Deleting Boot Camp Partition to make a new larger one- Will I be able to reinstall Windows 7 on it?

This may be more of a Windows question, but I'll ask it here. Right now, I have a Boot Camp partition on my iMac with Windows 7 installed on it. I want to dedicate more harddrive space to the partition, but can't make it larger. So, I need to delete the old one and make a whole new one. If I do that, will I be able to install Windows 7 on the new partition, or is the licence used up from when I originally installed it?
Thanks

Since you reinstall the same Windows 7 license onto the same computer it should be no problem.
Worst case would be that you have to call Microsoft to activate the new Windows 7 installation, but telling them that it is a reinstall should be enough.
Make sure to use the BootCamp Assistant for deleting the current BootCamp partition and for making the new one.
Stefan

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Delete Boot Camp Partition with Lion

To Delete boot camp partition with lion
follow steps below : -
• open finder and goto applications folder then open utilities folder ,select Boot Camp Assistance
•now click on continue to go to next screen select "i have already downloaded the windows support fro this mac to a CD ,DVD or external disk" then click Continue
• you have 3 options to choose choose add/remove boot camp - and continue from there
Phewwwwwww gone

Check partition table health in Lion's Disk Utility
Manage all partitions with Disk Utility in OS X
Managing Lion restore drive MacFixIt
Did you get anything like this:
Lion: Installer reports "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer"
Shows how to shrink Mac HFS before upgrade to Lion, and to create free space between Mac and Windows partitions.
OS X Lion: "Some features of Mac OS X Lion are not supported for the disk (volume name)" appears during installation
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive

Recover Deleted Boot Camp Partition

Hello,
A week ago I tried to delete Ubuntu from my Windows 8 Boot Camp partition on my MacBook. However, after the process I couldn't boot Mavericks anymore. When I finally got Mavericks to boot, my Windows partition became unbootable. After running the repair disk, I accidentally ran the "clean" command using Diskpart and COMPLETELY wiped my computer of everything - even my Mac OS X partition. The only way I could get my computer to become usable again was to add a partition using the Internet Recovery Disk Utility tools (there were 0 partitions) and fresh-install Lion.
However, I had all of my important files and apps on my Windows partition and my last backup of it (using Winclone) was outdated. I am not very familiar with this sort of situation, so I was hoping for some help. Currently, I have not attempted to add another Boot Camp partition, but I'm not sure if adding the Lion partition (to make my Mac usable) would make the Windows partition unrecoverable. Also, should I update to Mavericks and then take further action?
I would sincerely appreciate it if I could receive some assistance.
MacBook Pro 13-inch, Late 2011
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

Sorry for the late reply!
I've found the NTFS partition with the right size capacity, 136 GB. However, when I press "p" to list files, the only directory folders that show up are .Trashes and System Volume Information. The partition also appears to be resized (it may have accidentally happened?) because its size is shown as 146 GB/136 GB.
How would I restore the NTFS partition so that I could fix it with a utility (because I think it's been accidentally resized)? As I'd said above, I deleted my Mac partition too and I had to install a new Lion partition. However, this new Lion partition takes up all of the partition space because there is currently only one, so would I have to re-partition it before I can restore the Windows partition?
Thanks again!

How-To Delete Boot Camp Partition with Parallels Configure to Access It

Hi Everyone,
I would like to delete my boot camp partition from my MB to reclaim some space due to the increasing storage demand from iTunes library? (I need to find out what can I do when the library is getting larger than my HD too, but that's another topic...)
I also have Parellels Desktop configure to access the boot camp partition instead of creating its own virtual hard drive. I'd like to know if there's any problem with my parallels after I delete the boot camp hard drive? Will I have to reinstall my Windows XP OS again after deleting the partition?
Thank you,
Nacintosh520

Hi Eric
Are you saying that I have to reinstall my Windows XP OS all over again, with the patch and everything after deleting the BC partition? Is there a way to create a virtual hard drive from the BC partition of what I have? It's such a time-consuming process that I have to tweak the OS to the way I'd like it.
I wonder what solution will Apple offer when they offer more and more content, and space for each computer is limited. I did some research on this issue and it turns out that the solution is the set the option in iTunes to "Manually manage my music files" in the Preferences panel. I don't want to do this because if I set this option, my files won't be organized any more, and it's gonna be all over the places. But I guess I have to do this until Apple offer an option such as "Move my Podcasts file to _ external hard drive" to keep everything stay organized.
Thank you,
Nacintosh520

If I make a new apple ID, will I be able to transfer my credits and purchases?

