Solution to Boot Camp partition failure due to: "some files can't be moved"
I have had problems getting boot camp to partition my drive, reporting that
"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files can't be moved." Solutions offered involve either backing up your entire drive and restoring it (SuperDuper), or defragging with commercial software (iDefrag).
This solution does not require a spare external drive, nor commercial software.
1) Using Disk Utility, shrink your main drive by the desired windows partition size. Click the Physical Drive, select the Partition tab, and resize the main partition by dragging the corner of the graphical partition representation. Click apply. This operation may take a long time, because it moves all the files at the end of the drive to other places on the drive.
Even though you now have free space at the end of the drive, Boot Camp Assistant will not use it (it wants to resize your main partition).
2) Now use Disk Utility to expand the main drive to fill the entire disk. This effectively reverses the change you made in step 1, but no files are using the space at the end of the drive anymore. Click Apply. This should go faster than step 1. Close Disk Utility.
3) Using Boot Camp Assistant, create the Windows partition. Choose a partition size no larger than the amount you shrunk your main partition in step 1. Your Windows partition will finally be created.
Works for me. If it works for you, please spread the word.
"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files can't be moved." Solutions offered involve either backing up your entire drive and restoring it (SuperDuper), or defragging with commercial software (iDefrag).
This solution does not require a spare external drive, nor commercial software.
1) Using Disk Utility, shrink your main drive by the desired windows partition size. Click the Physical Drive, select the Partition tab, and resize the main partition by dragging the corner of the graphical partition representation. Click apply. This operation may take a long time, because it moves all the files at the end of the drive to other places on the drive.
Even though you now have free space at the end of the drive, Boot Camp Assistant will not use it (it wants to resize your main partition).
2) Now use Disk Utility to expand the main drive to fill the entire disk. This effectively reverses the change you made in step 1, but no files are using the space at the end of the drive anymore. Click Apply. This should go faster than step 1. Close Disk Utility.
3) Using Boot Camp Assistant, create the Windows partition. Choose a partition size no larger than the amount you shrunk your main partition in step 1. Your Windows partition will finally be created.
Works for me. If it works for you, please spread the word.
Macbook Pro 2.5ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.3)
