My macbook won't let me RE-partition my hard drive in boot camp

i had windows installed, but i restored my HD back to a single volume because i wanted to make the windows partition bigger
but its saying i have to format my drive before i can partition it
any suggestions?

Apart from reformatting your drive? The problem with the Boot Camp active repartitioning is that it does require quote a bit of free space beyond the size of the partition you wish to create. So it's possible that it's actually no possible to create the partition you're after given your Mac OS X disk usage.

Similar Messages

  • How do I partition my hard drive for boot camp?

    Model Name:          MacBook Pro
      Model Identifier:          MacBookPro1,2
      Processor Name:          Intel Core Duo
      Processor Speed:          2.16 GHz
      Number Of Processors:          1
      Total Number Of Cores:          2
      L2 Cache:          2 MB
      Memory:          2 GB
      Bus Speed:          667 MHz
      Boot ROM Version:          MBP12.0061.B03
      SMC Version (system):          1.5f10
      Serial Number (system):
      Hardware UUID:          00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB982183
      Sudden Motion Sensor:
      State:          Enabled
    Okay so this is my machine. I want to run Boot Camp and to install Windows XP onto the machine as I need to use certain windows programmes for my business as well as the Mac stuff.
    I have no idea how to partition some of my free 26gb space to create a drive to install windows onto?
    Can any help please?

    dpx wrote:
    If you do really want to partition your hard drive then you need to look in your utilities folder for disk utility.
    Once this is open, click on your hard drive image in the left hand column and then you will see a partition tab. Here you can split your HD into two partitions. Call one of them XP or something like that so that you know where to install windows.
    It's quite safe and you can always go back to one big partition if things do not work out.
    Remember though to backup first...
    To the OP
    Do not heed this advice, you should use Boot Camp Assistant to create the partition for Boot Camp, do not use Disk Utility.

  • When I try to partition my hard drive with boot camp assistant, I get "Boot camp assistant quit unexpectedly"

    I am seeing numerous people with the same problem, but I couldn't find any answers.  This is a new macbook Air with all updates installed.  This is a common problem
    Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
    Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x000000000000003c
    I am clueless as to how to find a solution. 

    I was able to get it to work when downloaded the drivers to an external hard drive formated for windows instead of burning it to my external DVD driver. The partition loaded. The down load failed, but the partion worked.  I had to restart and hold down the option key to change the boot disc to the external DVD drive that had the windows installation disc loaded

  • Is it possible to install windows 7 on my macbook from a removable hard drive using boot camp? How would I do this?

    Is it possible to install windows 7 on my macbook from a removable hard drive using boot camp?
    How would I do this?

    If you have Lion installed, and run Boot Camp, it will create the boot flash for you, just followe the tutorial on screen. As far as I remember, this was not possible prior to Lion.

  • Partitioning Hard Drive through Boot Camp

    When I go to partition the drive in Boot Camp and select divide equally it splits into 56GB for each partition, would switching it to 60GB be more accurate because it's not counting the space taken up by the OS, or is there only 112GB of space available overall?

    I dont use Windows all that often and didnt want to partition my drive so I used Parallels. I loaded parallels (55mb) onto MacAir and installed Microsoft 7 onto external hard drive. After installation I copied the 'single' file to a 16gb USB flash drive. Now I just plug in the flash when I want to use Windows and the apps are in the MA's task bar. Works well. Windows 7's new way of only loading required process's makes it pretty nippy. Windows 7 takes up 6gb on flash drive. Also I used a 'trial' windows 7 disc and installing through parallels it didnt ask for a 'key'.

  • My MacBook Pro won't let me mount my external Hard Drive. Just trying to restore my iTunes library.

