Disk will not partition

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Level 1

7 points

Disk will not partition

Hi,

I have a 1TB iMac, and recently removed my windows 7 partition due to a problem when i resized my Mac OSX Lion partition to fill up empty space. Now when i try to create the windows partition again on bootcamp, i click continue and message comes up saying "The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows", and then i cannot choose the option of installing windows 7. Anyone know what to do?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on May 14, 2012 1:07 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 14, 2012 1:24 PM in response to Zak141

Useless message and misleading, isn't it.

Try shrink your volume first, then extend back to full size.

free space is fragmented, it has to be unfragmented contiguous and can't have any locked files.

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Answer 2

Zak141 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 14, 2012 1:52 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks, just wanted to know, what would be the best way to do this?

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 14, 2012 2:05 PM in response to Zak141

You read what I said: shrink the volume.

If that does not work then take further steps.

I have bookmarks in user profile for public on this and other questions, because this (use to get asked daily) 1000+ times.

At worst erase and restore from [clone] made with [ Carbon Copy Cloner, Superduper, DU Restore, TimeMachine, ______ ]

iDefrag and iPartition are not guaranteed to consolidate free space.

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Answer 4

jason215

Level 1

10 points

May 15, 2012 9:07 PM in response to The hatter

Its not a fragmentation issue. With bootcamp depending on how you remove the partition will determine how the other partitions react. Apple likes to have clean partitions when it makes bootcamp partitions and it will only use the space that is connected to the apple partition when bootcamp is created. Also if you need to reinstall the apple OS completely you will also need to remove the bootcamp partition it will prevent the OS from installing correctly. Try using the recovery partition disk utility to delete the unused partitions.

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Answer 5

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 16, 2012 1:25 AM in response to jason215

Agree to disagree?

contiguous free space isn't an issue? prove that?

locked files on end? that too?

Use SuperDuper, all the free space is consolidated

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Answer 6

Zak141 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 16, 2012 8:43 AM in response to The hatter

I tried to shrink and then re - expand but i still get the same message in Bootcamp

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Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

May 16, 2012 9:37 AM in response to Zak141

Clone your internal drive, erase your internal drive, restore the clone to your internal drive, then run Boot Camp

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Answer 8

Zak141 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 16, 2012 10:19 AM in response to Csound1

Thanks, just wanted to know if there was any way of doing this that did not involve using a Time Capsule or external drive?

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Answer 9

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

May 16, 2012 10:34 AM in response to Zak141

You have to store the clone somewhere so an external drive will be needed, please note I do not recommend using Time Machine for this, use Carbon Copy Cloner.

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Answer 10

Zak141 Author

Level 1

7 points

May 17, 2012 9:08 AM in response to Csound1

couldnt it just be easier to use parallels? or would i get the same problem ?

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Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

May 17, 2012 9:51 AM in response to Zak141

How do you intend to use Parallels to partition a drive for Windows? or are you planning on using Windows in a VM instead?

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