Bootcamp assistant refuses to assist

This on my trusty old early 2007 20" iMac (2.16Ghz Core2Duo)-3GBRAM-250GB HD-RadeonX1600(256MB)
Previously, this machine ran the latest version of OSX Lion.
I did a full system restore on this machine to pass it on to my son. So restore from original system discs (Tiger), download and install all updates, upgrade to Leopard from DVD, download and install all updates, upgrade to SnowLeopard, download and install all updates. Finished.
I do not want to upgrade back to Lion yet, because it will not allow me to install WinXP, and Win7 is not supported on this hardware (technically a late 2006, last of the white ones).
I open Bootcamp Assistant, but when I click continue on the first window, I get this:
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.
So I run Disk Utilities, 'Verify Disk', everything checks out, of course the disk is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Yet Bootcamp won't let me continue.
What do I do?

Hold the ff-ing phone, I start up the computer holding the alt (option) key and I see there is a recovery partition???
Is that why Bootcamp says the disk is not a single partition?
My best guess is that when I upgraded this machine to Lion, it automatically created this recovery partition. When I did the system restore I told it to format the internal drive but I guess it did not touch this partition.
This is hidden in Disk Utilities so cannot be removed.
I understand Apple feels it needs to protect unwitting users from themselves, but man, why can't I do what I want with my machine?
So can I somehow get rid of this recovery partition, or do I really need to boot up from an external drive, wipe out the internal disk and start all over?

Similar Messages

Bootcamp assistant fails to launch

Bootcamp assistant fails to launch. Tells me I need to update my firmware. But I have already upgraded the firmware! Trying to run the SMC firmware updater again does not let me proceed because... the mac is already updated!
MacBook Pro 1.83 Ghz
Mac OS X 10.4.6
1GB RAM
80GB HD
All updates up until 6/8/06 installed, permissions checked.
Also, Parallels Desktop RC2 does not recognize the CD/DVD-ROM drive (error message says it cannot read data from it) and therefore cannot proceed with Windows XP SP2 Installation. The drive works flawlessly with all other apps.
A FileMaker Pro-based runtime accounting solution installs but unexpectedly quits the nanosecond after I double-click to open it.
Photos keep disappearing from the iPhoto libary. After successful importing, blank placeholders appear instead of the imported photos after relaunching iPhoto.
This MacBook Pro has been an unmitigated disaster thus far...

You are making the risky assumption the firmware was not properly installed. How can one not install the firmware correctly? I simply responded to the software update notice, downloaded the firmware, and installed it. The process was almost automatic. How can there possibly be any user error involved?
I believe I installed the firmware properly. If I try to install the firmware again, I get a message that the MacBook Pro is already updated with the correct firmware. In spite of this, Bootcamp keeps telling me I need to update the firmware, refusing to launch, hence the frustration.
This is not actually mine, but a friend's computer. I doubt AppleCare is valid for a computer purchased in Greece, but we'll try contacting the local distributor. It is a 900 number...

The guide to bootcamp assistant states that bootcamp can only be installed on a drive with a single partition. New Macs with Lion preinstalled have two partitions - the second is a recovery partition. How do I install Bootcamp?

Late in August 2011 I took delivery of a new 27" iMac with Lion preinstalled. I need to run Windows as well. Following Apple's written suggestion, I printed off the then current 12 pages of the document "Bootcamp Installation & Setup Guide" which clearly stated that the hard drive you were going to install on had to have on it, before install, a maximum of one partition. Using finder and disk utility I determined that there was only one partition. Unbeknownst to me, there was (is) an additional hidden (from those two pieces of software) partition on the disk. As of machines delivered new with Lion preinstalled, Apple has begun to include a "recovery partition". In that partition there is a copy of the software necessary to reinstall Lion via a download from the Apple App Store. Not knowing the partition was there, I cranked up "Bootcamp Assistant" which nicely offered to repartition my hard drive creating a "Bootcamp Partition" in addition to the existing. I told it how big to make each and hit the do it button, subsequently destroying my operating system. Oh, it very nicely told me, after the damage was done, how many partitions were REALLY on the disk and that I could not install Bootcamp cause there were too many partitions.
Luckily the the Recovery Partition, which at that point I knew existed, was not harmed and after doing some research on another compter, I used it to once again download Lion from the App Store and reinstall. So, I have recovered but am still stuck with the problem: how do I install Bootcamp in this new environment?