    My MacBook Pro, less than a year old, started acting weird. I backed everything up, took it in to Best Buy, who sent it out to Apple Repair and they put in a new motherboard.
    It's running on Mac OS X Version 10.7.4
    Now I am trying to put everything back on the computer from my external Maxtor 80GB Hard Drive. MacBook Pro won't recognize the external drive.
    I tried Disk Utility. I can see the external drive, and did a repair disk and verify disk. Several times. Each time it says "This partition map seems to be ok."
    However, I am not able to mount it, as that option is greyed out and i can't select it.
    Also, under the Icon for the external hard drive, it has the Macintosh HD Icon (essentially my computer). I tried to restore this way, didn't work.
    I need this to mount, as it has all of my itunes stuff on it; dozens of my sons movies, and my entire iTunes library.
    PLEASE HEEEEELP!! HOW CAN I MOUNT THIS EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE? Thank you in advance

    Try things in this USB/Firewire faq.
    DALE

  • MacBook won't recognize _any_ kind of internal hard drive

    The subject might seem a bit generalized, but it's based on the fact that two hard drives (both almost new, and fully functional externally) fail to be recognized inside the MacBook. Anyway, here's my MacBook's (somewhat detailed) history:
    It's a 2.16Ghz BlackBook bought at an Apple reseller in Korea in (late) January of 2008, with 1GB RAM installed. Since it wasn't one of the new Santa Rosa ones, it came with a Tiger install disk, but the sellers there copied an image of OS X Leopard onto the Mac from another hard disk with Leopard installed (does that break any laws?).
    I used it with no problems until a few weeks ago, when the hard drive failed due to a head crash (click of death, though I never got to check if it was a Seagate). Currently living in Japan, I had the hard drive replaced under warranty at some Apple support place (I don't think it was a Genius Bar, though) a few weeks ago. They reinstalled Leopard for me. I also placed an order from OWC for a new 250GB, 5400rpm Hitachi Travelstar.
    However, from the time of the hard drive replacement, my system began to act funky. There were minor system pref. errors, the bluetooth module would show up as unrecognized at random intervals, the Internet Sharing (over wireless) completely stopped working, and applications tended to hang a lot more often.
    I bought an external USB enclosure for my 250GB drive yesterday. Following directions from ifixit.com, I took out the 160GB drive from inside my mac and put it in the enclosure, and put the 250GB drive inside. I booted into the now-external 160GB drive to format my 250GB drive, but Disk Utility failed to recognize it. I tried using Disk Utility while booting from my Tiger disks and also the Apple Hardware Test, but they couldn't find any problems. Resetting the PRAM and reseating the hard drive didn't do anything, either.
    Frustrated, I tried swapping the two drives. It then wouldn't recognize the internal 160GB drive, but would recognize the external 250GB drive as unformatted (booting from Tiger disk). Skeptical, I swapped the two drives once again, fiddled around with Disk Utility a bit more, swapped again, split the 250GB drive (now external again) into three partitions, and installed Tiger into the first partition.
    Okay, so Tiger worked. It still wouldn't recognize the 160GB drive inside the MacBook, but at least it booted. But since I had all my data on my 160GB drive, and guessed I wouldn't be fixing this anytime soon anyway, I swapped the two drives for one final time to this configuration, with the 160GB in the external enclosure and the 250GB inside the MacBook.
    Though the question might be obvious, does anyone know what might be wrong? Could I accidentally have damaged the hard drive connector inside while installing the drive? Is it a logic board failure? I hope I haven't voided my warranty or anything, cause it's barely been three months using this laptop.. and the retail price was bloated to begin with since it was imported..
    Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and for any help

    the sellers there copied an image of OS X Leopard onto the Mac from another hard disk with Leopard installed (does that break any laws?).
    Yes, that was illegal. The sellers should have either reinstalled the version of Mac OS X that came with the system or given/sold you the entire retail package for Leopard.
    As to your disk problem, I can think of three possibilities:
    1) You aren't getting the drive fully seated. Make sure you're not putting it in upside down.
    2) The connector was damaged in some way. If the service center caused the problem, they should cover it, though you may have a difficult time getting them to admit that they caused the problem. If you caused the damage yourself, that would not be covered under warranty. The drive is considered a user-installable part, but if you cause any damage while installing the drive, that is not covered.
    3) Your system has a logic board problem with the SATA port.
    If the first possibility doesn't pan out, then a trip back to the service center is going to be in order.
    Good luck.

