Bootcamp fails to format partition

System: Brand new 15" MBP with Retina display, 8 GB ram and 500 GB SSD
Problem: Running Bootcamp to install Windows 7, I get as far as choose the partition to install in and select 'Bootcamp'/options/format. 3-5 seconds later it drops out, the partition is no longer called 'Bootcamp' and I get a message that Windows cannot be installed on this partition. I've restarted, erased and recovered, all to no avail. It states to check the installation logs for more details but I can't find the log anywhere.
I really hope somebody has an idea what to do next! Unfortunately I really do have to find a way to run W7 because of some specific applications I use.
Terence Watts

I just successfully installed Windows 8.1 Update 1 on BootCamp on Mac OS X Yosemite. Here is a step by step I just wrote, hope it helps y'all:
How to successfully install Windows 8, or above, on Mac OS X Mavericks or above:
Requirements:
1- Windows OS ISO Image file
2- An 8GBs USB Flash Drive
3- A good Internet connection as you will need to download the Windows compatible drivers for your Mac
Steps:
1- Open up Disk Utility and create an additional partition for Windows formatted as ExFat. 100GBs, or above, is recommended as update to the operating system, as well as Apps requiere space on your HD or SSD [This step can be done during Mac OS X's installation process]
2- Open up BootCamp Assistant
3- Make sure only the 'Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk' is checked and your USB Flash Drive plugged in and click 'Continue'
4- Click 'Choose' and select your Windows ISO Image file
5- Select the USB Flash Drive you will be using during the installation process and click continue to confirm
6- Once done, restart your Mac and hold down the 'alt/option' key on your keyboard to bring up the Boot Menu
7- Select the USB Flash Drive named Windows, not the UEFI Boot
8- Install Windows as you normally would
* Remember to press and hold the 'alt/option' key, and select the Windows Partition, whenever the installation process requires your Mac to restart
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj945423.aspx
* http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/install-windows-on-mac

Similar Messages

BootCamp Assistant removed all partitions

When I first installed Windows 7 using BootCamp Assistant it formated the disk as DOS FAT (32). I wanted to change that to NTFS. So I launched BootCamp Assistant, selected Remove Windows, and proceeded to remove the BootCamp partition. The dialog box stated that my disk would be restored to a single partition. That done I ran BootCamp Assistant again to try and re-install Windows. But it said my disk could not be used to boot. So I ran Disk Utility from a network recover session and discovered that BootCamp had left my disk with only a single DOS FAT(32) parition! My OS X was completely gone and now I can't do anything with my laptop. Has anyone else run into this problem? Is there some way I can reset the partition type without erasing the disk and recover OS X without having to do a complete restore?

You failed to read the Boot Camp documentation (specifically the part about using the Windows install disk to format the partition as NTFS), did you read the part about making a backup before you do this?
Reboot, hold the option key down when you hear the chime, hold it down until the boot manager loads, select the Mac drive to boot from, if there is no Mac drive and you have no backup then reinstall Lion from the recovery partition (cmd-r) if that is toasted it gets harder, post back.

Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged

I was experiencing a problem with my Windows XP installation on Bootcamp. The Windows side kept restarting, and I could not find the reason, so I formatted with the Windows XP disc and tried to re-install it, but it didn't work. I forget the exact error as to why. So I went back to the Mac side and re-formatted the partition sing Bootcamp, and now when I try to re-install the Windows XP on the Bootcamp partition, I get the error:
Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged
What can I do? I don't understand, because this disk has worked before and I am on the mac side right now, so the actual disk does not appear to be damaged. What can I do?

Do a full format as it will check for errors and mark bad clusters if it finds any (full format = quick + chkdsk /x ), but only create one OS partition e.g like 30GB or something , this will be plenty enough for the os ,instead of the whole drive . Will save you time .
Wait with partitioning the rest of the drive as an extra partition until the OS is installed using diskmanagement .
Also make sure sata-dma is enabled in bios .

Can I force the bootcamp wizard to skip looking for the bootcamp drivers? I have already downloaded the latest drivers and loaded them on a FAT usb drive. All I want is for bootcamp to create the partition and allow me to install windows 8 pro

Hi Everyone,
Can I force the bootcamp wizard to skip looking for the bootcamp drivers? I have already downloaded the latest drivers and loaded them on a FAT usb drive. All I want is for bootcamp to create the partition and allow me to install windows 8 pro.
The bootcamp drivers have been downloaded from apple's website. Filename: BootCamp5.0.5033
I have a iMac 27" late 2013 model.
NOTE: I have downloaded the drivers manually from apples support site as the bootcamp wizard fails third of the way through the download.
Appreciate any assistance.
Regards,
asdutoit

There is a missing point in this thread, and it is that the Boot Camp drivers for the Late 2013 iMac can only be downloaded from Boot Camp Assistant. The Boot Camp drivers available in the Apple site are not compatible with that iMac.
Delete the Boot Camp drivers from the USB drive, open Boot Camp Assistant and try to download the Boot Camp drivers again. If you get a message telling you that they could not be downloaded, I would try reinstalling OS X through OS X Recovery, by holding down Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up

BOOTCAMP fails to install Windows XP SP2

I ran the assistant, partitioned ok, but running the Windows XP disk that used to work with the public beta versions of bootcamp fails to install after rebooting: [in windows style] "disk error...press any key to restart" All I can do is shut down the mac and reboot in Mac OS.
Anyone?
Message was edited by: Adrian K.

