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.

Similar Messages

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

Hi, where can I manually download windows support software for boot camp windows 7 installation, I am trying through boot camp but its like taking forever to download its been 5 hours but boot camp still have't completed the download

can any one give me a link to download them manually

create a Windows support software (drivers) CD or USB storage media
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4407
Advanced Network: Proxy Settings, I uncheck "Auto Proxy detection" and make sure you have the interface you use selected and none others.
"Go into System Preferences - Network - Advanced - Proxies Uncheck "Auto Proxy Discovery", click OK, Apply"
After Unchecking "Auto Proxy Discovery" I also had to Uncheck "Use Passive FTP Mode (PASV)" and then Restart Boot Camp Assistant.
odiggy's comment and tried restarting Boot Camp Assistant. That did the trick, even though the Auto Proxy Discovery checkbox ended up the same as it started. Windows support software is now downloading... if you're downloading to an external drive make sure there's a least 1 GB of free space because the WindowsSupport folder is around 700 MB and presumably will grow with time.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3223773?start=15
Also, Change Domain Name Servers to OpenDNS IP address servers - that should be at the router firewall rather than the OS but may be in both for some people. You may be using the defaults your ISP uses, save those if you want, and try these:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Make sure you are not using LittleSnitch or Symantec (probably other 3rd party firewall)

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.

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.

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.

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].

Partitioning drives for linux and windows 7

I want to know if there is a piece of software that is free that can partition my drives so that I can triple boot OSX lion, windows 7 (which is currently blocking...) Linux (ubuntu puredyne).
A little bit of guidance would be much apprieciated as I have already tried fixing the partition tables MBR in the terminal and ended up disabling windows.
I know how to reinstall windows but what software can partintion the drives for linux as a triple boot?
Thanks.

Well, this is possible using Disk Utility as well as the Linux formatter. However, to triple boot will require special software: The rEFInd Boot Manager - Roderick Smith.

Urgent, HELP! Boot Camp Windows 7 installation?

Hey Forum.
I am using snow leopard on Macbook, and I wanted to install windows 7 using boot camp, and when I finish partitioning, I plug in my ext. hdd with windows 7 in it and then i clicked start installation, but then they say that can only use install dvd. So forum, is there anyway i can install windows 7 using it's install dvd in ext.hdd?
Thank you.
Ala.

There's an entire forum area devoted to Boot Camp:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237

Is Paragon's "HFS+ for Windows" safe to use in Boot Camp Windows &/or Parallel 8 Windows?

Is Paragon's "HFS+ for WIndows" safe to use for read+write access to HFS+ drives when running Windows [8] via Boot Camp?
Drivers that came with Apple Boot Camp (or maybe Parallels [8]) enable "read-only" access to HFS+ formatted drives from Boot Camped Windows, but I want to be able to write to the drives, too. I'm worrying about whether something in those Apple (or Parallels) drivers for Windows that makes that possible might also conflict with other software like "HFS+ for Windows," maybe even make a risk of corrupting the HFS+ disk (either external or even the OS X boot partition) so badly that everything on it becomes lost.
So I'm looking for people's experiences with using "HFS+ for Windows" with Parallels Desktop [8] for Mac. Is it safe?
Thanks.

Thanks, Templeton. Yes, within OS X using Parallels 8 the integration with the Windows Parallels virtual machine is great. But once I leave the OS X / Parallels environment the folder sharing access disappears. So when I Boot Camp to Windows I have no visibility into the OS X partition nor any external HFS+ drives. (Except for a few specific activities that can only be done in OS X or are best in OS X, I spend almost all my time in Windows, so I usually wouldn't run OS X or Parallels to Windows.)
Thanks GeekBoy. Paragon HFS sounds risky with Parallels. I'll be eager for more feedback about risks of using that combo from whomever can offer it.