  • UserEventAgent won't let me eject my external hard drive, and other problems

    I'm running a MacBook Pro (2008-ish model) running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 with 4Gb of RAM and 750Gb of internal HD (the original 250Gb seriously cramped my style), and UserEventAgent is acting all weird.
    Because of that old 250Gb HD, I was in the habit of storing files I didn't need at the time on an external hard drive, a LaCie 500Gb connected by FW800 (probably not relevant). And lately, whenever I plug it in, I can't eject it without forcing it to eject.
    Using the "list open files" command and searching for that drive [ lsof | grep LaCie ] reveals that UserEvent drops an immediate hook in it for some reason. This connection is immediate, and short of force-quitting UserEventAgent in Activity Monitor at the exact moment I try to eject that drive, I can't disconnect it properly without forcing it or shutting down completely.
    In fact, looking at UserEventAgent's open files and ports in Activity Monitor, something just plain doesn't look right:
    /usr/libexec/UserEventAgent
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/PlugIns/csparser.bundle/Contents/M acOS/csparser
    /private/var/folders/td/hnt8krzc8xj63p001s61rg7r0000gn/C/mds/mdsDirectory.db
    /usr/share/icu/icudt49l.dat
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/ACRRDaemon.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ACRRDaemon
    /System/Library/KerberosPlugins/KerberosFrameworkPlugins/heimdalodpac.bundle/Con tents/MacOS/heimdalodpac
    /System/Library/KerberosPlugins/KerberosFrameworkPlugins/LKDCLocate.bundle/Conte nts/MacOS/LKDCLocate
    /System/Library/KerberosPlugins/KerberosFrameworkPlugins/Reachability.bundle/Con tents/MacOS/Reachability
    /System/Library/KerberosPlugins/KerberosFrameworkPlugins/SCKerberosConfig.bundle /Contents/MacOS/SCKerberosConfig
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AirPortUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AirPortU serAgent
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AppleH IDMouseAgent
    /private/var/db/mds/messages/se_SecurityMessages
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AssistantUEA.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AssistantUEA
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AutoTimeZone.plugin/Contents/MacOS/AutoTimeZone
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BTMMPortInUseAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/BTMMPo rtInUseAgent
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin.plugin/Contents/MacOS /BluetoothUserAgent-Plugin
    /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleHDAHALPlugIn.bund le/Contents/MacOS/AppleHDAHALPlugIn
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/BonjourEvents.plugin/Contents/MacOS/BonjourEven ts
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CalendarMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/CalendarM onitor
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CaptiveUserAgent.plugin/Contents/MacOS/CaptiveU serAgent
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/DiskUnmountWatcher.plugin/Contents/MacOS/DiskUn mountWatcher
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/EAPOLMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/EAPOLMonitor
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/GSSNotificationForwarder.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ GSSNotificationForwarder
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/LocationMenu.plugin/Contents/MacOS/LocationMenu
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/PrinterMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/PrinterMon itor
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/SCMonitor.plugin/Contents/MacOS/SCMonitor
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/alfUIplugin.plugin/Contents/MacOS/alfUIplugin
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.UserNotification.plugi n/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.UserNotification
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.TimeMachine.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com .apple.TimeMachine
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.bonjour.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com.app le.bonjour
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.cfnotification.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ com.apple.cfnotification
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.dispatch.vfs.plugin/Contents/MacOS/co m.apple.dispatch.vfs
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.fsevents.matching.plugin/Contents/Mac OS/com.apple.fsevents.matching
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.iokit.matching.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ com.apple.iokit.matching
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.launchd.helper.plugin/Contents/MacOS/ com.apple.launchd.helper
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.locationd.events.plugin/Contents/MacO S/com.apple.locationd.events
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.notifyd.matching.plugin/Contents/MacO S/com.apple.notifyd.matching
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.rcdevent.matching.plugin/Contents/Mac OS/com.apple.rcdevent.matching
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.time.plugin/Contents/MacOS/com.apple. time
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.universalaccess.events.plugin/Content s/MacOS/com.apple.universalaccess.events
    /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/com.apple.usernotificationcenter.matching.plugi n/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.usernotificationcenter.matching
    /System/Library/Extensions/IOHIDFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOHIDLib.plugin/Con tents/MacOS/IOHIDLib
    /private/var/folders/td/hnt8krzc8xj63p001s61rg7r0000gn/C/com.apple.LaunchService s-036501.csstore
    /usr/lib/dyld
    /private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64
    /dev/null
    /dev/null
    /dev/null
    count=1, state=0x2
    /dev/io8log
    /Users/<username>/Library/Assistant/sync_flag
    ->0xc1a78b298c30c655
    count=0, state=0
    count=0, state=0
    /private/etc/com.apple.screensharing.agent.launchd
    /private/etc
    /private
    /usr/local/bin
    /usr/local/bin
    /usr/local
    /usr
    count=0, state=0
    /private/var/db/PanicReporter
    /private/var/db
    /private/var
    /private
    count=0, state=0
    /private/var/db/GPURestartReporter
    /private/var/db
    /private/var
    /private
    count=0, state=0
    /private/etc
    /private/etc
    /private
    count=0, state=0
    /Users/<username>/Library/Services
    /Users/<username>/Library
    /Users/<username>
    /Users
    count=0, state=0
    /Library
    /Library
    count=0, state=0
    /Applications
    /Applications/Utilities
    /Applications
    count=0, state=0
    /Library/Caches
    /Library/Caches
    /Library
    count=0, state=0
    /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AirPortBaseStationAgent.launchd
    /Library/Preferences
    /Library
    count=0, state=0
    /Applications/Fun/Steam.app
    /Applications/Fun
    /Applications
    /Volumes
    /Volumes
    The repetitions (I mean seriously, who needs three open connections to /dev/null?), and the multiple instances of "count=0, state=0", suggest that UserEventAgent is getting bad info from somewhere.
    If I can track down what's making UserEventAgent imitate an overly amorous octopus, maybe I can straighten out this mess. But I wouldn't be surprised to find that this list has picked up funky smells and bad habits from all the earlier versions of OS X I've run.
    Help? Please?

