Barncore

Q: Boot camp: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

Hey guys,

Would really appreciate some help on this!

I used to successfully use bootcamp and have an extra partition so i could use Windows aswell, until my HD crashed and i had to take it to the Apple Hospital. When i got the computer back and restored my old backup Time Machine clone, i couldn't create a new partition for Windows. It doesn't let me get passed the first screen.

 

What happens is: I load up Boot Camp as usual, push Continue passed the Introduction screen, then i get a msg pop up that says:


The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.


Then i push Ok and it goes back to the BootCamp introduction screen. I.e. i can't get passed this msg.

I looked in Disk Utility and of course my internal HD already is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) so i have no idea why it isn't being recognised as one partition.

 

What do i have to do to be able to install windows on this computer without having to format my entire Mac and installing everything again? I really need the exact clone of what i have right now. I do have an external HD for making backup clones using Time Machine though.

 

Some specs:

- Boot Camp Assistant version is 3.0.1

- Mac OSX 10.6.2 (yeah i guess i'm old school now)

- 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM

- I have no other partitions currently, just my current mac one

 

Any questions just ask. I would love to resolve this tonight.


iMac (27-inch Late 2009), iOS 6.1.2

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 4:05 AM

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Q: Boot camp: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

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  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 9, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Barncore
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    Oct 9, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Barncore

    Barncore wrote:

     

    Well i already have a Time Machine backup from earlier today so i might aswell use that, if the result is equal (only difference being some minor complication, right?).

    Do either of you have a good link i can use as a guide for this clone and restore bizzo?

    Also, is it something i can let run while my sleep? (i'm about to go to bed)

    The only difference is in the procedure, the clone is made by plugging in an external drive and telling CCC to clone the internal drive to it ... time passes ... once the internal is erased you just boot up from the clone, run CCC again and clone the external back to the internal. That's it.

     

    Both methods take long enough that you should do it overnight, and you should set your Mac not to go to sleep.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 9, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
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    Oct 9, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Barncore

    Click on the Apple -> Restart and hold the Alt Key as you hear the chime. It should show a list of disks, one is your OSX partition, the other should be your DVD. Select the DVD.

  • by Barncore,

    Barncore Barncore Oct 9, 2014 10:38 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 10:38 AM in response to Loner T

    Quick and potentially dumb question...

    d. After DVD boots to a menu, run Disk Utility from the DVD, erase your internal drive, and format it as a Mac OS X Extended Journaled disk.

    When you say "internal drive", do you mean the parent drive called '1 TB APPLE HDD HUA72blablabla' (i assume so, but wanna be sure) or the one within it called Macintosh HD'

    Also, is there a quick way to make sure my TM backup is secure/not corrupted?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 9, 2014 11:13 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
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    Oct 9, 2014 11:13 AM in response to Barncore

    Yes, you should erase the 1TB drive (not just the Macintosh HD). When you reformat it, it should put back the EFI stuff automatically.

     

    If you want to very the TM backup, connect your TM drive, and looks for a file called backups.backupdb (it is a directory) and if you expand it, you should see entries by date, which should show individual files as you go deeper into the tree.

  • by Barncore,

    Barncore Barncore Oct 9, 2014 11:18 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 11:18 AM in response to Loner T

    Cool thanks. And while you're here (sorry to be a pain in the ***). What setting should i go for in regards to "security options". I mean ideally it'd be nice to leave it so it's possibly recoverable in future, but i don't want to do that if it means a more cluttered hard drive.. thoughts?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 9, 2014 11:23 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
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    Oct 9, 2014 11:23 AM in response to Barncore

    Since the disk will stay in the Mac and not be sold to someone else, there is no real need for any Security Options. You will be restoring from Backup anyway. Security Erase Options are useful if you do not want a forensic recovery attempt made on your internal drive. You can use FileVault2 (disk encryption) later, if you want to.

  • by Barncore,

    Barncore Barncore Oct 11, 2014 12:18 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 11, 2014 12:18 AM in response to Loner T

    So after a little bit of messing around i re-formatted my HD, restored via TM, ran boot camp, and fiiiiinally successfully created a new partition for windows. But in typical nature, the universe decided to give me yet another hurdle to jump through: I began the windows setup process (i.e. i could successfully boot from windows CD), but couldn't get to install it, because when it came time to choose the partition, i get this error when i select the BOOTCAMP partition:

    Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS.

    Now what do i do? What's causing this? How can i proceed?

