space being used on my external (for photos, movies, music), which would not otherwise fit on my HD, and as a result there is not enough room on my external to back up with Time Machine.
so what can i do to get Boot Camp Assistant to partition my disk so that i can install windows?

thanks for the advice - i finally managed to get it to work!
after a bunch of research i found out that it is in fact because the disk is fragmented that bootcamp assistant is unable to partition the disk (despite the many false claims that OSX does not need to be defragmented).
i didn't feel like paying for iDefrag and waiting to get it in the mail, so i downloaded the iDefrag demo and was able to see exactly where the fragments were (many of them were surprisingly mp3 files), and then i could manually delete their corresponding files to free up continuous space. (where before i couldn't even make a 5GB partition, i was able to finally make a 15GB partition after deleting about a dozen music files)
for anyone who wishes to try this, the way it works is that in order for the partition to be created, it requires a certain amount of free, CONTINUOUS space. Your computer says there is a certain amount of free space on it, but not all of it is continuous, in other words there are bits and pieces of stuff (fragments) littered throughout areas of "free" space.
When you run the iDefrag demo, there is a bar at the bottom with lots of colors which represents all the stuff on your HD. The free space refers to any area of white, and fragmented files are in red. The info bar will tell you exactly what file is being represented by the area of color when you click on it.
The idea is to find large areas of free space (white). If there are a few bands of non-red color in those areas it's OK, but you want to locate all the fragmented files (red) in those areas, find out what they are, search them in the finder and delete them (the info bar will tell you the file name, which will very likely be an mp3, as well as it's exact location on your computer). But be careful because if you don't know what you're deleting, you may screw up your computer.
If you buy iDefrag ($35.00), you can simply defragment and optimize your computer. This will take a long time (~5 hours), but you dont have to do any manual labor, and in the end your computer will be beautifully defragmented: all the free space will be clumped together in one big section of your hard drive and it will be completely continuous, so you can make a much larger partition (depending how much free space you have to begin with).

Windows 7 home premium booted off boot camp won't connect to Internet

I installed windows 7 home premium on my Mac book pro and when I started it up it complained that it had no Internet. Everywhere I've looked people say that you have to install the drivers from the Mac osx disk but I have the problem of I installed mountain lion off of a flash drive and so I can't format the drive without loosing everything on it. Someone please help me!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
As it looks like you haven't installed Boot Camp drivers, I am going to tell you how you can install them when you have OS X Mountain Lion:
1. Press X key while your Mac is starting to boot into OS X and open Boot Camp Assistant.
2. Follow the steps and only tick the option to download the Windows support software. Then, it will ask you to burn the drivers into a DVD or USB drive, so do it.
3. Start into Windows, insert the DVD or USB drive and install Boot Camp drivers.
On Mountain Lion and Lion, you have to download Boot Camp drivers from Apple instead of installing them from the OS X DVD, as it was possible with Leopard and Snow Leopard

Windows 7 will only install on an NTFS Formatted disk: boot camp partition not formatted right?

I recently tried to install windows 7 on my Macbook (early 2008 white). Boot camp made the partition and I even got to the Windows install screen, but the partition made by boot camp could not be used to install windows on, because it was in the wrong format, evidently (Error: windows can only be installed on a NTFS disk, or something like that). I tried to find someway to reformat the partition in disk utility, but I don't see anything that could change the format. Please help! (If there isn't a way to fix this, is there at least a way to delete the partition? It's rather annoying having 100 gbs of your harddrive just siting there, unable to be used)
And just a side question, does it matter whether you install Windows 64 bit or 32 bit? The printed-out boot camp guide said only the 32-bit version, but it didn't include anything about Windows 7)
Thank you!
Computer: Early 2008 White Macbook
OS X (10.6.7)
500 GB hard drive
4 GB DDR2 RAM

Hi,
Windows 7 needs its system to be installed on a NTFS formatted partition.
There 's no way to use FAT32 as file system for this.
Pages 8 - 10 of the BootCamp Install Guide http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ describe how-to reformat the partition to NTFS during the Windows installation.
Officially 64-bit Windows 7 is not supported on a 2008 MacBook.
However, there are instructions to be found on how-to do it nonetheless.
Regards
Stefan

Boot camp won't format drive correctly

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