    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
    Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac. 
    These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing. 
    Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects. 
    Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands. 
    Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply. 
    Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways: 
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) 
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. 
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. 
    When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign. 
    Step 1 
    Copy or drag — do not type — the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:
    kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' 
    Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.) You can omit the final line ending in “$”. 
    Step 2 
    Repeat with this line:
    sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}' 
    This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning. 
    Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step. 
    Step 3
    launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}' 
    Step 4
    ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null  
    Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting. 
    Step 5
    osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null 
    Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output. 
    You can then quit Terminal.

  • Macbook won't read my EZquest firewire external hard drive.

    I need this hard drive to back up stuff for school. I only have one firewire port in my Macbook. It's not reading it when I plug it in though. Not even on disk utility. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

    I have a similar problem. Bought an external drive to store music and pictures, followed the instructions on several threads here on how to transfer these from my D drive (the back up drive on the computer itself) to the L drive (the Buffalo Linkstation); changed the location of the library to the correct address where all the music files are (I can see them there) having consolidated them there. It could not find any of them unless I individually located them (there are over 9000 tracks so I have not got time to do that). I changed the location back to the original and it found them again. Next I tried following the thread on the .itl file - using shift and selecting the library on the L drive, but it only found 300 tracks, some bought, some transferred, some full albums, some only part of the album, an apparently random selection. I tried going back to the original .itl file and the same happened - it only found the same small selection of tracks. I know the files are still there - I can see them, but I have no idea how to connect itunes to them. Please help!