First you need to seriously back up your Mac.
A clone is an exact duplicate of your existing Mac HDD. Merely copying and pasting a drive will not make a bootable backup. In case of problems you can boot from an Ext HDD clone and use the utilities to repair, reformat, or clone the Ext HDD back to the internal Mac HDD. While Time machine back ups are easy you can not boot from it. The best thing to have for any kind of problem is a bootable clone backup on an external drive. Some even have two external backup drives in case one fails. There are two good apps for cloning named SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner.
In dealing with the recovery partition a simple approach is to clone the Mac partition to an external disk then re-partition the Mac to a single partition (GUID partition table) . Then clone the external disk clone back to the Mac. You will now have only one Partition and Boot Camp assistant sould not object.
Some have recommended getting rid of the recovery partition while others have advised not to do this. If you have the Lion USB Thumb Drive you do not need a recovery partition so can discard it without concern. There is another way to get rid of the recovery partition if you decide to do it but first be sure to have a backup of your Mac ( I know I sound like a nagging mom but many dead computers have been saved by this simple precaution).
Use Disk Utility.
1) Make the Recovery visible in Disk Utility by using a program like Secrets:http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/27025/secrets or MacPilot:http://www.koingosw.com/products/macpilot.php (15 day free trial).
2) Highlite the Recovery partition and Control click it and select Mount the partition.
3) With the Recovery partition highlited, erase the partition, you'll get an error message, ignore it.
4) Now highlite the top identity of the hard drive and select the partition tab.
5) Highlite the Recovery partition and press the minus sign.
6) Click and hold on the bottom edge of the partition above and drag it to the bottom, if it doesn't go there automatically, the press apply.

Mic won't work with Skype on Windows installed using BootCamp Assistant?

I recently purchased a 17" MacBook Pro in Australia. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate and updates as well using BootCamp Assistant. Everything works fine in Windows except when I downloaded and logged in to Skype and video-called one of my friends.
I could see my friend and he could see me, but we couldn't hear each other. I beleive there is a problem with the built-in mic, which Windows doesn't recognize or doesn't have the driver for it installed. If it's a driver problem, can anyone tell me which specific driver to download? It'd make things so much easier!
Please help!
Thanks.

Did you download and install the drivers? You need to download the drivers then install them from within Windows. See the Boot Camp Installation Guide. http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_10.7.pdf
Also search these forums for links to the audio drivers from the manufacturers's site.

How do I convert my Windows 7 Folder to an ISO image to burn to a USB, in order to use Bootcamp Assistant to partition my MacBook Pro for Mac and Windows?

How do I convert my Windows 7 Folder to an ISO image to burn to my USB Flash drive (16GB) in order to use Bootcamp Assistant to partition my MacBook Pro for Mac and Windows?

Sorry - confusing - My question has NOT been solved yet - can anyone help?

EXTREME lag after installing Windows 8.1 pro via / Bootcamp assistant

Hey guys, today I've literally been through **** trying to get this game working on my MacBook Pro.
I've basically gone out & bought Windows 8, created a partition on my hardrive (of my MacBook Pro) & installed it into that partition using Apples 'Bootcamp assistant'. After installing the operating system I also loaded the drivers which were given to me by Apples 'Bootcamp assistant'.
I now have the game on the Windows 8 (on my MacBook) which is a £2000 machine... I have got to the menu & experienced extreme lag to the point where I've even managed to turn down all my video settings & it is still lagging a lot despite my high-end computer hardware - here is my computer http://store.apple.c...B/A&step=config#
I have tried running the game on this website http://www.systemrequirementslab.com & everything is great but it says I don't have the required 512MB of video RAM... It says I have 256MB. This is complete ********? I believe I have 2GB of GDDR5 video RAM. It also says that my graphics card is called 'Microsoft Basic Display Adapter'. So I believe this is where the issue lies. My theory is for some reason one of the drivers which I have installed which was given to me by the Bootcamp assistant is messing with me.
This is literally all the information I can possibly provide, does anybody know how I could fix this?
Thanks you!

