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Bootcamp Assistant not seeing all available disk space

While trying to install Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro via Bootcamp, it doesn't seem to recognize all of the available disk space on the hard drive. Bootcamp Assistant says that there's only like 140GB of free space to choose from on the disk, so it'll let me allocate a maximum of 132GB for Windows (which might be enough for what I plan to use Windows for, but I was hoping to give it at least 250GB.)


Meanwhile, Disk Utility says there's around 480GB of free space left on the same container that Bootcamp Assistant is looking at.


Is there something wrong with my disk, or is there something wrong with Bootcamp Assistant? Or is there something else causing this? I ran First Aid on the MacOS volume, the container, and the hard drive itself and it didn't report any problems for any of them.

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Apr 23, 2021 12:57 PM

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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
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Apr 23, 2021 7:44 PM in response to Community User

Your disk is 868 + 132 GB = 1 TB. The minimum Container size is 859GB. The 'free space' of 481GB is inside the APFS Container. Bootcamp needs an extra 10GB for the internal partition which will contain the W10 installer. This is the 859GB - 849GB = 10GB.


If you need more disk space, you will need to backup/erase/restore via Time Machine., which should allow the Container to be smaller. We can also reduce the Container manually.

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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,536 points

Apr 24, 2021 12:13 PM in response to Community User

My recommendation is


  1. Verify that your Mac supports Mojave. See macOS Mojave - Technical Specifications for reference
  2. Wipe out the internal disk using Internet Recovery
  3. Install a clean copy of Mojave
  4. Install Windows
  5. Restore your files and applications and settings using Time Machine backup as shown in Use Migration Assistant section of Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support
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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
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Apr 24, 2021 7:44 AM in response to Community User

Run


diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1533199

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1547301

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1547845

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1548490

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1549014

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1549260

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1549469

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1549558

diskutil apfs deletesnapshot / -xid 1549596

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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,536 points

Apr 25, 2021 9:22 AM in response to Community User

If your MBP supports macOS Mojave, you may be able to use the Mojave bootable installer to boot from and wipe the disk, and re-install macOS Mojave. If you choose this method, my recommendation is to create the APFS Container manually, leaving about 250Gb and set the Size Ceiling to be 750GB.


Here is an example.


Size (Capacity Ceiling):      616000626688 B (616.0 GB)


APFS List


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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,536 points

Apr 25, 2021 7:19 AM in response to Community User

What is the current version of macOS on this MBP?


Can you also check if the Applications on each of your Macs has a macOS Installer application? It will look similar to


This can let you build a bootable installer as shown in How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support. This may let you manipulate the MBP disk and rebuild the APFS Container with smaller allocation.


Also, in Disk Utility, are you allowed to use the disk pie chart to reduce the size of the Container?

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User profile for user: Loner T
Loner T
User level: Level 9
59,536 points

Apr 24, 2021 10:46 AM in response to Community User

tdg171 wrote:

Is there any particular reason I need to use Recovery over the internet instead of the built-in Recovery system?

Since you are erasing/formatting the internal disk, which supports Local Recovery, you need to use Internet Recovery.

Is it because I'd be wiping out the whole internal disk before restoring from a backup?

Yes.

Will I need to reinstall High Sierra?

If you are currently on High Sierra, my recommendation is to run Mojave 10.14.6. HS has many issues. If your current backup is High Sierra, and you restore it, you should get High Sierra back.

Because if I will need to download & reinstall macOS, I will have to wait until tonight to try since my internet is slow and it would likely take a while for it to download anything large from Internet Recovery.

IR should download about 2GB. You can wait till it is convenient. You can also use a Bootable Installer (How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support) to wipe the internal disk.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Apr 24, 2021 11:59 AM in response to Loner T

I've been considering updating to Mojave for some time now since much of the software I'm using is dropping/has dropped support for HS (Adobe apps, Homebrew, newer versions of native Apple apps, etc.) So if I wanted to update to Mojave while keeping all my personal files via Time Machine, I guess the plan would be something like:


  1. Wipe out internal disk using Internet Recovery
  2. Restore using Time Machine backup to hopefully resize the APFS Container
  3. Update to Mojave
  4. Start over again with Bootcamp Assistant now that the machine environment has drastically changed


Or, alternatively, would you recommend just going ahead and installing Mojave using Internet Recovery, effectively cutting out step 2? Doing so would remove a step and let Mojave start with a clean slate. I guess the biggest difference that would make is that my applications and personal files wouldn't be brought over. I can always re-install apps that I want/need, but I'd need to make a copy of my personal files beforehand. In my case, pretty much all my personal files and documents that I'd want to keep are stored in my Documents folder, which should be able to simply be copied to a large-enough USB drive and brought back into the computer once Mojave is set up.


And making my own bootable installer sounds like a convenient option. I happen to already have the Mojave installer downloaded onto my machine, so I'd just need to put it onto a USB stick using the createinstallmedia command.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Apr 25, 2021 8:02 AM in response to Loner T

The MBP is running macOS 10.13.6. It does have an installer for Mojave in its Applications folder, which I've already used to create a bootable installer on a USB stick in case I wanted/needed to use it.


In Disk Utility, clicking the "Partition" button on the Container (and choosing the "Partition" option in the dialog that pops up) shows me a pie chart of the physical disk, which is what I'm assuming you're talking about. The only thing that looks like a resize option is the "Partition Information" section with an editable "Size" field.


It would only let me shrink the macOS part of the pie chart down to 848GB, the minimum size limit shown when checking the resize limits for the APFS Container in Terminal (I didn't actually resize it, I just took a screenshot to show you.) So I don't think Disk Utility can shrink an APFS partition past its minimum limit or change said limit.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Apr 23, 2021 6:48 PM in response to Loner T

Running that command gives me the following output:


Resize limits for APFS Physical Store partition disk0s2:

  Current Physical Store partition size on map:   1.0 TB (1000345825280 Bytes)

  Minimum (constrained by files/snapshots):       848.5 GB (848459440128 Bytes)

  Recommended minimum (if used with macOS):       859.2 GB (859196858368 Bytes)

  Maximum (constrained by partition map space):   1.0 TB (1000345825280 Bytes)


That 859GB figure is close to the amount of used/unavailable disk space shown in Bootcamp Assistant. I'm guessing something about the drive being APFS is restricting how it can be partitioned?

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Bootcamp Assistant not seeing all available disk space

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