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User profile for user: FrankyFG
FrankyFG Author
User level: Level 2
356 points

Boot Camp - Disk could not be partitioned

Hello. I purchased a 2020 13in MacBook Pro about a week ago, and today I tried installing Windows using Boot Camp for school related reasons. While trying to install it, I got an error in Boot Camp Assistant saying that my disk could not be partitioned. I tried many things, and I am still having the problem. This is all I tried:

  • Rebooted my Mac in macOS Recovery (⌘+R), and ran First Aid on all my Volumes, Container, and Disk. First Aid and Disk Utility in macOS Recovery did not give any error. I then rebooted to normal macOS and tried again to run Boot Camp Assistant, and I had the same problem.
  • I then researched more about the problem, and I found a solution that seemed to work for many people. It said to reboot using Single-User mode (⌘+S), but my computer has the T2 Chip, so I then rebooted my computer with macOS Recovery (⌘+R) again, made sure the Macintosh HD volume was mounted, opened Terminal in macOS Recovery, and ran `/sbin/fsck -fy`. I got an error that said "Error: Container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted".
  • I then rebooted into regular macOS and ran "sudo fsck_apfs -n -l /dev/rdisk1". The output showed that there are 3 snapshots, and after the first one it showed this warning: "warning: snapshot fsroot tree corruptions are not repaired; they'll go away once the snapshot is deleted". However, at the end, it showed that "The volume /dev/rdisk1 appears to be OK."


I looked at many forum posts and other websites for hours, but I could not find anything that worked. I also checked that the Windows ISO checksum was the same as the one listed on the Windows download page. I also tried reinstalling the ISO just in case, but that also did not work. I have a 2TB hard drive, and I am trying to allocate 502GB of my hard drive for Boot Camp. I have 1.8TB free on my drive.


Any help is appreciated. Thank you! :)



EDIT: I also saw the "warning: snapshot fsroot tree corruptions are not repaired; they'll go away once the snapshot is deleted" warning in the macOS Recovery Disk Utility while running First Aid on the Macintosh HD Volume, and the Windows version I am trying to download is the Windows Education Version found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/vlacademicwindows10iso. I also tried to install the regular Windows 10 version to make sure it was not a problem with the education version.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jul 10, 2020 6:13 PM

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User profile for user: FrankyFG
FrankyFG Author
User level: Level 2
356 points

Posted on Jul 11, 2020 12:34 PM

I was trying to install Boot Camp using macOS Big Sur. For some reason, Beta 1 installed some Snapshots on the Macintosh HD volume that prevented the disk from being partitioned. I did eventually get it working, but the solution did not come from me. Credit goes to user tomadimitrie on the Mac Rumors forums who found the solution.


  • First I booted into macOS recovery mode, and made sure that Macintosh HD was mounted in Disk Utility.
  • Then I opened Terminal from Utilities > Terminal.
  • Then I needed to find out the id of the Macintosh HD drive by using the command `diskutil list`, and finding the IDENTIFIER of the Volume called Macintosh HD. This ID may be different in recovery mode than the one in regular macOS, so make sure you run the command in the recovery mode terminal. The IDENTIFIER looks something like this: `disk1s1`.
  • Then run the command `diskutil apfs listSnapshots <Macintosh HD's disk id>` to list all the snapshots, all which start with `com.apple.os.update-`.
  • Then delete each Snapshot by using the command `diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot <disk id> -uuid <snapshot uuid from the previous command>`. The last one should return an insufficient permissions, but that is fine.
  • Reboot into macOS.


Only do this at your own risk.


Again, all credit goes to user tomadimitrie on the Mac Rumors forums, and here is the original post to the solution: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bootcamp-not-working-deleting-com-apple-os-update-snapshots-using-tmutil.2243872/post-28654311


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User profile for user: FrankyFG
FrankyFG Author
User level: Level 2
356 points

Jul 11, 2020 12:34 PM in response to FrankyFG

I was trying to install Boot Camp using macOS Big Sur. For some reason, Beta 1 installed some Snapshots on the Macintosh HD volume that prevented the disk from being partitioned. I did eventually get it working, but the solution did not come from me. Credit goes to user tomadimitrie on the Mac Rumors forums who found the solution.


  • First I booted into macOS recovery mode, and made sure that Macintosh HD was mounted in Disk Utility.
  • Then I opened Terminal from Utilities > Terminal.
  • Then I needed to find out the id of the Macintosh HD drive by using the command `diskutil list`, and finding the IDENTIFIER of the Volume called Macintosh HD. This ID may be different in recovery mode than the one in regular macOS, so make sure you run the command in the recovery mode terminal. The IDENTIFIER looks something like this: `disk1s1`.
  • Then run the command `diskutil apfs listSnapshots <Macintosh HD's disk id>` to list all the snapshots, all which start with `com.apple.os.update-`.
  • Then delete each Snapshot by using the command `diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot <disk id> -uuid <snapshot uuid from the previous command>`. The last one should return an insufficient permissions, but that is fine.
  • Reboot into macOS.


Only do this at your own risk.


Again, all credit goes to user tomadimitrie on the Mac Rumors forums, and here is the original post to the solution: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bootcamp-not-working-deleting-com-apple-os-update-snapshots-using-tmutil.2243872/post-28654311


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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,513 points

Jul 12, 2020 4:30 PM in response to FrankyFG

Excellent.


BTW, this also works.


diskutil apfs listsnapshots /
Snapshots for disk1s1 (18 found)
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-08-095311
|   XID:  1770514
|   NOTE: This snapshot sets the minimal allowed size of APFS Container disk1
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-11-213520
|   XID:  1795958
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-11-223706
|   XID:  1796346
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-11-234246
|   XID:  1796909
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-004451
|   XID:  1797340
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-020122
|   XID:  1797682
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-033922
|   XID:  1797905
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-052700
|   XID:  1798190
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-071449
|   XID:  1798404
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-091003
|   XID:  1798729
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-103628
|   XID:  1799081
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-121007
|   XID:  1799837
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-140831
|   XID:  1801347
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-151122
|   XID:  1801772
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-160651
|   XID:  1802118
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-171107
|   XID:  1802771
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-180733
|   XID:  1803203
|
+-- Name: com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-07-12-190711
    XID:  1803769


and then using 


diskutil apfs deletesnapshot
Usage:  diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot|deleteVolumeSnapshot <apfsVolumeDisk>
        -xid <snapshotXIDNumber> | -name <snapshotName>
        where <apfsVolumeDisk> = APFS Volume DiskIdentifier
              <snapshotXIDNumber> = an APFS Snapshot ID Number in decimal
              <snapshotName> = an APFS Snapshot Name (not mountpoint)
Remove the specified APFS Snapshot from the specified APFS Volume. The ability
to restore the state of the APFS Volume to that point in its evolution is lost.
The APFS Volume must be unlocked and mounted; the Snapshot must not be mounted.
Ownership of the affected disks is required.
Example:  diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot disk5s1 -xid 187251
          diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot disk5s1 -name MySnap1


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Boot Camp - Disk could not be partitioned

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