How do I format partition as NTFS?

Hi Bakari,

OSX and therefor the BootCamp Assistant as well can not write to or format an NTFS partition.
So you have to let Vista do the needed formating during (better said before) the actual installation process.
When you get this error message, the Vista Installer should provide a possibility for you to let him formating the partition with NTFS.

Good Luck

Stefan

Hi Bakari,

the procedure is described on page 12 and 13 of the BootCamp Installation and Setup Guide found here: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/BootCampInstall-Setup.pdf

Quote from it:
To format the partition for Windows Vista:
1 Click “Drive options (advanced).”
2 Click Format, and then click OK.
3 Click Next.
The Windows Vista partition is formatted using the NTFS file system.

The 'Drive Options (advanced)' button is on the same Window where it say 'Windows Vista cannot be installed on this hard disk space...'

Stefan

You know what, doing what you want, and how I install Vista, you pretty much can just skip the BootCamp Assistant and just boot from the Vista DVD and format the drive - unless you want say FAT32 partition (for sharing files, nice to have 20GB).

You might want to format the drive in Disk Utility.
YOu can choose GUID or force it to use Master Boot Record
(DU Partitions: Options)
Then create MSDOS (FAT32) partition(s).
You'll need to reformat one to NTFS (3.1) in Vista DVD - no matter what.
Especially with 64-bit version.

And, I sometimes had to format, then reboot before Vista would allow installing.
(I hold off on entering activation code until I know it works).

Later, you can let Fusion or Parallels take over your Vista partition.

Also, with Paragon Software's NTFS utility $39 you can read and WRITE to NTFS from within OS X. With MacDrive7 you can access HFS+ from Vista 32-bit (not x64) as well.

Shouldn't? or supported? on a Mac Pro it verges on "criminal" to use 32-bit versions that don't see more than 1.9GB RAM or use your full potential. It has been working fine.

When you see that message "unable to find..." just means reboot the DVD with 'c' and proceed. This time it should accept the NTFS partition.

In the past, pre-Leopard and BootCamp 2.0, I actually would have to remove the drive with OS X totally for Vista to install. In one case, erase OS X partition and restore it later. I have lots of backups.

Vista x64 is the only version that supports GUID and EFI. SP1 now brings official support for both.

Has anyone figured this out yet? I tried installing Vista Ultimate 64-bit on my new 8-core Mac Pro, but I too am getting the dreaded "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation" no matter how many times I reformat the selected partition and reboot.

I am trying to install it onto a completely separate internal drive, located in bay 3. (Bay 2 is empty but I'm saving that one for a future audio/video drive) The Installer shows "Disk 1 Partition 1" at 200MB (for the Boot Camp partition) and the "Disk 1 Partition 2" for the rest. The latter is the one I keep trying to format and install, but can't get it to work.

There's an article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933925 about this error message, but in their work-around, they want you to click "New" in the Advanced Options, and my "New" is grayed out. Ugh. Then I tried deleting the big partition, but it won't say Unallocated Space, and if I try and reformat then I get an error.

Nice going, Microsoft. Oh wait, I should expect no less from them. sigh

Any solutions out there?

I have the exact same problem, I got a new 8 core Mac Pro with 2 HD. I was planning to install Windows on the second drive but kept getting the "Windows cannot find system volume..." message. I tried every combination and workaround I could find (including those in this thread) and the ones on the various Windows support sites but nothing worked.

I finally gave up and tried to install on the HD in Bay 1 (drive 0), so I used bootcamp assistant to split the disk 0 (bay 1) that has my mac partition with a Windows Partition, followed the instructions for bootcamp and it worked as expected! No more errors.

So I wonder if there is something about those secondary drives that Windows does not like (I read somewhere it could be a problem with the SATA driver)

Since I still want to have my windows and mac on the 2 separate drives, I wonder if swaping them - putting disk in bay 2 in bay 1 and the one in bay 1 in bay 2 and putting Leopard on what was the drive 1 instead of drive 0 and windows on the old drive 0 - could help. I have not tried it yet since I'll have to re-install Leopard from the disks and need to backup the system first. If I try I'll post back the results to this thread.

For now it looks like your only option is to split your primary HD with a windows partition and not use the separate internal drive.

You did a lot more than I tried...hehe.

I'm going to try something similar to what you want to try. What I'm going to attempt next is just remove all drives and insert the Windows drive into Bay 1 and install Vista 64. When I'm done I'll go ahead and return all drives to their original bays (Mac OS X to Bay 1, Windows back to Bay 3, Time Machine drive in Bay 4). Hopefully it will be nice when I hold down that option key afterwards.

I'm just wondering if the Windows drive will be blessed with "disk0" during installation and end up confused when it changes back to "disk1" (or "disk2" whenever I fill up that last bay).

I'll try this over the weekend and report my findings...

Format in Disk Utility as MSDOS (FAT32). You can even create multiple partitions.

When you get to the Vista part of choosing the partition (ie probably says "BOOTCAMP") that is FAT.

You have to delete it and create a new partition, same size.

Proceed.

Vista Ultimate 64 is good for dual cpu and more RAM. And works fine.

A base install of Ultimate yesterday took 24GB. Allow room for pagefile, temp files, data, and installing applications. SP1 will require 15GB of temporary space for the update. That makes for at least 40GB. Restore points are good to have and take a couple GB each (?) plus I never like to get a partition with any OS to less than 40% free space for moving things around and such.

The confusion might just be my writing style.

Well I finally got it to work using my method as described (and hatter's recommendation to format using FAT in DU). I put my Windows drive in Bay 1 and left everything else out. I have no 200MB boot camp partition.

Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit installation went without a hitch, as well as software updates and the boot camp drivers off the CD. I do get some restart/shut down freezes, but doing a hard reset usually fixes it.

My only issue is that there's no Windows disk in the Mac OS X Startup Disk. Am I just gonna have to live with holding down Option when re-booting? (The Windows Boot Camp startup disk works fine on that end.)