Recently, my brother was given an iTunes Gift Card. Whenever he tries to purchase something, however, it asks for the answers to his security questions.
The problem is that he has no recollection of even answering these security questions. I have no idea how to answer them, nor do I know how to reset them as it asks for them before I can edit his security settings. I can't figure out what to do to fix this, so I've been contemplating creating a new account for him(since this account has my back-up email as the ID and he doesn't know how to change it, I don't think he'd want it anymore anyway). The only problem is that I am unsure as to how his credits and purchases can be transfered from this account to the new one. I don't want him to lose the $25 he earned to pay for this card, and I'm sure he'll get at me for it as well.
Help?

You can't transfer an account's balance nor its purchases to another account - purchased will remain tied to the account that bought/downloaded them.
For his security questions, if he has a rescue email address (which is not the same thing as an alternate email address) set up on his account then he can go to https://appleid.apple.com/ and click 'Manage your Apple ID' on the right-hand side of that page and log into his account. Then click on 'Password and Security' on the left-hand side of that page and on the right-hand side he should see an option to send security question reset info to hie rescue email address.
If he doesn't have a rescue email address (he won't be able to add one until you can answer 2 of your questions) then he won't get the reset option - he will need to contact iTunes Support or Apple to get them reset.
e.g. he can try contacting iTunes Support : http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ - click on Contact iTunes Store Support on the right-hand side of the page, then Account Management , and then 'Forgotten Apple ID security questions'
or try ringing Apple in your country and ask to talk to the Accounts Security Team : http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57
When they've been reset (and if he doesn't already have a rescue email address) he can then use the steps half-way down this page to add a rescue email address for potential future use : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5312 . Or, if it's available in your country, he could change to 2-step verification : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5570

All files on Boot Camp partition mysteriously erased after 10.5.3 update

My wife's MBP 2.4 was running 10.5.2 with a Boot Camp installation of Windows XP. The other night she upgraded to 10.5.3 and everything on her Boot Camp partition was erased somehow.
She spent most of the day working in Windows. During the day someone gave her a usb key with some photos on it that when she plugged it in to her computer something came up in Turkish (she is presently in Turkey) that her friend said she should just close the window and she did. She shut down and switched over to the 10.5.2 install, repaired permissions, and then ran software update to go to 10.5.3. I believe her Boot Camp is updated to the most recent version on the PC side. After the update completed she went to go back into Windows and could not start up in it. It turned out somehow everything on the Boot Camp partition was gone. The partition name was the same as it had been previously and it shouls as all of the space available. None of the material was in the Trash on the Mac side and she had quite a build up in the Trash folder - so it wasn't put in the Trash and then the Trash emptied. It was as if someone had reformatted the partition.
I would chalk this up to user error when she was in disk utility maybe or someone in her studio screwing around with her computer but the same thing apparently happened to one of her classmates shortly before leaving for Turkey. Anyone heard of this happening or have any thoughts?
I had her saving all data to the Mac partition so luckily no data was lost - we just need to reinstall the programs to the Windows partition.
Thanks!