If the underlying hardware was exposed correctly by the CSM-BIOS when Windows was installed, your Device Manager should look like this.
If the Windows installer did not see any devices as your screen indicates, Windows will use generic software-based drivers which will be very slow and painful.
Rudegar ... I think the Windows installer did not see any hardware, otherwise there should be HW with yellow triangles with exclamation marks.

Can't partition HD with Bootcamp Assistant on brand new iMac

I just got a 27" 1TB brand new iMac three days ago. After copying over all my files from my previous computer (PC), installing some software packages and configured the Mac the way I want it, yesterday I wanted to partition 80GB out of remaining 330GB with bootcamp assistant to install Windows 7. After one hour it stopped with an error message that it wasn't able to move some files and I would need to re-format the HD and start again.
Is there really no other way? It took me two days to get to where I am.

It should only take less than a minute.
So just use OS X software to clone what you have to another hard drive, then do an erase and restore.
And backup before starting is at the top of the list of things to do to prepare.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp - re-read the pdf guide linked at the top and other tech articles.
And you really do want bootable clone image of Mac OS anyway, in addition to or in place of TimeMachine, so no loss in doing so. It isn't as if you will lose or have to redo.
It needed contiguous free space and no files at the end of the disk. But installers and updates do scatter files and fragment free space a lot and can leave files locked where they can't be moved.
SuperDuper
Carbon Copy Cloner
iDefrag
iPartition
Apple Disk Utility Restore
And you can have OS X on multiple hard drives, plus it really helps for doing the type of maintenance and repairs needed for updates and proper running.

Hi, I've been trying for days to download Windows support software via Bootcamp assistant, but it always failed with message 'Can't install Windows Support Software because it is not currently available from the Software update server.' Any advice welcome

Hi,
I've been trying for days to download Windows support software via Bootcamp assistant but it always fails with message 'Can't install windows software because it is not currently available from the software update server.'
Anyone else had problems or success with this?
Thanks in advance.

9thdoc wrote:
I'm getting a similar but distinct error message in snow leopard: Download could not continue. "The windows support software is not available" and have no original snow leopard instal disc with me.
Your issue is completely different. You are running Snow Leopard. There is no download for Windows Support software for Snow Leopard, hence the error you see. Snow Leopard Windows Support software is on the Snow Leopard installation disk.
You need the Snow Leopard installation disk or a replacement for it.

Unable to install Windows 8.1 on Macbook using BootCamp Assistant

Hi, I own a Macbook Pro 13" Mid 2012 model.
I am trying to install Windows 8.1 on my Macbook using BootCamp Assistant, but i always get this error :
"No Bootable device detected, Insert Boot disk and press any key".
I've tried pressing the option key during boot to startup the boot manager and this is what i get :
I notice that the Windows boot disk doesn't show EFI Boot like it is supposed to when installing windows on a Mac.
I know this because I once had successfully installed Win 8.1 using BootCamp before on my MacBook.
However I'm not sure what the problem is this time.

On pre-2013 Macs, EFI installation does not work or partially succeeds, because these models are preUEFI models. The Late 2013+ models will support EFI boot correctly, without any driver issues. Your specific model supports installing from a DVD+USB or USB (I have the same 13" 2012 MBP).
You need to ensure that the USB device used is a USB2 and not a USB3 device. Please verify the integrity of the Windows ISO file (if used) using Microsoft FCIV tool. The same applies to the DVD. Do not connect any other external storage to your MBP. Do not use Alt/Option key to interrupt the BCA-initiated installation.
Using Alt/Option works when installing EFI-based on Windows, but you can directly boot into EFI installer from System Preferences -> Startup Disk -> EFI Boot Media.

