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.

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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'.

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.

Can I use second internal hard drive for boot camp? OptiBay question.

I have a MBP. I have replaced the original HDD with a 160 Gb unit. I have replaced the optical drive with a 500 Gb unit via OptiBay. Right now, the 500 Gb drive is my startup volume, and has OS 10.5.6 living on it.
What I want to do is use 32 Gb of the original drive for a Windows (either XP or 7) volume and the rest of it as HFS+ for storage of stuff (videos, photos, and stuff like that)
I have rEFIt installed on the startup volume. I have played with triple boot setups, etc., in the past.
So how do I install Windows? I will have to use an external DVD drive, of course, and I have a 32 Gb partition that is FAT32 now. Can I insert the Win DVD and let it try to find the right partition? How about drivers? This does get a little bit more interesting.
I am not going to use Windows for production, etc., but would like to be able to play with it.
Sorry if I am bring up a previously answered question, but the OptiBay deal didn't show up in my searches.
Thanks
Roger

Yes, lots of Mac Pro users do that.
It's still a good idea to make secondary backups, especially to a portable external HD, that you can take off-site, so you're protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc.
[CarbonCopyCloner|http://www.bombich.com> is donationware; [SuperDuper|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html] has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling.
And/or, see Kappy's post on [Basic Backup|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12366915#12366915].

Can I back up a bootable partition from an APM drive to a GUID-partitioned hard drive for storage, later to be able to clone restore the backup back to an APM and have it be bootable on a PowerPC?

Tongue twister of a question, huh?
I am creating a APM-partitioned hard drive for use with a PowerPC iMac G5, so I can have a fresh OS install on one as a reference, and the other be my usable OS. Now, I also want to back both of these partitions up on a storage hard drive that I also want to contain partitions that are bootable on an Intel mac (GUID). My question is, can I clone my APM partitions as backup to designated partitions on my GUID backup/storage hard drive (which I plan on being able to boot other partions on an Intel Mac), and have the option of later cloning the same APM partitions back to an APM-paritioned hard drive and have them still be bootable on a Power PC? I know I won't be able to boot a Power PC from off of the GUID-paritioned drive, but I want to be able to restore my APM-partitioned drive incase things go sour with it.
Thanks so much for your time, guys!

Block-level copier that copies not just the files but the filesystem structure as well. But files can be moved from GUID to APM partitioned devices without any effect on the file. The partition scheme affects whether an installed system will boot a particular type of hardware.
If you installed OS X on a GUID partitioned drive you would not be able to boot a PPC Mac.
And, you're most welcome.
Please note the items listed under Legend in the right sidebar of this page.

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.

Can I install windows 7 on a potable Hard Drive using boot camp? or any other way to do so?? need help for college please

I need to use windows in order to use Visual C++ for college but I don't have enough space in my internal Hard Drive so I want to install windows 7using boot camp or any other method on a portable hard drive and boot from it.
Please help I need it as soon as possible for school. Thanks

You can't boot Windows natively except on internal drives.
You can use a VM and put the VM image (VHD) anywhere any drive you want.
You are way too low on disk space, seriously so. And no room - even Windows and Mac OS should be warning and balking already.
"emulator" is an old-school term, even true, running a Guest OS under Mac's as a virtual machine, shared resources (RAM, processor) is easier but not the same performance level as running natively.
Comparison of VMware Fusion Parallels VirtualBox
This just posted, an FAQ for Lion and Boot Camp 4.0
Boot Camp 4.0, OS X Lion: Frequently asked questions

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

Partitioning Hard drive for Windows Use

Hopefully someone has the solution to this.
I have been trying to partition part of my hard drive for the past couple of days because there is a program I need for a class I am taking that only works in Windows. Every time I try to partition a portion of the drive, it tells me some files couldn't be moved. It also tells me to format the drive and restore it. I am willing to do this, but the instructions on using the disk utility that it gives me do not work.
I would be most willing to use the systems disk to repair anything I need to or just re-install, but I have misplaced those disk.
How do I go about replacing these disk?
Also, is there another way to partition part of this drive?
It is my internal drive that was installed in the laptop.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

You can reformat your hard drive with a snow leopard disk, which maybe a friend has or you can buy one for something like $30.00? Then your mac would be wiped clean as you know.. I have seen this problem before when installing windows on a mac and don't know what causes it. I reformatted my mac and then installed windows fine. Other times I have installed windows it went perfectly fine.

Unable to partition drive for Boot Camp / Windows XP installation

I need to install Windows XP on my MacBook so that I can run MS Access 2007 for an online college course I'm taking.
When I attempt to partition (it doesn't seem to matter what size I choose to make the Windows partition), I get a message that the "The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved," and that I should "back up the hard drive and format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume" and "restore information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
When I open Disk Utility and examine the information for the hard drive, it lists the File System as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)." The "Supports Journaling" and "Journaled" fields are also listed as "Yes."
I'm not sure how to proceed. I have used Time Machine to back up the hard disk, but I see no option in Disk Utility to format the drive, and it doesn't appear that it needs to be formatted.
Has anyone else encountered this issue or have any ideas what might be causing it?

The part you need to follow: backup and reinitialize
You need unfragmented contiguous free space and it isn't, and some file(s) may be locked and can't be moved.
Booting from another hard drive and buy/use iDefrag is a 'maybe.'
Clone the drive and restore the clone with RESTORE in Disk Utility (from your OS X DVD) or TimeMachine or SuperDuper (or Carbon Copy Cloner).
Maybe you are better off just using XP in a VM like free VirtualBox instead of running XP native on its own partition.

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

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 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.

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.

Partitioned Hard Drive for Dual Boot

I have already loaded Lion. Can I partition my hard drive and reinstall Snow Leopard on one partition? I have a few programs I'd like to still be able to run that don't run on Lion

I'm guessing that your disk has never been partitioned, in which case: Your disk has a single partition, occupying the whole drive. You need to use Disk Utility to create a second partition (probably including shrinking the size of the partition you have in order to create the space), into which you can then install Snow Leopard from the original DVD.

Partition hard drive for boot camp

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