Nope, that didn't happen. The mbp has been loaded directly with Leopard since release day, and had few problems. I've done all the updates from 10.5.0 without any issues. But it was definitely something in the 10.5.3 update that hosed my video (or just a really, really strange coincidence and/or bad timing).
It's not just an OS driver, either. This is lower level than that, because I get NO video from a complete startup. There's no grey screen with the apple logo-- it stays completely blank. This almost surely means that the low-level firmware got corrupted or flashed incorrectly. The fact that the OS detects it as something completely different (Intel GMA X3100) supports this idea.
Thinking back, I did do the update with my laptop screen closed and using a 20" Apple Cinema Display, which is how I use the laptop 90% of the time. And in each of the previous updates, I'm certain they were installed similarly. I mention this, because someone else mentioned having the same issue as me, and noted that the update was done with an external display. Perhaps the firmware update is bugged so that if it doesn't detect the native display, it gets hosed...
I saw some other suggestions in another thread that sounded interesting. For instance, you can create a self booting CD on another Mac that reflashes the EFI (low level bios) to a factory setting. This could potentially fix it, and I would be willing to try it, if I still had my laptop.
In the future, just because things like this make me paranoid, I'll probably reboot the mbp and use only the native display before I do any updates...
Rich

Windows 7 Boot Camp partition doesn't show in the System Preferences.

Hi,
I'm running an up to date 10.6.2 on my OS X partition and Windows 7 x64 on my boot camp partition. When I looked at the start up disk preference pane the windows 7 installation didn't show. Is this normal? 32bit XP always showed in the past. If not, what should I do to fix it? I know that I can boot into windows by holding down the alt key on boot but I would like to know this is working correctly.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Steve Bunt
Message was edited by: SteveBunt

Make sure that you have a good install of the Apple drivers (boot camp 3.x) in Windows and that Boot Camp Control Panel there works so that you can set the default OS to either, and that it works.
But yes, someone else mentioned the same problem or bug.
The only cause I've seen in the past was where Mac OS X had an NTFS driver and control panel (Paragon, MacFUSE, etc) and you had to use their control panel in OS X.

HT3777 Reducing Boot Camp partition size

I've never used Boot Camp since I bought my MacBook Pro in 2008 since it came with a free VM Fusion program. I have Boot Camp with nothing in it taking up 33 GB of space and I need the space. How do I reduce the Boot Camp partition size?

Here is where you will find the answer.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17425487#17425487
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15323005#15323005
https://discussions.apple.com/message/13236559#13236559
This topic has been asked and answered so often that some contributors can be irritated when no effort to use the search function is made.
It's like the French proverb;
“Fortune helps him that's willing to help himself.”
Be angry if you wish but realize we are all volunteers on these forums and being impatient does not encourage
gratis.

Want to upgrade Windows and migrate to a new Boot Camp partition

I'm a dedicated Mac user who must on occasion use Windows at work.
Knowing that it's always best to make changes one step at a time, I'm looking for recommendations before embarking on a multi-step upgrade and migration:
CURRENT SET-UP:
MBP 2009, Core 2 Duo, 3.06 gHz, 8Gb RAM, 500 gb hd
OSX Lion10.7.1
Parallels 7
Windows XP SP2
No Boot Camp Partition
GOALS:
Create a Boot Camp partition and migrate Windows to there
This will allow me to keep all my Windows files in one place and have access to them regardless of whether I boot into Windows natively via Boot Camp or via a virtual device using Parallels
Upgrade to XP to Windows 7 using Windows 7 Pro Upgrade for Vista
I bought this as a pre-release two whole years ago
Hey -- was told then on the MS web site that this path would work...
Use iCloud to sync my Apple stuff with my Windows stuff (Calendar, Contacts)
I currently do this successfully via MobileMe and Outlook Exchange
However, iCloud requires that syncing with Windows requires Vista or newer (so gotta go to Windows 7, 'cuz ain't going Vista)
Migrate all my Windows applications and files without having to do clean installs
I know, clean installs are always better
However, IT support at work is always overloaded, so I choose this route for now
Also, I regularly use Super Duper to back-up (clone) my internal HD -- and have restored a number of times, always successfully -- so that necessary step is well covered.
Any recommendations?
Thanks in advance.

I ended up deleting my WinXP partition and the upgrade to OSX 10.7 went fine.

