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

Similar Messages

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).

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 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.

Can i use an external hard drive in windows to add additional storage after my initial partition is set up. i want to add a 500 GB hard drive to use with my windows. I set windows up in boot camp with a 50 GB partition?

can i use an external hard drive in windows to add additional storage after my initial partition is set up. i want to add a 500 GB external hard drive to use with my windows. I set windows up in boot camp with a 50 GB partition? I now want to add another 500 GB?

Yes. Windows supports external USB drives.

Installing Boot Camp - There is only one partition available for Windows

I have a brand new Mac Mini. Ran Boot Camp assistant and created Windows partition - 80 GB. Then when instructed, inserted Windows XP install disc. It went through some install steps then came to screen where you chose the partition to install Windows. There was only one partition showing - Partition 1. I think that's the Mac partition, so I quit install, removed partition with Boot Camp and tried again, this time setting Windows partition at 32GB. Insert Windows install disc, same result - only Partition 1. I called Apple support, we did it all again - same result. They had me completely reformat my Mac disc with the OSX discs, then run Boot Camp assistant and set partition to 32 GB. Same result - only Partition 1 is available. The Windows install disc I am using is the same disc I used to put Windows on my son's MacBook about 9 months ago.
I need this Mac Mini to run both OS. What to do?

Use NTFS for Windows and buy Paragon NTFS for OS X
You can also try Paragon HFS for Windows
As long as you are using for data and backups, you can leave the drive as GPT too.
I would recommend strongly to always have a 2nd bootable Mac OS drive, only need 30GB partition. System maintenance. Though LIon Recovery Mode finally makes it less but not totally unneeded.
And yes you can use Windows to create a partition.
Boot Camp is too broad. Do you want or mean BC Assistant? not needed but probably possible.
MBR has trouble with 3TB drives.

Help! Boot Camp has messed up my partition table!

I used Boot Camp to create a 60GB partition on my hard drive for a Windows installation; however, Boot Camp crashed and hung part way through. I left it for an hour but ultimately had to kill it forcibly.
Now I'm left with 60GB missing from my hard drive, but no partition to delete to reclaim the lost space.
Running diskutil on /dev/disk0 reports the following:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUIDpartitionscheme *465.8 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 404.9 Gi disk0s2
I've tried booting from the installation disc and running a repair via Disk Utility. This appeared to find some errors but, after repairing them, my hard disk is still 60GB down.
Short of reinstalling OS X, is there anything else I can do to remove this partially-created partition and claim back my disc space?
Message was edited by: m0thr4

Fixed it by backing everything up in Time Machine, booting off the installation DVD, erasing my main HDD (which brought its capacity back to 465GB) and then performing a restore from the last full backup.

Boot Camp won't partition my disc because it says I need to reformat as a single mac os extended (journaled) even though it already is.

I'm trying to partition my Macbook Pro early 2011 with Boot Camp Assistant so I can run Windows 7, however when I tell it to create the partition I get an error that says:
"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."
Problem is, my Macbook is already a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled)! Any idea of what I should do to get around this? Do I have to wipe and restore my files? I'm using Boot Camp 4.0.1

Kappy wrote:
The problem:
You are asking for more contiguous space than is available on the drive.
The drive is highly fragmented.
Here's what you need to do:
Request a smaller Windows partition. If that isn't feasible then do the following:
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
       external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
       mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
       drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
       failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
       reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the
       DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
       drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
       (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
       GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
       until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
I've come across this problem myself, so I attempted this procedure, although I receive an input/output error when trying restore my internal hdd to my external. I have never a problem with either. Could I instead create an image using DU and save it to the external drive then extract that image to my internal drive later? If so, is there any additional steps I need to take?

Boot Camp will not let me install Windows via external hard drive

Hi,
I'm having problems installing Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro. I have the iso file on my external hard dirve and have went to Boot Camp but the following message comes up:
"The startup disk cannot 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."
At one point i just clicked OK and let Boot Camp install the selected tasks, which formated the disk, copied the Windows files and downloaded the Windows support software but another message came up:
"Install this Windows support software after installing Windows"
It then only gives me an option to Quit...
I would like to add that i tried to install Windows a few days ago and everything was working well up until instead of clicking on "customize" to continue the installation i clicked on "upgrade" then it asked me to remove disk and reboot the computer, i did that and it didn't work. Luckily i got that sorted but wanted to try and install Windows again as it didn't end up getting it installed and this is what is happening now...
Can someone suggest to me what might be wrong?
Thanks in advance.

