Just another "The disk cannot be partitioned because the files cannot be moved" Problem

J_a_z_e wrote:

Ok, I have Booted into Windows 7 to seperate my games from my studies, that was two weeks ago.

I have some version of a MacBook Pro from 2008, run OSX 10.6.8 Snowleopard, and have 8gigs of RAM (Upgraded this and the battery, err, more like took my family members' old ones when he upgraded, those haven't been causing me any problems though)

Ok back to my story, I only gave windows 30 gigs of RAM, thinking I can expand it later. Later I came across a forum post that told me i could delete that partition and make another one to increace the size, because I only installed a few basic things like Adobe Flash, Chrome, and Steam, I proceded to delete my 30gig partition, hoping to create another, much larger (158gigs of my 319gig HD) partition. Many of you already know what im going to say next-while I started to create the partition, I came across the error responsible for this post, and many more

"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS X Extended (Journal) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

Now, before I ask you to answer my question, please know that

-I DO NOT have the Mac OSX installation disk, nor did it come with my computer

-I DO have an external HD, it is a "Lacie Mini" that holds up to 500gigs

-I have just recently started using Time Machine AFTER the error occured

-I CANNOT afford to purchase apps like iDefrag

-This is my first post, so I know theres going to be a ton of errors and the like

-I've spent hours looking for solutions and found that booting up and pressing cmd+s and typing in "/sbin/fsck -fy" or "fsck -fy" DO NOT WORK even though the command was executed

-Verifying and Repairing my HD using Disk Utility (without an Installation disk of course) DOES NOT WORK

-I DO have the windows drivers and installation disk, the Windows installation is not my problem, getting Boot Camp to pertition my HD is

Now, how do I fix the error, can I fix the error, and if I can, how?

Thanks, and sorry for such a long post

To fix the error.

Make a complete backup (a clone is easiest for this), erase your disk and restore the backup.

10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) did come with a disk, it would be a good idea to replace it if you can't find it.

J_a_z_e wrote:

My father has purchased two MBP's, and neither of them came with a disk, how would I obtain one?

What version of OSX is on these Macs, Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) do not include disks, Snow Leopard does.

If you do have Snow Leopard (10.6) a replacement disk can be obtained from Apple, but each machine would have included a disk, cheapest method would be to look for the originals.

Check with an Apple Store for the disk.

I am glad that you solved your problem but I strongly advise getting the as well, Boot Camp 3.0 is on it, and you can't update to 3.1 or 3.2 without 3.0. Windows 7 needs 3.2. And, if you ever need to reinstall (Boot Camp failure perhaps) you can't do so without it.

Good luck anyway