Not to sound stuffy - but you would do better posting this in the BootCamp forum.
It's not an unusual problem and others have posted ways to fix it.
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Windows installer won't format partition correctly.

I'm not very tech minded so Ill try to explain best I can. I am trying to partition mac to install windows.
First step: I use Bootcamp to create the partition, the mac restarts and boots to windows installer. However the product key can't be verified, windows won't help with the issue they say it is valid and its apples problem.
Second step: Im advised by apple support to restart the mac while holding C button, at this point I have the USB drive in and the windows installation disc. The mac boots to windows installer and I enter product key, it accepts the product key. Great that problem is fixed. It now asks me to select the partition I want to install on. I select Bootcamp partition is says the format is GPT partition style. Ok I look for fix on internet it says click the format option for that partition. Warning message saying that it will erase all files on that partition. I click ok and it formats it. The word Bootcamp on the partition is removed. So I select this partition again but windows still says its still in the GPT format even though it has just formatted it. How can I fix this formatting issue ? Also I checked the partiton in disk utility and the format is displayed as NTFS, this is what it should be. However windows just disagrees and keeps telling me its in the GPT format.
Anyone got a fix for this problem formatting problem ?
If not what about a fix for the product key not being verified when doing install through bootcamp, if I can fix that I think bootcamp will sort it all out itself. (Yes I have an internet connection when entering product key before anyone asks)
PLEASE HELP!!!! Apple won't help as they don't deal with windows. Windows say that the problem is with Apple.

Try the following steps:
1. Go to Microsoft website to fix install and Unistall problems. Click "Run now" from Fix it to remove all iTunes & related installer files:
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall
Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.

Strange error when Bootcamp attempts to create partition for Windows

I get a strange error when I tell Bootcamp to create a partition for Windows. I get to the Create a Partition stage. I select 20GB for Windows leaving 91GB (39GB free) for OS X. I then click Partition and it gives me the following error
*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.
My disk is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled), I have closed all applications (besides Bootcamp Assistant) and I have even restarted and tried again to see if that might help. Nothing. I can't get it to partition. Any thoughts? Can I partition my disk manually through disk utility and then select it in Bootcamp?

Hi,
this gets asked at least a thousand times by now.
Have a look at this thread for solution http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10540273&#10540273
Regards
Stefan

Windows 10 bootcamp, had to format to ntfs

Hi.
During install of Windows 10 I had to select partition I wanted to install it on.
I selected the BOOTCAMP partition, but bootcamp hadn´t formated it to NTFS. Therefore Windows installation let me format BOOTCAMP to NTFS.
Why didn´t bootcamp fix this automatically? Did I loose something? Why don´t it copy drivers for the wifi card? WIll the light on the keyboard still work?
macbook air mid 2013, 256gb ssd etc.

BigDrago wrote:
Why don´t it copy drivers for the wifi card? WIll the light on the keyboard still work?
You need to install Bootcamp drivers which support Apple hardware on your specific Mac, if they were not automatically/silently installed during Windows installation.
Please also see https://help.apple.com/bootcamp/mac/5.0/help/#/bcmp173b3bf2.

BootCamp on a double partitioned drive

So the hard drive in my MBP is partitioned into two separate partitions. One for OS X and the other for all my data. I want to install XP for some games and so I would like to use bootcamp to do so. My question is, is the drive that bootcamp will partition limited to the one with OS X already on it? Or can I use it on my other partition that has all my data.
And second, should I want to revert back and delete the windows partition, will everything go back to the way it was? Or will I have to format and re-partition anything.
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
the BootCamp Assistant (BCA) in OSX will only partition the harddrive when it is a single OSX volume with only one partition on it.
With your harddisk layout the BCA won't do anything.
Nonetheless, have a look here for ways to do what you have in mind http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071101065229169
When using the BootCamp Assistant for the partitioning, you can use it again later for completely removing the WIndows partition and assigning the diskspace back to OSX.
When using the other solutions you have to do that on your own with Disk Utility.
Regards
Stefan

[Solved] Failed to format flash drive after recent update(3/6/2013)

Hello,
I'm experiencing failure at formatting my flash drive to ext2,3,4, fat32(or possibly any possible format).
This happens after the recent system update which includes filesystem, I wonder if that's the reason.
So I followed the instructions here : https://www.archlinux.org/news/binaries … ervention/
and I start to fail at formatting my flash drive using mkfs, while mkfs on live CD 2013.05.01 works perfectly.
Any help would be appreciated.
Last edited by darrenldl (2013-06-04 14:41:04)

