Kernel panic when using boot camp assistant

Question

OS X 10.5.2 all updates. 65GB of free space.
Installed Boot Camp Assistant from the OSX DVD that came with my MacBook(10.5)
After installation of Boot Camp Assistant ran software update (no updates needed)
Launch Boot Camp and after sliding the amount to use for the Windows Partition (15GB,20GB,25GB equal, doesnt matter the size I've tried them all) it will prepare for partition.
Then kernel panic (dimmed screen with text on grey stating must restart computer)
Once restarted the HDD has loss the space from the Boot Camp partition. I have run the Disk Utilities from the DVD to repair the disc.
This has happened each and every time (5x).
What is needed to use boot camp without causing os x to crash?
I've also.. at each kernel panic sent the report to apple.

Answer 1

All,
I believe I have discovered a solution for this problem. It at least helped me out. And no, it didn't involve buying iDefrag. This solution is totally free, but it involves a bit of work. It also involves iDefrag. Confused? Read on:
The problem is that the partition literally involves chopping off a contiguous block of free space at the END of your existing partition. I was clued onto this by trying to resize the partition with Disk Utility (which also failed with a kernel panic). The problem I was having was simply that, since I had all but filled my hard drive before this, I had data for files spread all over my hard drive.
So what was I to do? There's no way to view where a file is physically on the disk. The iDefrag utility would do what I need, but cost $34. Then it hit me: what if I could defragment my hard drive manually? All I would need is an interface that shows me the physical layout of the data on the hard disk so I'd know which files I would need to either delete (or duplicate and delete). I correctly hypothesized that the DEMO of iDefrag would do this for me.
So I began, identifying the last file before contiguous white space began. The goal being to carve out a good chunk of "white" empty blocks on the right-hand side. For those wondering about the Header file at the very end of the disk, don't worry. It doesn't seem to matter. For example, I see a huge file. The blocks take up half the screen. I select it and open the Info window and see that it's a digital video file from iMovie. The info window has a selectable file path. I copy it, switch to the finder and hit "Apple-Shift-G", paste the file path and hit enter and I am taken there. I find the file and do one of three things:
1. If it's a file I want or need to keep, but it's a file I created, then I just duplicate it with Ctrl-D. Delete the original, rename the copy to the original name and empty the trash.
2. If it's a file I want or need to keep, but the SYSTEM generated it, I'll need to enter my password as I duplicate it. Enter the password again as you delete the original. You will need to use terminal and the "sudo mv" command to rename the file to the original name (Sorry). Empty the trash.
3. If it's a file I don't need, either created by me or the system, delete it and empty the trash.
"But wait", you might ask. "Steps 1 and 2 appear to do nothing! If you copy the file and rename it to be the same name as the original, nothing is being accomplished!" It might seem like nothing at first, but the FILE SYSTEM created the new file at the EARLIEST possible contiguous free disk space. If you're like me, you freed up a bunch of disk space to make this Boot Camp thing possible. This is evidenced by the white "holes" earlier in the disk (earlier as in "more to the left"). The copy of your file used the earlier white space. Deleting the original turns the blocks white!
Often your processes will create a lot of little files around the same place. For example, a World of Warcraft update might create a lot of little files at the same time. If you get to a point on the disk where it seems like a lot of files in the /Library/Application Support/ folder were created, just copy and paste the least common denominator. If you buy music once in a while, it might be your entire Music Folder that could be worth duplicating! No need to do it file-by-file. The important thing is that files to the right of the bar get moved more to the left of the bar, leaving with you CONTIGUOUS FREE SPACE at the END of your disk.
Finally, after doing this for about an hour, I wanted to see how big a partition I could create. Originally I'd been trying to create a 20 GB partition. From my estimates, if I had tried to create a 9 GB partition, I'd have been just fine the whole time. But that's not enough to play Bioshock! When I finished I took out the ruler and measured the bar on my screen.
The whole bar was 289 milimeters. The contiguous white space ended at 239 milimeters. That's 50 milimeters of continuous space. That's 20.9% of my disk capacity of 93.4 gigs. That, my friends, is 19.54 gigs. I created an 18 GB parition and voila, it worked fine!
I hope this helps some people. It's definitely a wallet-saving venture at the expense of sanity, but there is a way to do this without spending money. Also, while I call this a sort of "manual defragmentation process", it's a bit of a misnomer. While it is freeing up the blocks at the end of the drive, it is possible (or likely) that this process will seriously fragment your drive. After doing this, it may be worth the investment to buy iDefrag so they can really get your file system in order. But at least this'll get Boot Camp running.
Regards,
Tristan
www.theblowmedown.com