  • Partition hard drive for boot camp

    Hi everyone,
    I was wondering if someone could help me out.  My wife has a Macbook and had the hard drive partitioned so that she could run Bootcamp.  She has both Windows7 Pro on the Bootcamp side and OSX on the MAc side.  When she originally did the partition, she thought that 100GB should do the trick.  She is now running out of space on the Windows side and needs more.  Is there any "easy" way to partition the part of the drive on the Mac side to allocate another 100GB to the WIndows side without deleting anything or screwing up any programs.  Or is there a way to partition the mac side and make a new drive altogether, and make it a drive to store files (pics, documents, etc.).  Any information you could provide would be very helpful.  Thanks for all your help.

    Others have reported success with it. I don't use Windows so I have not used it myself. It's either that or repartitioning your entire drive with Disk Utility then Boot Camp Assistant. You really have nothing to lose than you would lose were you to go the alternative way.
    It's a good idea to have backups, however, regardless of what you do.

  • New to Mac... I have partitioned my hard drive Dual Boot M.Lion/S. Leopard with 2 OS partitions and a Media Partition. How do I direct my file storage to the Media Partition? Can I put a "Media" folder on both OS Desktops that will allow me to drag n drop

    New to Mac... I have Partitioned my MacBookPro with Dual Boot Partitions running M.Lion and S. Leopard and a seperate media partition.
    How do I assign my storage to the MEDIA Partition once I am booted in either OS?
    Can I place a folder on my desktop so I can read/write ALL my media to?

    Why not? Make a folder in your media partition and put an alias folder (shortcut) on the desktop of each partition/ OS. You can right click on the folder in the media partition and click on "make alias".
    If you want to direct your iTunes media to point to the media partition, google "move iTunes library to external disk" and follow the steps; the instructions should be the same for a seperate partition as it is for an external drive.

  • I can't delete a partition from my Hard Drive using Boot Camp!!??!!

    Hello. Earlier today I installed Windows 8 to my iMac using boot camp and creating a partition. I've decided I don't like it, and want to remove it. I cannot delete the partition!! Help!!

    How are you trying to delete it? What happens when you try? There is only one way to remove a Bootcamp partition and return your drive to a single OSx partition, use Bootcamp Assistant and choose the menu option to remove Windows.

  • My Macbook Pro won't let me use my external hard drive anymore, Help!

    Every time I go to time machine it has my internal hard drive as the back up drive, when it should be my external hard drive. When I tried to select my external hard drive it doesn't do anything, it goes right back to the internal hard drive. Time machine and my external hard drive had worked the night before and I havent had any problems backing it up until I loaded Mountain Lion. I dont know if that could be one of the reasons or not. Also the hard drive is almost full, however I thought that this couldn't be the problem because I have it set to automatically delete stuff when full. Also the ownership is not set and I can't enable it. I have looked around and there is not an "ignore ownership" box to check from get info... I am lost and somewhat new to macs so any help would be appreciated.

    if she's not the only person with Mac and this problem - go to school network administrator, something wrong.
    If there are other people with macs and without this problem - compare network settings.
    Also disabling 'Stealth mode' can help sometimes.
    see p8 here to find setting.

  • Partitioning a 3TB drive for Boot Camp.

    I have a Mac Pro, with two drives installed. The first drive is my OS X boot drive. The second drive is (or will be) a combination of Windows XP, and empty space for OS X. This latter drive is a WD 3TB Green drive. Because of the limitations in XP (and BIOS booting), the XP boot partition must be in the first 800 GB.
    If I try to create a single partition using Bootcamp Assistant, it insists on using the entire drive. If I create an OS X partition and then use Bootcamp Assistant, it puts the Windows partition at the END of the drive. I can almost do what I want using manual (command line) partitioning, but then VMware Fusion will not allow me to set up the bootcamp partition for use as a virtual system.
    Is there any sequence - command line or Apple-supplied GUI utility, I don't care which (I'm a Unix sysadmin by trade; the command line doesn't scare me) - which will let me set up a 500 GB bootcamp partition at the start of the drive; get Windows installed in it; and get the partition loaded into VMware as a virtual machine, with the remaining space setup as a journaled HFS+ volume?
    If not, I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy Windows 7. Sigh ...