Can't install Windows 8.1 because the Bootcamp Assistant-partitioned disk is GBT and not MBR.

I can’t install Windows 8.1 because the Bootcamp Assistant-partitioned disk is GBT and not MBR, and attempting to format the bootcamp disk does nothing. I have read up on this issue, and the only solution seems to be to make a backup of my computer and reformat all disks via 8.1 setup terminal. I REALLY do not want to do that, is there any way to fix this? I’m on OS X Yosemite, if that pertains to the thread.

Interesting. It wouldn’t install because I had FileVault enabled. Huh. Disabling it saved the day.

BootCamp won't load on first boot from USB created by Bootcamp Assistant

So I have created a bootable USB via the Bootcamp Assistant with the support files etc, formated a paritition to run off of. I also have tried formating through disk utility to no avail.
I have tried things like using a USB drive, using an external, un plugging all external devices from my mac while running the set up, and nothing I have found online so far has seemed to work.
Where the problem is, when I boot from the external drive or USB created by bootcamp assistant, it will literally just freeze on the first screen where I select the language and that stuff, not even a USB keyboard or mouse will help.
I have managed to get past that before, but then It wont let me format my hard drive correctly to install it
Any ideas?

Please post in the Boot Camp forum, thats where you will find the MS Windows and Boot Camp gurus. Note also it's Boot Camp, and not Bootcamp which is something you do when you enter the military.

My MacBook Pro encounters an error when partitioning for loading windows using Bootcamp Assistant. I deleted the partition that was there in order to upgrade to Bootcamp 5 but now I am struggling to get Bootcamp 5 to complete the job. Help please.

I am struggling to Partition my MacBook Pro using Bootcamp 5, can someone help, please. I previously had successfully loaded Windows 7 running Bootcamp 4 on the same machine. When I upgraded to Windows 8 I started encountering problems. My trackpad would not work and it required me to load Bootcamp 5" as I was running 32 bit this is not supported by Bootcamp 5 I had to completely delete the previous partition, but now I can't repartition as it goes halfway and says an error has been encountered and Bootcamp cannot partition this drive.
I do not know how to defragment the drive in Apple as I can in windows nor can I clean it up to maybe get everything in neat clusters, maybe somebody can help me solve this problem.

Sorry Bobthefisherman, this was not helpful. I had already gone through these pages before coming to you. What I have discovered however is that when Bootcamp Assistant deleted the partition, it did not create a single volume but created three partitions instead which maybe the reason why it cannot create the new part ion parameters I am asking it crate. So I took it to the geniuses at Apple who suggested that I reformat the drive and reload everything again! and this might solve the problem. We'll all know whether this is helpful once it finishes the formatting of the hard drive. This process is taking a very long time to complete so I am leaving it overnight for it to complete. I will keep you updated on progress. I am also told that Apple is struggling with Windows 8 drivers and I may not be able to use that, so I am going back to Windows 7 even though I was beginning to like windows 8 very much.

Problems with Bootcamp Assistant: no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key

Hello Guys,
I got a problem setting up Windows 7 on my recently bought 13" MacBook Pro (2,3Ghz Core i5).
I used the bootcamp assistent to create a partition of 50GB on my Mac, everything is fine until now. I insert the Windows 7 disk and follow the instructions. But when I restart in spite of starting the installation of Windows 7, a black screen appears with a note saying "no bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". To exit this screen I then have to restart my Computer again, holding down the alt-key. In the following window I can just chose my Mac-Harddrive to boot from, the partition is not shown.
I used the software actualization tool to update to version 10.6.7 which is the most recent one i think.
The Windows 7 CD I use is actually a burned one. My University is a member of the msdn academic alliance and therefore offers me to download microsoft software for my work. I stress out that this is absolutly legal, I will only be allowed to use the software unitl I finished my studyings.
So as I said, I downloaded the Version of Windows 7 Professional with Service Pack 1 (x64) on my computer and then burned on a DVD. I want to add, that the file I downloaded turned out to be an iso file. At first, I just burned this file on a DVD but since it turned out that i got the above mentioned message, I burned a second DVD with the actual files of the iso (with foldernames like autorun.inf, boot, bootmgr, bootmgr.efi, efi, setup.exe, sources support, and upgrade)
I dont know if these details are of any relevance, but i guess it may be useful since I believe that the burning thing could cause the problems.
I have already browsed the Forum for quite some time now, but I didnt find a case with the exact same problem that I have, so I decided to rather ask you for help now instead of killing my brain like I did before (and I dont really have a clue neither of Macbooks nor of Windows-Computers, its always try and error for me)
I hope somebody can come up with some helpful ideas or a solution.
If you need further details on my system or anything, please feel free to ask
Thank you very much,
David