Please help with my Boot Camp/Windows problems

I need to install windows on to my iMac to continue a course I’m taking at uni. Sadly it’s been a nightmare so far.
I backed up all of my data and opened Boot Camp Assistant and tired to partition a section of my hard drive for windows. However it gave me an error each time I tired. After asking around I was told to buy idefrag and that should fix the problem - it didn’t. I was then told to format the hard disk and reinstall OSX. I did that and Boot Camp was now happy to partition my hard drive.
I insert a copy of legitimate copy of Windows 7 Professional (x64) and clicked the Install Windows button when Boot Camp prompted me to.
Windows installation menus open after a quick restart but quickly tells me it cant see any partitions/drives to install on.
I googled the problem read that the partition should be formatted to NTFS for windows seven to install and that OSX wont do that. I installed a free program called NTFS-3G and that formatted the partition to NTFS.
Windows now saw the drive and went through the installation process. After it has gone through its automated routine it restarts the Mac and takes me to a "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..."
I press Enter and it takes me back to the very first installation menu and restarts the whole thing until it has once again gone through its automated routine and restarted the Mac and told me to press any key.
This happened ever time. During the install I am presented with the options of "Installing Windows" or "repairing windows". When I tried the automatic repair it told me it could find no fault.
So I started again by deleting the partition from within OSX and making a new one and installing windows and restarting but this time remove the windows 7 disk.
All this did was boot the Mac up in OSX. I then restarted the Mac and held down the options key. This presented me with the choice of booting from the Mac HDD or the windows partition. I chose the windows partition and it takes me to a black screen with a flashing line/prompt and does nothing else.
I assumed Windows 7 might not like my Mac for some strange reason so brought a copy of Vista business with SP2 (x86).
I deleting the partition from within OSX and made a new one. I began installing Vista. It told me it could only install on NTFS formatted partitions/drives.
Once again I used NTFS-3G to formatted the partition to NTFS and relaunced vista.
It installed fine and restarted itself. Once again it took me back to the first installation screen just as windows 7 did. I tried restarting without the disk (hold options again) and it took me back to the black screen with the flashing line and sat there forever.
I restarted the Mac with the OSX 10.6.1 install disk in the drive and it booted up ignoring the disk. I launched the disk from desk top and looked through the install options hoping to find some drivers or extra installs for boot camp/windows. I couldn’t see anything.
I don’t know what else to try.
I have a 21.5' iMac:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.52f9

Re-read in the PDF guide in Boot Camp Assist where it tells you to format the "BOOTCAMP" FAT volume when in Windows.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp
But I have really only one question:
Was this an electronic school download edition? they offer students Windows 7 Pro. If this was an electronic version from school, fine, but it has to be burned at *reduced 2x speed* or it won't work, and can have various (and different for everyone) problems, BUT: it is pretty well known and semi "documented."
You do NOT need NTFS driver. That is totally wrong.
Sorry you bought Vista, I used it but once Windows 7 went Beta and then RC I've used 7 and never looked back (what Vista should/could have been but was not, even with SP2).

Missing files on HFS drive in Boot Camp 3.0

I have an external drive formatted with HFS. When I look at the contents of that drive while in Windows XP in Boot Camp 3.0 I noticed that some of the files are missing. If I log back into Snow Leopard the files are still there. I have tried deleting the "missing" file and copying it back, but the same problem persists or strangely another file in the same folder will go missing when I look for it in Boot Camp. Is there a bug in the HFS driver for Boot Camp or is there some sort of weird behavior of HFS I don't know about? This isn't a one off thing either, this is happening in multiple folders on the drive.
Thanks.

I have begun to experience a similar issue on an external hard drive. The drive has 3 partitions (2 Journaled, 1 NTFS). I access the HFS/journaled partitions from a Boot Camp installation (slipstreamed Windows XP SP2).
Certain files do not appear in the Windows Explorer, though they do appear in Mac OS Finder. Same as <ditogi>, I copied and replaced, renamed and so on - the content is apparently unharmed. I also adjusted the permissions. Nothing seems to work. Additionally, folders also seem to be missing now.
The only recent changes to the system were:
Mac OS: Firefox 3.6.2
Windows: GlovePIE; PPJoy; Tamamy Ikesu's DUALSHOCK3 HID Minidriver.
Any pointers as to whether this is a Mac OS or Windows issue - mass storage driver, security, or services related would be helpful.