I once had a very odd occurrence that - being an isolated incident - I still don't really understand. But it seemed no matter what I did I could not erase data from a flash drive. I'd dd from /dev/zero, reformat, put it on a different computer, and it'd indeed be empty. But then when I plugged it back in to my computer it showed up as populated with a bunch of files that used to be on it.
It seemed like there must have been a filesystem created on my own harddrive that was being mounted to the mount point when the usb drive was detected - so what I was seeing wasn't really on the usb, but was on my drive.
I don't know if it is possible to accidentally format a mount point rather than a device - I would think it should fail, but I can't help but wonder if something like that is going on: when the usb is plugged into your machine, the locally created filesystem is being mounted, but when you plug the usb into another computer, it's obviously not there.
Some steps that may avoid whatever could cause this:
1) reboot to have a fully fresh start.
2) make sure any automounting utilities are disabled
3) partition/dev/sdX and format /dev/sdXn as usual
4) sync, to ensure all disk io is flushed.

How can I uninstall Bootcamp and Recover the partition for the Mac HD

How can I uninstall Bootcamp and recover the partition for the IMac HD?

Boot into OSX. Go back into the Bootcamp utility in the Utilities folder and re-run it. It will give you the option to remove the Windows partition and make the OSX partition fill the whole drive again. OSX will NOT be lost in the process. No re-installing necessary. Only takes a few minutes or less to complete.

Bootcamp not using full partitioned amount.......

So my Bootcamp hard drive is partitioned for 25gb. However, it is only using 15gb. I am trying to install a game that is about 14gb but I don't have enough room for the other software I need. So, in short, Why won't it use those other 10 gb????!!! It's driving me nuts! They don't register as empty, but no matter how hard a search through all my files there's only a max of 14/15 gb of stuff on there. But I still keep getting these warnings saying that I have no hard drive space left.
Does anyone know what's going on?

It's up to you. I've never dealt with WinClone so I'm not sure how well it does or doesn't work. I do see it recommended on the boards often, though, and it's an application that works while you're in OS X. Worth looking at, at least!
When you repartition the drive, the Boot Camp Assistant may say it doesn't have enough space to create the partition, even though your hard drive certainly DOES have the space there. The issue is that the Assistant needs contiguous space (basically a large chunk all in one spot) and it can't find a spot big enough due to fragmentation on the drive. Applications like iDefrag could help, but, personally, I'd just reformat the drive and start over.
~Lyssa

Failed. Format conversion is not supported

Hello again, this error happened when I was playing around with Creative Audio Converter
Failed. Format conversion is not supported
This error happened when I was converting a song from WMA Pro, 128 Kbps, 44khz, 2 Channel 24-Bit to WMA Pro, 128 Kbps, 44khz, 5.1 Channel 24-Bit
Why is this error happening? And if the conversion is not supported, then why did Creative bother to put this format on their sound cards? Or is this another of Microsoft's problem?
Thank You.

Thank you very much for answering my query about that, at this moment i am very interested on 5.1 channel conversion. I have written to other ppl on other forums about 5.1 channel conversion. One person told me that there are a lot of ways to do it, depending on what kind of 5.1 upmixing do you want to perform. What kinds of upmixing do you use for 5.1 channel conversion? What do you recomend?
Thank You very much

Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying and Repairing Disks

Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information below at your own discretion.
This tip links to my web site (too large for this forum).
*Please click here:* Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying and Repairing Disks
|
Please use the Contact link there for suggestions, changes, or corrections.
This is the 1st version of this tip. It was submitted on September 12, 2010 by Pondini.
Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.

Hi Pondini,
Page: 9. Duplicating a CD or DVD, item 4...
Based on articles like
How to copy previously-burned DVD-R video discs
and
Creating a disk image
I always selected "DVD/CD Master" as the image format when making images from discs.
Is that not necessary?
Thanks,
Nubz

Clone Leopard GUI Partition to Apple Format Partition

My main drive in my iMac is running 10.4 with an "Apple" format on its partition, and not GUI. It has one partition for the main drive (10.4) and one for random files on this disk. I also have an external USB 2.0 drive that I've installed Leopard on, because unlike the 10.4 drive, this was formatted with GUI.
So my question is; *Will Leopard 10.5 run on an Apple format partition scheme when I use carbon copy cloner to copy it?*

Stealthgear wrote:
My main drive in my iMac is running 10.4 with an "Apple" format on its partition, and not GUI. It has one partition for the main drive (10.4) and one for random files on this disk. I also have an external USB 2.0 drive that I've installed Leopard on, because unlike the 10.4 drive, this was formatted with GUI.
So my question is; *Will Leopard 10.5 run on an Apple format partition scheme when I use carbon copy cloner to copy it?*
yes but as I understand it you won't be able to install any system updates on that drive once you boot from it so you might not want to do that.

Bootcamp fails to format partition

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for