My other post has been deleted. I will reply to you on this post instead.
I dragged down the Macintosh HD partition via the small triangle at the bottom right hand side of it. It now looks like this:
Is it back to normal now? Can i install Windows now or do i need to do anything else?
Thanks a lot for your help!

Boot camp can't view Mac partition

Hi guys. So heres my problem. I have a late 2012 27" Imac with a 3TB fusion drive, and I have boot camp successfully installed with Windows 8 (currently).
So my problem is when i'm booted into Windows, I cannot view my Mac partition at all. From what I understand, Apple have included HFS drivers which should enable me to at least view my Mac HDD when booted into windows, and the drivers are installed properly, however I still cannot even see my Mac HDD.
I have searched far and wide for possible solutions or even an explination as to why this isn't working for me, with no prevail. From what I understand, I think it might be the fusion drive which is preventing the reading capability. All I know is that i've tried almost everything (MacDrive etc.) and nothing works for me, I just ultimately want to be able to access my Mac HDD when im booted into Windows.
I have also tried on Windows 7 but I end up with the same problem.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!
Thanks guys, any help will be appreciated!

I believe that you have already answered your own question without realizing it.
You indicated that yoru MacOS partition is on a Fusion Drive. If that is the case, then I do not believe that it is supported by Boot Camp, and you won't be able to access it. If you double check teh Boot Camp documentation, I believe it should clarify that. Fusion Drives are new technology from Apple (within the last year or so) and the technology is not really available to third parties yet, so other drivers like MacDrive, or HFS+ For Windows from Paragon won't have the ability to access the Fustion Drive until they either license the technology from Apple, ot attempt to reverse engineer it for themselves...

Boot Camp won't update, no Bluetooth, can't install drivers, see OS X DVD

I have a client who has a whole mess:
Mac Mini Core2Duo running Leopard 10.5.6
Boot Camp 1.4 Beta
Vista
Inserting the OS X DVD produces nothing, can't see it, can't open it, can't install drivers from OS X Install Disc 1.
Can't update Boot Camp to 2.1 (update never executes no matter how long you wait after dblclick)
No Bluetooth in Vista, anywhere. Mighty Mouse somehow works but no scrolling with the ball.
Won't run Apple Bluetooth Installer.exe
My only recommendation at this point is to delete the Windows partition and start from scratch, and put XP back on instead of Vista, hoping that we'll be able to update Boot Camp to 2.1 and put the drivers on from the OS X Install Disc 1 that came with the Mini. This is fairly difficult to explain or even comprehend on my part, and I've been doing this for decades.
Anybody have a hint for me?

Oh nevermind. I was doing this via remote and as it works out, some people don't know if they have Leopard or Tiger.

Boot Camp won't boot Win 7 DVDs /Cloned disks - White cursor flashes once then Black Screen of Death.

Hi Guys,
I am having a serious issue with my machines ability to use boot camp. Here's what happend: I had Win 7 installed on the BOOTCAMP partition for a long while, then one day my HD crashed. So naturally I got my HD replaced from Apple and got Lion reinstalled and wokring flawlessly. Then I planned to get my Boot Camp going again, but my computer has a will against it I swear. So I run Boot Camp Assistant , create the parition and reboot. At this point I have my Win 7 disk burned using Disk utility in the drive, I am using a dvd disk image from Microsofts online store. I reboot and the computer hangs at the "pick a harddrive" grey for a second. Then the DVD drive spins up and I get a black screen, then for ever so slight a moment there is a flash of a white _ a the top left, then flash , nothing, the screen remains illumniated. Now I tried this multiple times , let it run over night , and nothing. Its almost as if my laptop will no longer boot the style of dvd that win 7 is.
Being a diagnostics first type of a person I tested all the variables, the win 7 cd works fine in other macbook pros. My computer boots other mac os x DVDs without a problem. I also tried using winclone to create a copy of another machines Boot Camp and flash it to my BOOT CAMP drive but this has the exact same result! Therefore it seems that the underlying system that runs my Macs ability to boot from Windows-style? partitions and dvd is broken. I also tried installing rEFIt, but that doesn't seem to help. I also tried booting off of an external USB drive with the same result. I tried zapping p-ram , scm and doing all software updates.
Has anyone expereinced anything like this? Anyone found resolution to a similar issue? Any other tricks related to Macs EFI and boot process that I could use to debug this? Anywhere that EFI stores logs possibly?
I went to the Apple's Genius Bar and they were stumped on my issue. I felt that they should be able to fix it considering it booted fine before I had Apple replace my HD.
Thanks to any responders, I'm really hitting my head on the table now and would love some help.