     

    Is it because i ran an old version of boot camp? If so, i can probably upgrade to 10.9 OSX now... because today my housemate gave me the install disk (lucky!)... i'm hesitant because i don't know what the risks are, but the option is there. Thoughts?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 11, 2014 1:06 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 9 (50,721 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 1:06 AM in response to Barncore

    In simple terms you have not read the directions for Boot Camp in which this is covered (around page 7) I did suggest readsng them in an earlier thread but It seems that advice was not followed.

     

    Read the directions, from page 1 is good, but the part you need is around page 6 or 7

  • by Barncore,

    Barncore Barncore Oct 11, 2014 1:29 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Oct 11, 2014 1:29 AM in response to Csound1

    What directions? Is there a link? I see no directions within Boot Camp, other than "print directions". But i don't have a printer so i'm not sure how i can view them. A link would be ideal

     

    Edit: Nevermind, got it. http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1583/en_US/boot_camp_install-setup_ 10.7.pdf

     

    Edit #2: I found my answer. Thanks

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 11, 2014 3:58 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 3:58 AM in response to Barncore

    Barncore wrote:

     

    Edit #2: I found my answer. Thanks

    This part can be easily enhanced in Bootcamp Assistant in the future. The Apple NTFS driver can be made to convert the DOS partition that the Disk Utility creates, so this convert-DOS-to-NTFS-during-installation is not required. I have suggested this via Feedback as a feature, but the infinite wisdom at Infinite Loop has chosen this road.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 11, 2014 4:16 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 9 (50,721 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 4:16 AM in response to Loner T

    Apple deliberately disable the NTFS Write feature because it is an unreliable implementation. Are you saying that you know that it is not, can you provide some links in support of that?

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 11, 2014 4:19 AM in response to Barncore
    Level 9 (50,721 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 4:19 AM in response to Barncore

    Barncore wrote:

     

    What directions? Is there a link? I see no directions within Boot Camp, other than "print directions".

    Who mentioned a printer, just print to a pdf file.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 11, 2014 4:57 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 4:57 AM in response to Csound1

    Csound1 wrote:

     

    Apple deliberately disable the NTFS Write feature because it is an unreliable implementation. Are you saying that you know that it is not, can you provide some links in support of that?

    Yes, which can also be deliberately enabled for a conversion from DOS-to-NTFS during a BC. BA with a checkbox saying "Install Windows" can do it and once the Windows installer is handed control, it is no longer needed. You are confusing long-term sustained read-write use vs a single-use on a file system that contains no data and is being readied for a new installation.

     

    The second issue is that there are open-source implementations of NTFS driver (MacPorts has one called NTFS-3g). Since Apple participates and there is bidirectional give-and-take, why not use it. They do it with XQuartz.

     

    I have seen cases where a poster clicked on the wrong partition and deleted information that they did not intend to. A loaded-gun analogy comes to mind.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 11, 2014 5:07 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 9 (50,721 points)
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    Oct 11, 2014 5:07 AM in response to Loner T

    We have all seen disasters arise from trying to install Windows on a Mac (via any method). In my experience reading the directions (all of them) and following them exactly results in far fewer failures and subsequent disasters. When steps are missed (as in this case) things go south in a hurry.

     

    This is already a 4 day install, that is at least 3 and a half days too long.

     

    Oh, please link to some documentation for the "Install Windows" option you just mentioned.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 11, 2014 5:35 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 7 (24,115 points)
    Safari
    Oct 11, 2014 5:35 AM in response to Csound1

    Csound1 wrote:

     

    We have all seen disasters arise from trying to install Windows on a Mac (via any method). In my experience reading the directions (all of them) and following them exactly results in far fewer failures and subsequent disasters. When steps are missed (as in this case) things go south in a hurry.

     

     

    This discussion forum would not exist if everyone read the fine manuals and understood what was written. There are different levels of expertise and knowledge .

     

    This is already a 4 day install, that is at least 3 and a half days too long.

     

    It is irrelevant how long it takes to install in a specific situation. I am certain the OP would come not come back asking the same question again for quite some time.

     

     

    Oh, please link to some documentation for the "Install Windows" option you just mentioned.

     

    From Boot Camp: Creating an ISO image from a Windows installation DVD

     

    When the user selects the third checkbox on this screen ("Install Windows...") and clicks on continue, and the partitioning is complete,

    convert the DOS partition to NTFS.

    BA-Install-Windows.png

     

    If the user chooses to "Remove Windows...", whether the partition is NTFS or DOS is moot anyway.

     

    BA-Install-Remove.png

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