How do I make a clone of the Boot camp partition?

My MacBook Air (10.6.8) is having problems and I need to send it away for repairs. Before I do that I want to make a clone of everything and put it on my new MacBook Pro (10.7.2)
I am making a clone of the Mac partition using Carbon Copy Cloner. That has worked well as a backup for me.
The only problem is I need to make a clone of the Boot camp partition (Windows partition) and I don't know how.
I want to make an exact clone so it has all the operating system, files and everything.
The other question is when should I make a Bootcamp partition?
Should I migrate the clone to the new mac using Migration Assistant, and then make a boot camp partition? And then what are the exact steps putting the clone onto the boot camp partition?
Thanks for any help.

Here are some previous coments made on this forun regarding backup of a Boot Camp partition. I use Paragon HDMSuite 2011.
Casper 6 does seem to work;
WinClone was handy for XP users but doesn't for instance check for errors during the backup only during restore. Winclone was discontinued at 2.2, all 2.3 versions are hacks (removal of the OS check seems to be the main thing) There has been no deveoplment or support for a while now.
Acronis 2011 w/ plus pak, didn't work well previously
Ghost 15 - probably not
Casper 6 works for Windows on Boot Camp only
CopyCatX is more lengthy and sector copy so takes the longest.
Paragon Hard Drive Suite 2011 because it works great
and they have CampTune
Windows 7 system backup and restore - Apple's goofy HFS read-only interferes with system and file backup.
I have also used Casper, Clonezilla and Paragon but less regularly, Casper failed a few times, I stopped using it, Clonezilla worked but took forever (for me) Paragon (which I have only used twice) was the best but my sample is limited.
I have restored from DU, CCC, SuperDuper and TM, they all worked, TM was slower but not a lot, you can boot from the others, which I prefer.
HDM 2011 can do either offline or online backups, the difference is that with an offline backup, the entire partition (or disk) is unallocated. In an online backup, the backup utility is running against a partition that may be making changes to itself. When you run CCC or SD! in OS X, you're running an online backup. However, I would recommend (at least for the first backup) that you boot from the HDM recovery CD to do an offline backup. This will ensure that you have an *exact* copy of the parition/disk.
Since this is you first time backing up your partition, I would suggest using one of the Backup Wizards. They'll guide you through the backup process and keep you from doing something wrong Similarly, use the Restore Wizard to restore your partition/drive.
HDMS 2011- back up a dual-boot Mac to an external USB drive, do:
1) Boot from the Recovery Disk (I'm assuming that the backup hard drive is attached before you reboot)
2) Select Paragon Hard Disk Manager
3) Launch the Backup Wizard by selecting Wizards > Backup Wizard
4) Select the Mac hard disk (not the partition) where it asks "what to backup"
5) On the Backup Destination page, select "Save data to any local drive or a network share"
6) Hit the radio button for the "Save to local drive option" (unless you got a boatload of DVD's )
7) Select the external USB drive as the backup destination
8) Look over and correct the name and comments
9) Hit Next to start the backup
When it's done, you have an entire copy of your Mac's HD saved to external media.
If you need to recover your HD, just run the Recovery Wizard and reverse the process.

I have recently purchased a hybred 750GbHDD as an upgrade for my MAC Book Pro (Intell Version) I have a boot camp partition to the original 500GB HDD. How can I expand both partitions to fit the new drive?

I have recently purchased a hybred 750GbHDD as an upgrade for my MAC Book Pro (Intell Version) I have a boot camp partition to the original 500GB HDD. How can I expand both partitions to fit the new drive?
I have tried bootcamp and have had no luck due to the fact that boot camp doesn't see the additional HDD space of 250Gb. What am I not doing?