Have you reset the PRAM? It should usually be done when replacing any hardware. Have you got the latest EFI firmware for your Mac?
Not knowing what model /YEAR your MBP is (not that it would help me too much but the other fellas probably would) it's hard to guess as there are issue's for different models. The only thing I could find was it's usually caused by a non-conforming video driver. Microsoft had a page on it I found by accident and now I can't find it!
WinClone hasn't been updated by the original author in over a year, others have tweeked it a little to work with W7 but seems to be semi reliable, so the be aware.
Unless the other MBP's are identical in Model AND year your putting older or incompatible drivers on your MBP. Boot Camp, (especially if your using the drivers on the original install disks, like 10.6 and earlier) will only install for that specific computer. Just like the OS installer.
EDIT:
Oh yeah, are you sure you have the partition formatted the right way, thats another black screen problem.
Message was edited by: Jaygyver

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

MacBook won't let me partition HD

Hi,
I'm on a MacBook5.1 - I just upgraded to Snow Leopard. First let me admit some things; I first tried partitioning my MacBook by using G-Parted (off of an Ubuntu LiveCD), and it seemed to be working but then the time element got so large and long - like 2.5 hours - that I figured something wasn't right. So I pulled the plug in the middle of G-parted's process- maybe not the best idea.
But as it happened I was able to boot back into my Mac OS X and everything was there etc. Everything seemed fine. So I thought I'd try to partition with Disk Utility and it started to work; I kept it set on the Mac OS Journaled setting. But then it stopped fairly soon into the process saying 'Partition Failed - Error on disk blah blah'. I'm not positive that's exactly what it said but it's close.
Here's the thing - not only will it not partition, it won't let me pick any other file format other than Mac OS Journaled. The other options, like Fat32, are simply not there in the drop-down menu. Nor will it let me click the Options button - that button stays grayed-out for whatever reason.
I wonder if I should just count my blessings and not push this. But I've partitioned many times before and I hate not knowing what's wrong.
I appreciate any help or assistance on this. And btw, I've done a Repair Permissions on my HD several times and it seems to do a lot - the process there looks very busy like there is a lot in need of repair. But that hasn't helped me for partitioning at all.
Many Thanks, Frank B.

not to trash on open source, but G-parted isn't the one to be using, that was your mistake right there. either use disk utility or drive genius / techtool for these task with OS X on the drive.
second, always backup beforehand. use carbon copy cloner or Super Duper to clone the current working partition of OS X only, not the whole drive.
note: repair permissions isn't going to fix a corrupt partition map or filesystem.
next, try booting off the DVD & running Disk Utility from there. Do a repair under the First Aid tab. If it errors, the partition table is toast. You'll have to reformat the drive. do your partitioning from there.

Hard drive missing space after boot camp got stocked on "Creating Partition"

Hi guys, last night I was trying to install windows 7 in my computer for some gaming, the process with boot camp went well until it said "Creating Partition" there it got stocked for a good 2 hours, because of this I did a bit of research on what could happen if I would force quit it, I read that it might happen that if I restart the partition would be there or just nothing would have change but in my case none of those happened, my hard drive is keeping that space in blank without letting me use it, before trying boot camp I had 240 GB of free space and now after restart it I have 90 gb of free space, yes I tried to make the partition of 150 GB, so what should I do to repair this?, I verified the permissions on Disk Utility and I just got one weird message:
Warnin SUID file "Library/CoreS" has been modified and will not be repaired
But when I try to verify/repair I get this:
or this:

Reboot to your recovery partition and run disk utility from there, you can not repair the disk you are booted from.

Boot Camp Won't Let Me Partition

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