"The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned"

Free but conolidated contiguous not fragmented

and you need to leave 20% for HFS Mac to work too

Then Windows 7 really needs 40--60GB, space for hibernation page cache - and 10GB to play with as temp for SP1 and all the updates to be applied

larger drive

Sounds as though you have the bare-minimum SSD on that Air, 64 GB. If so, this is much too small to split with Windows, as your Mac data might not fit in just 20 GB.

Back up the current drive, then see what you can do about getting a larger one. SSD's are still quite pricey. Other World Computing has options from 120 GB forward here; these start at $250+

If you had known you wanted Windows, you needed to upgrade to a 128 GB SSD at time of build. There is no possible way to configure Windows on an external device with a Mac that I'm aware of, though it may be possible to boot Mac OS from a big enough SD card, properly formatted.

Nate

my win t x64 is 45GB

ssd needs overhead

windows needs breathing room

The Hatter is right.

You do not have enough space for Lion and windows.

I hate to point out the 800 lb gorilla in the room, but that wasn't his question. It says you need a minimum of 10 gigs, I have 27 and it won't let me go further either. If those are the requirements, state them before we have purchased a 2500 computer and a copy of Windows. The smug responses are precisely why after 7 years of bona-fide fan boy status I'm ready to get rid of all my Apple equipment for which I paid a clear premium and am rewarded with terrible customer support.

The requrement was written for XP is what I said. It is totally wrong and misleading and should be totally disregarded. But I didn't want to include that. Microsoft does have a statement, and that is also impossibly small but is 16GB for Windows Home 32-bit, and you will... not be able to update, that is how large the core windows, no room for updates, page, caching, apps, or any data and the login on restart, that will FAIL.

I take those and other marketing requirements.... with grainofsalt - or more.

What you will see very clearly and do the math is that Windows 7 64-bit needs 48GB to function. The SP1 one update itself needed 9GB of free temp space.

Any and every OS needs free space to operate. NTFS or HFS, you need 20% or more.

There is a very simple way to install Windows 7 on 64GB ssd on MacBook Air 🙂

Adamov wrote:

There is a very simple way to install Windows 7 on 64GB ssd on MacBook Air 🙂

Are you just teasing, because it's annoying!

What is this 'very simple way'

Of course i am NOT just teasing. I have MacBook Air 1.8 2gb ram and 64gb ssd. Now i am running MacOS Lion 10.7.3 and Windows 7 via BootCamp. Actually Windows is running very smoothly. I had this message "the startup disk does not have enough space..." while i had 40GB free. When i started Disk Utility i saw that i have only 3GB free. That was strange. Finder - 40GB free, Disk Utility - 3GB free. If you have something like this, here is the very simple way:

1. Go to Disk Utility.

2. Select your partiotion (in my case is AdamovHD).

3. Go to Erase tab.

4. Press the Erase Free Space button.

5. Wait the process to be finished.

6. Restart your Mac.

7. Run BootCamp.

8. Install Windows.

🙂

I really did not want to be annoying. If i was, please accept my appology.

Erase free space is long slow and glad it worked

Next time: shrink the HFS volume as far as possible, then extend to full size (be sure to leave 20% or more for Mac HFS)

In my case it took only ~10min. to erase the free space. Now i have 25gb free on my mac partition and 8gb on my windows partiotion. The both operating system are running like charm 🙂

Those are small low numbers. And why it went so quickly.

Windows 7 can easily eat up 48GB during updates and installs and for all the things we've said about partition sizes. Mac does not function well with only 20GB or 20% free space either.

Hatter all my respect to you 🙂 Of course you are right, but i have only 64GB 🙂 And for the work i have to do on windows (i hate it very much) its enough for me. I just try to be helpfull 🙂