Q: Boot Camp Is Unable to Partition My Drive

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Farzad_K

Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Q: Boot Camp Is Unable to Partition My Drive

Hello,

The first time around I managed to set up Boot Camp and Windows 7 Home Basic very successfully and effortlessly on my MBP mid-2012.

Then I found out I could not get activation key for it because Microsoft no longer sold the Basic version. I downloaded the Windows 7 Home Premium version and bought an activation key from Microsoft and am now trying to get it on my computer.

Using Boot Camp Assistant I was able to delete the partition on which old Windows resided. Then using Boot Camp Assistant I built a USB drive that included the new ISO for the Windows 7 Home Premium edition and then the process went well and all necessary support files were downloaded.

We got to the point where I selected the size of the partition and Boot Camp Assistant tried to partition it except that it is not able to. It doesn't giver any reason, it just says: "Your disc could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk."

Anyone here knows what could be the cause of the problem and possibly how I can resolve it?

By the way, I have checked and the base format of the drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and the disk has only one partition.

Thanks much.

Farzad

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Late 2012 Model

Posted on Oct 7, 2014 5:16 PM

I have this question too

Solved

Loner T

Level 7 (24,098 points)

Safari

A:

The Wordpress link is just a Disk Verify and Repair (if necessary) via command line. A Safe Boot does the same.

The second link assumes that you have failed attempt at an EFI installation of Windows (MSR/MS Data).

Please try and see if they help.

Posted on Oct 7, 2014 6:49 PM

Q: Boot Camp Is Unable to Partition My Drive

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by Loner T,

Loner T Oct 7, 2014 5:18 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 7 (24,098 points)

Safari

Oct 7, 2014 5:18 PM in response to Farzad_K

Your disk does not have enough contiguous free disk space to be partitioned anymore. Please do a full backup of your disk. If you have Time Machine, even better. Once the backup is successful, erase and restore from backup and then try re-partitioning for Bootcamp.
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by Farzad_K,

Farzad_K Oct 7, 2014 5:31 PM in response to Loner T
Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 7, 2014 5:31 PM in response to Loner T

Thanks, Loner.
When I check the Information on the main drive I don't see that the space is an issue. Is there another way to check and be sure the problem is with contiguous storage space?

And then where do I find instructions on recovering from backup? It seems pretty sensitive so I want to be sure I am doing it right.

Thanks
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by Loner T,

Loner T Oct 7, 2014 5:45 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 7 (24,098 points)

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Oct 7, 2014 5:45 PM in response to Farzad_K

You have enough available disk space, but it is not contiguous.

I suggest you start at Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac regarding your backups. TM does not backup Windows, but only OS X.
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by Loner T,

Loner T Oct 7, 2014 5:59 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 7 (24,098 points)

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Oct 7, 2014 5:59 PM in response to Farzad_K

I can suggest a tool called iDefrag. There is a demo version that is free. It may help you see the lack of contiguous disk space.
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by Farzad_K,

Farzad_K Oct 7, 2014 6:23 PM in response to Loner T
Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 7, 2014 6:23 PM in response to Loner T

To restore entire system from time machine do command+R at startup, right?

It is interesting to have the disk completely erased and to see how it would start any ways.
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by Loner T,

Loner T Oct 7, 2014 6:29 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 7 (24,098 points)

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Oct 7, 2014 6:29 PM in response to Farzad_K

Yes. The instructions are very simple.

There is built-in recovery in OS X and your 2012 MBP supports Internet Recovery. You can try it now without making any changes to your internal disk.

Power cycle you Mac and hold Command+Opt+R which brings up Internet Recovery (it starts with a spinning globe). It is highly recommended that you try it over an Ethernet connection because it has to download about 1.8GB from Apple servers. WiFi can be slower and may be unreliable.

There is an option to restore your machine from a TM backup. You can quit from this Recovery which will leave your machine unchanged.

Also please see OS X: About OS X Recovery.

Command+R runs local Recovery HD, but it will not allow you to erase the disk.
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by Farzad_K,

Farzad_K Oct 7, 2014 6:44 PM in response to Loner T
Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 7, 2014 6:44 PM in response to Loner T

I am doing a TM backup now. I looked at the iDefrag and the drive definitely needs defragmenting, according to the software, but I thought with Macs we don't need to worry about those things. I want to do one other thing I read somewhere else as a remedy for this inability to partition the drive before taking the leap and doing the full erase and reinstall.

Here is the link on the internet: http://crounji.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/a-solution-to-your-disk-could-not-be-par titioned-error-on-boot-camp-assistant/.

And I believe another forum has discussed this topic.

Here is another approach I want to try: Boot Camp: Partition alert message when using Boot Camp Assistant

Farzad
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by Farzad_K,

Farzad_K Oct 7, 2014 7:14 PM in response to Loner T
Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 7, 2014 7:14 PM in response to Loner T

I will, thanks. I am still waiting for the TM to finish up. It is unfortunate that it cannot give me any sign that it actually is making progress. It just keeps spinning. And of the 600GB drive more than 400GB is free. It shouldn't take this long, should it?
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by Loner T,

Loner T Oct 7, 2014 7:24 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 7 (24,098 points)

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Oct 7, 2014 7:24 PM in response to Farzad_K

You can click on System Preferences -> Time Machine. It should provide a status of the backup. The more fragmented the drive, the longer does the backup take.
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by Farzad_K,

Farzad_K Oct 7, 2014 8:42 PM in response to Farzad_K
Level 1 (4 points)

Mac OS X

Oct 7, 2014 8:42 PM in response to Farzad_K

The word press instructions were actually sufficient to get the problem taken care of in this case.

Thanks for the help.

Farzad
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Accepted Answer · Oct 7, 2014 6:49 PM

Loner T

Level 7 (24,098 points)

Safari

Oct 7, 2014 6:49 PM in response to Farzad_K

The Wordpress link is just a Disk Verify and Repair (if necessary) via command line. A Safe Boot does the same.

The second link assumes that you have failed attempt at an EFI installation of Windows (MSR/MS Data).

Please try and see if they help.

Q: Boot Camp Is Unable to Partition My Drive

All replies Helpful answers

by Loner T,

by Farzad_K,

by Loner T,

by Loner T,

by Farzad_K,

by Loner T,

by Farzad_K,

by Loner T,Solvedanswer

by Farzad_K,

by Loner T,

by Farzad_K,

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