Ouch, well there is a problem.
This is the stack of partitions on your old drive
EFI (hidden)
Lion (50GB say)
Bootcamp (50GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
This is the same stack on your new drive imaged from the old one.
EFI (hidden)
Lion (50GB say)
Bootcamp (50GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
Emtpy Space (100GB say)
This is what you want
EFI (hidden)
Lion (100GB say)
Bootcamp (100GB say)
Lion Recovery Partiton (hidden)
EFI has to be at the top of the drive and Lion Recovery has to be at the bottom of the drive.
And you only have four partitions.
You can't move the Lion Recovery Partition or Bootcamp partiton, however you can expand the Lion Partition into empty space below it. (but can't delete or move the Lion Recovery partition)
Your Duplicator duplicated perfectly, too perfectly Likely would work with same sized drives/partitions.
This is what your going to need to do.
You need to move the Bootcamp partition to a blank external drive using WinClone and disconnect. This is so you have two backups of it. (one on your old 500GB drive)
You will need a drive enclousre or IDE/SATA to USB adapter cable for the older 500GB drive and option key boot from it. (some enclosures can't be booted from so check first Other World Computing is good place to ask)
Download the free Carbon Copy Cloner, grab any new files off the new 750GB internal drive to the old 500GB your booted from.
Open Apple's Disk Utility and Erase with Zero option the entire internal 750GB drive and let it rip, this will map off as many bad sectors and improve reliability.
Now use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the 500GB Lion + Lion Recovery Partitions to the internal 750GB, it will "fix" things and place Lion Recovery at the bottom of the drive where it belongs, give all the extra space to OS X Lion.
Next your going to have to follow WinClones instructions to restore your Bootcamp, likely you will have to recreate the Bootcamp partition first (in Bootcamp) to the size you want and then clone. Likely Winclone may "fix" Windows to recognize it's in a new larger partition now. I don't know you'll have to check as I haven't used it.
When Bootcamp creates the partition it will place it near the bottom next to the Lion Recovery Partition.
As you know you will have to re-validate Windows with Lord Redmond or it expires as you changed the hardware.

Best way to make an image backup of a Boot Camp partition?

I want to upgrade my Windows XP partition to Windows 7. Before I do, though, I want to make a complete image backup of the partition, so if anything gets terribly screwed up, I can restore from the image and be right back where I started.
How can I make an image backup of my Boot Camp partition, and then restore it? Do I use Mac OS X Disk Utility for this?

I use Paragon Hard Disk Mgr 2011 Suite ($49) to clone to a new drive, backup, and Paragon has a number of products aimed at support for Boot Camp.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-personal/
http://www.betanews.com/article/Paragon-Hard-Disk-Manager-2011-Suite/1295234930
New product with special, Paragon Drive Copy
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dc-professional/
http://blog.paragon-software.com/?p=1160
Migrate XP to Windows 7
http://blog.paragon-software.com/?p=85

Can I delete the mac partition used to create the boot camp partition?

I am using Mac OS 10.9.5 on a late 2011 17" Macbook Pro.
I currently have an SSD in the primary drive slot with my primary Mac partition and an HDD in the Superdrive slot that has one unused Mac partition that I would like to delete and a Windows 8 partition that I would like to keep.
Can I delete the extra Mac partition on the HDD so I can use that as spare space? It was the Mac partition that was used to run Boot Camp and create the Windows 8 partition that is on the same drive so I am nervous that the Windows 8 partition needs to rely on that Mac partition to work for whatever reasons.
I recently went through a huge ordeal to create a Windows 8 Boot Camp partition as I wanted it on my computer. I had previously taken out the Superdrive and replaced it with a data doubler and the original hdd, and I had an aftermarket SSD in the primary drive bay. I had been using the SSD as my Mac partition and the HDD as spare storage space. For my Boot Camp config, I wanted to split the HDD into 2 partitions and make one Windows 8 and the other spare storage space while keeping the SSD dedicated to my Mac partition. Achieving that required removing the SSD, removing the data doubler, reinstalling the Superdrive, putting the original HDD back in the primary drive slot, installing and updating Mac OS on the HDD, using that Mac install to run Boot Camp and create a second partition for Windows 8, installing Windows from the Superdrive, and then putting everything back by taking out the Superdrive, putting the HDD back in the data doubler, and putting the SSD back in. Everything works now. Understandably I don't want to break anything and have to redo this process.
That said I do want to delete that extra Mac partition and use it as extra storage, if I can do so without breaking the Boot Camp Windows 8 partition.