Boot Camp Windows 7 No Longer Connects to Internet

Hello, I have a mid 2011 iMac with Boot Camp Windows 7 installation. It has run flawlessly for more than a year. Recently however, I have been untable to connect to internet when running Windows. The connection works fine as a Mac. While in Windows, I can momentarily (about 10 seconds) connect by disconnecting and reconnecting the LAN cable. Then the "no internet." I have all the latest Boot Camp support software installed. All MAC and Windows software updates are installed. My network devices are configured correctly. I have rolled back to previous Windows updates with no resolution. Does anyone have any suggestions?

your router, your Windows firewall, you are using something other than Windows Defender (8) or Essentials (7), something else on the cable.
you had a storm and the modem is on life support and your ISP can login and see what errors the modem is showing, you don't have network surge protection (APC tend to interfere, Cyberpower tend to work).
What else is on the LAN?
I found Windows to be funny about network but 8 and 8.1 have never had trouble. With 7 I sometimes had to reboot.
Besides Apple and Windows, some drivers are or often still needed - manually.

OS 10.5 - Boot Camp - Windows won't read Mac Disc for Driver Install

Hello everyone.
I have been through half a dozen headaches and a dozen hours of time wasted on this problem. I've tried multiple windows discs untill finally I bought a brand new version of Windows XP Pro. I've followed all of the instructions in my printed boot camp manual and I continously run into one problem:
Once windows is installed completely and I am at the windows desktop and need to eject the windows disc and insert the leopard disc to install drivers, I do so and windows does not recognize the mac disc whatsoever. It says the drive is empty, it is 0kb of 0kb, I cannot explore the drive, I cannot do anything. If I open it it is blank. I cannot access the internet in any way on windows because there are no corresponding drivers.. so I am at a loss.
Can anyone please help me? What do I do? I really apologize if this question has been answered, but I could really use some help.

Hi Sotaris,
It's a little vague what you mean by the "leopard disk". Do you mean the disk of drivers Boot Camp burns, or the actual Leopard installation DVD?
What you're supposed to do is launch Boot Camp while booted to the Mac OS. One of the first things it does is create a CD of Windows drivers that XP will need for your Mac. So you must have a CD-R or CD-RW on hand.
After that, Windows XP is installed. When that's done, there will be a number of hardware components that XP naturally doesn't recognize. That's when you insert the driver disk Boot Camp creates. I may have listed the order of things a little bit off here, but the main point is it sounds like you're skipping, or missing the part to create the Windows driver disk and trying to put the Leopard DVD in the drive.

Boot Camp / Windows Partion... Can it be installed on a separate hard drive

I am just beginning to explore the idea of installing Boot Camp & Windows on a new Intel Mac I will be buying. I've been reading a lot of references to the Windows partition...
Can I dedicate a separate hard drive to Windows rather than partition my primary hard drive? If so would it be best to use an internal drive rather than a Firewire or USB drive. What would a reasonable minimum drive size be?
Thanks for you feedback.
Mike

Hi Mike,
since only the Mac Pro can have more than one internal HD, I assume you are talking about getting one of them
With more than one internal HDs you can put Windows on the second, third, fourth internal HD with the BootCamp Assistant.
On a side note: Windows does not support to be booted from external HDs (neither FireWire nor USB).
Reasonable size depends on what you want to do with it.
Windows XP itself takes up to 3.5GB of HD space after installation, Vista takes up to 10GB.
Add to that the HD space you need for the programs and data you use/produce.
And when keeping in mind the hassle it takes to enlarge the Windows partition if needed, my personal suggestions are:
Windows XP at least 30GB, Vista at least 50GB.
Have you already had a look here http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ especially at the Installation Guide ?
Regards
Stefan

Unable to partition drive for Boot Camp / Windows XP installation

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