The Windows 7 CD I use is actually a burned one. My University is a member of the msdn academic alliance and therefore offers me to download microsoft software for my work. I stress out that this is absolutly legal, I will only be allowed to use the software unitl I finished my studyings.
Apple Disk Utility won't do a proper job and won't work (and it varies, some can start the install but fails later) Has to be burned at 2X Reduced Burn Speed
Also check the support articles for bootcamp
Apple Boot Camp Support

How to install Windows 7 on 2010 MacBook Air with Lion - Bootcamp Assistant 4.0.1 from USB drive?

I want to install Windows 7 on my 2010 MacBook Air running Lion - Bootcamp Assistand 4.0.1 from a USB drive. I've done this in the past when I was running Snow Leopard and the process was rather easy but now Lion updated the Bootcamp Assistant so i'm no longer able to create a MBR partition without a Super Drive installed. Does anybody managed to do that? Thank you.
The old process working on Snow Leopard:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20020513-285/install-win-7-on-macbook-air-fr om-a-usb-drive/

Nobody managed to install Windows 7 from a USB drive on a 2010 MacBook Air running Lion?

Bootcamp Assistant: "'Create Windows 7 Install Disk Option' Missing" Fix Problem

Firstly, sorry if this is in the incorrect fourm area, it's related with the Mountain Lion OSx software, so I posted here.
I am Running OSX 10.8.3
I'm trying to install bootcamp with a .ISO and a USB Drive. You need to make a Windows 7 install disk, and Bootcamp Assistant can do that for you, but the option isn't showing up.
I am running OSX 10.8.3 M-Lion
The link below shows how to fix the issue......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD4kgJQ-r0c
I did everything as it says, until the 2:20 mark in the video, where he tells you to go to the USBSupportedModels and copy the first string that follows....
I couldn't find it,however,I found a similar one, shown below. I beleive it's the thing that I need to duplicate, but the strings, shown below, are considerably different.
<key>PreUSBBootSupportedModels</key>
          <array>
                    <string>MacBook7,1</string>
                    <string>MacBookAir3,2</string>
                    <string>MacBookPro8,3</string>
                    <string>MacPro5,1</string>
                    <string>Macmini4,1</string>
                    <string>iMac12,2</string>
If you look in the Top comments section, there are people, running the same OSX as mine (10.8.3) saying that it's not working, with 2 people rating it up. There is a reply saying that it does work. However, I know if somthing is messed up, the Assistant would be rendered unusable, a risk i am hesitating to take. I Googled everywhere, but all I'm finding is the same fix for USBSupported over and over again.
Has anyone found a correct or know of a fix for this? OR should I just go ahead and do as the video says?
Thanks!

Don't modify that file because anyway it won't work. The reason is that Apple has determined the Macs that support the Windows installation from a USB drive by their firmware. It means that if you modify that file you will be able to create a Windows 7 USB drive, but if you try to install Windows, your computer will show up a black screen in the next startup telling you that it hasn't found any bootable device.
You can edit that file if you want, but it's not sure that the option will show up in Boot Camp Assistant, and you won't be able to install Windows through a USB drive because the firmware of your computer doesn't support this

Bootcamp assistant refuses to assist

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for