ilovemac wrote:
Use Disk Utility and remove the "BOOTCAMP" partition. Then make "Macintosh HD" all the way to the bottom to regain space.
Wrong advice. Do not use Disk Utility. Use Bootcamp Assistant to remove the Bootcamp partition and return the drive to a single OSx partition. Using Disk Utility will result in lost space, lost data, and possibly an unusable OSx partition. Read the Bootcamp help and user guides.

How do delete the boot camp partition

I am using a mac book os is x.4 and only one hard disk is installed.
Before, I used a boot camp program to partition my hard disk into two
volume, one for Mac and the other for windows vista. But now, I want to
delete my windows partition, I used Mac installation disc and disk utility
to clear the partition, it is not allowed, do you have any other method to
clear the boot camp partition. Thanks.

You should be able to do this using the Boot Camp Assistant app. There is an option to "Restore the startup disk to a single volume". That should eliminate the Boot Camp partition without harming your Mac OS partition. Even so, make sure you back up your Mac OS X partition data before you do this, just to be safe.
Lance

Can't create boot camp partition on new macbook pro

Hi all. Having an odd issue installing boot camp on my 2011 Macbook Pro. When I try and create a partition it gives me the following error message:
"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved."
It goes on to tell me that I need to reformat my drive and try again. Seems a little extreme and even worse, I'm wondering if this will work considering that I still have over 600GB of free space available on my drive. Thought I'd post here and see if anyone has had a similar issue before harassing support.

If you look at the pdf guide in Boot Camp Assistant, step one is to backup. Common sense before altering, installing new OS, and should be required of anyone even if just updating Mac OS.
Now, having fragmented space: Apple never considers defragging free space and says Mac OS X defrags some files, and that having more than 25% free should not impact Mac OS performance.
So I think that covers Apple support for their own OS.
When you install updates, applications and such, the patches are compressed, expanded, space is fragmented, and some vendors often choose to write their updates to the far end of the drive in order to leave high access for other portions.
the best and perhaps only way to move files is to boot from another hard drive, rather than pick yourself up by your own bootstraps and try to shuffle files.
I would never recommend using only built in tools. I don't advise Apple DU First Aid as the sole utility for maintenance and repairs for Mac HFS file system. nor would I use TimeMachine alone. They are free and there and better than nothing.
Create a bootable backup clone of Mac OS for one.
Repair your internal drive.
Try using Boot Camp Assistant; or iDefrag; or Paragon CampTune (yes, it can be used to install Windows partition as well as resize partitions now or later if needed). Does a better job.
The use of x86 Intel cpus opened up new possibilities. Some unintended or not foreseen I guess too. A competition challenge to see who could install Windows on a Mac first and easiest took place in 2006. Apple came in later with their beta. but Boot Camp Assistant has always been a weak, lame, partitioning tool.
Macs and users using gparted and other tools? and try to stop the hand-holding concept? unlikely.
A better tool? there should be, and not only that, it really needs to just be rolled into Disk utilty as one more feature and tab along with other tools - so integrated and if you want to create, resize, remove an MBR slice and Windows partition, you can.
Paragon lets you create a partition, and also they have their own NTFS driver so you don't need to format BOOTCAMP (MSDOS/FAT32) during the install phase later.
Of course installing Windows in a VM doesn't have all the trouble of dual boot native install and given RAM and processor resources, can be more than functional enough for many.
With Windows 7 you can install and have a Windows-only computer, remove all traces of Mac OS (and boot OS X off 2nd drive, either with two SSD + hard drive or eSATA or Intel 'Bolt' interface as well as FW800.

Deleting Boot Camp Partition to make a new larger one- Will I be able to reinstall Windows 7 on it?

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