    The problem is not the version of Windows as much as it is having to put MBR and GPT on the same disk. This gets really complicated quickly, and hybrid MBRs are non-standard and not safe. Even Apple's own documentation says that they aren't safe.
    http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2166/_index.html
    However, because of how Apple's firmware is implemented, to use Windows, a hybrid MBR is effectively required if you're going to share a single disk of this size between Windows and Mac OS. You're better off using 2TB or smaller disks.
    1. MBR has a disk (not partition) size limit of 2.2TB.
    2. Because this is a 2.2TB+ drive, you need GPT to see the remaining space at all.
    3. Apple hardware is EFI, but uses a CSM-BIOS mode for booting Windows of all versions.
    4. When Windows is booted in CSM-BIOS mode, it requires MBR.
    5. A disk only need to be GPT if it is greater than 2.2TB, or if you intend to *install* Mac OS X on it.
    Now, if this were a 2TB drive or smaller, you could just use MBR only. And you could partition the first 800GB or whatever for Windows, and the rest as jhfs+ for Mac OS. Mac OS X is perfectly content using an MBR only disk, so long as you aren't asking to install Mac OS X onto it.
    So you've kinda got yourself into a pickle with this giant single disk. Anyone else trying to do this even with Windows 7 will also be afflicted.
    You can specify 500GB in the MBR for Windows, and Windows will use it just fine because it ignores the GPT anyway. But Mac OS X does not ignore MBR in favor of GPT or vice versa. If both MBR and GPT are on the disk, there's a set of rules for determining which partition map it should believe. According to the UEFI spec, an MBR with more than one entry, or a single entry that is not type EE, is *NOT* a GPT disk. It is an MBR disk.
    In any event, the 2nd partition entry for the rest of this space in the MBR cannot match up with the same space in the GPT because the MBR is 32-bit limited. It can't correctly describe the full space for the disk, so by design it won't be in sync. Now, I don't have a 3TB drive to test Mac OS X's behavior with at the moment, but past experience tells me it will defer to the MBR entry unless it is type EE. Any sectors specified as type EE, then Mac OS X will defer to the GPT.
    So anyone using 2TB+ disks is in for a world of hurt unless and until Apple moves from Intel EFI 1.10 to UEFI 2.x so that Windows 7 or 8 64-bit can boot in UEFI mode. And then, MBR will not be required at all. And this problem won't exist.

  • I cannot partition drive for boot camp.

    I am installing windows 7 professional and cannot get the partition to install. The HDD will not partition. Please help.

    What happens when you try to partition the hard disk with Boot Camp Assistant? Where are getting the error: in Boot Camp Assistant or after starting the Windows installer?
    Note that, if you are in the Windows installer, you have to format the "BOOTCAMP" partition in order to be able to install Windows. That's because Boot Camp Assistant formats the partition with FAT32, but Windows 7 requires a NTFS partition. In order to install Windows there, in the partitioning screen, choose "BOOTCAMP" and go to Advanced options > Format. Then, you will be able to install Windows 7 Professional

Maybe you are looking for

  • Question on interactive report

    hello sir in interactive report in output we click on customer feild it open a secandary list. it display a data.if customer is not having any order,then it show some message. tell me how i wil do it

  • Questions about MeetingPlace 8.5?

    Please pardon for the questions. I am still new to MeetingPlace. 1. I don't know if I understood Cisco documents about MP but is a Webserver needed when you need to integrate with MS Outlook or Lotus Notes for email notification and calendaring funct

  • Different types of Transport in PI

    Hi ALL, we are working on a fresh implimentation project now on PI 7.1. i have worked on projects using file transport ..can any one tell me which is the best way of transport in PI 7.1. diffenrence between FIle ..CMS...CTS ..and its advantages .. an

  • Mapping the "fn" key to a key on an external extended keyboard

    Is it possible to map the "fn" key found on Macbooks to a key (such as the RH Control Key) on the current Apple extended keyboard? I use an extended keyboard with my Macbook Pro and wish to have access to the fn functions like I do on the Macbook's k

  • HT5625 why can't i use my account in my ipod

    why i can't use my account in the ipod or ipad or any apple device ?