Boot camp unable to partition

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Level 1

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Boot camp unable to partition

When I run Boot Camp Assistant to partition, i keep getting the message: "Startup disc cannot be partitioned or restored as a single partition." And then something about having to restore to the Extended (Journaled) filesystem. I have done this but the problem persists. I am on a 2009 MBP with Snow Leopard. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I am doing wrong. Aren't Boot Camp supposed to partition a drive (even the main drive) for me?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 25, 2012 12:31 PM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Mar 25, 2012 1:57 PM in response to jonmidt

You did an erase and restore from backup?

You need unfragmented and also consolidated free space that is contiguous, and that also means no files at the end or preventing the creation.

Some have good luck or success booting from external or alternate drive if you cloned your system, or from OS DVD and then shrinking the Mac HFS volume by same amount you need plus a couple GBs.

And you have to still have 20%/20GB free afterwards for Mac OS to function.

Windows 7 needs about 50GB to function properly, 32GB plus room for SP1 etc, room for cache and temp files, apps and drivers, any data, page file and hibernation.

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Answer 2

jonmidt Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2012 3:38 PM in response to The hatter

Yes I did the erase and restore. I made a TM backup, but as far as I know, this is not bootable?

So about booting from the OS DVD, I would then repartition and allocate the other partition as free space?

And this should make sure Boot Camp Assistant can make a new partition from the free space?

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Answer 3

Spotnik

Level 1

10 points

Sep 7, 2013 2:33 PM in response to jonmidt

Did this ever get resolved? I'm looking for solutions, as I'm getting the same error since migrating to a 3TB drive.

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