Bootcamp El Capitan fails, cannot partition disk

I'm also having this issue. I have read you need to go into single user mode and run a disk check (/sbin/fsck -fy). Trying it now - will report back.

1. Do not use a USB3.0 flash drive.

2. You do not need to disable El Capitan SIP.

3. Do you have a Fusion drive?

4. Have you run a Disk Utility Repair?

5. Boot in Safe mode - Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support - boot normally, and try again.

6. Run SMC/NVRAM Reset and try again.

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

lindsayfromphoenix you can try these steps as well.

You will still use a USB, but a USB2.0, not a USB3.

Can you check Applications -> Utilities -> Console logs for any disk/partitioning related messages?

If you do not have any disk errors, the next option is to back up OS X, boot into Internet Recovery (Command+Opt+R - with a spinning globe), erase your internal drive, restore TM backup and retry BCA again.

Hi Loner T, I've seen you helping out on similar discussions to this - thanks for all the assistance you've given.

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I was able to get BCA to successfully partition my drive and format the WININSTALL disk that I'm using (I'm using a WD My Passport since I don't have a large enough USB stick) by using the command I listed above in Single-User mode.

However, now when I try to boot into the Windows 10 side and install Windows 10 off the drive, it says "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Parition 4" and when I click format it doesn't do anything.

I see you helped supastring in this thread: iMac Retina - BootCamp - Windows 10 - Partition Problem - and was wondering if that's the same process you think I should follow, my qualm being that when I check why it can't install on that disk it says that the partition is in the incorrect format.

lindsayfromphoenix wrote:

I was able to get BCA to successfully partition my drive and format the WININSTALL disk that I'm using (I'm using a WD My Passport since I don't have a large enough USB stick) by using the command I listed above in Single-User mode.

You will not be able to us the WD because it is an external USB HDD, not a flash drive. It will confuse BCA and the Windows installer. It can also lead to black screens or other issues. You need a 8-16GB USB2 flash drive.

However, now when I try to boot into the Windows 10 side and install Windows 10 off the drive, it says "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Parition 4" and when I click format it doesn't do anything.

I see you helped supastring in this thread: iMac Retina - BootCamp - Windows 10 - Partition Problem - and was wondering if that's the same process you think I should follow, my qualm being that when I check why it can't install on that disk it says that the partition is in the incorrect format.

Your problem most likely stems from the WD. Do you also have a iMac 5K? The referenced iMac supported Windows EFI boot, but it depends on your iMac year/model.

I'm on a maxed(ish) out early 2014 Macbook Air 13 - 1.7 GHz Core i7 / 8 GB RAM / 500 GB SSD.

If I find a large enough flash drive, how do I go about undoing the current partition that was created? I'm stuck on a step on the windows side - and it was booting fine, just wouldn't install Windows on any of the listed partitions.

lindsayfromphoenix wrote:

I'm on a maxed(ish) out early 2014 Macbook Air 13 - 1.7 GHz Core i7 / 8 GB RAM / 500 GB SSD.

Since you are on a 2014 Mac (it supports EFI boot and is UEFI-compliant). You do not really need a USB, as long as you have some way to boot the W10 (you can directly download W10 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home with your product key) to a writeable DVD and boot from it using an external Optical drive. Create a Free Space partition of the Windows size you want using Disk Utility. You will lose about 128MB for a MSR partitions, but rest will be NTFS.

onMac.failure wrote:

Now from reading your message (btw thx for the help so far Loner T) I understand that the usb 3.0 might be the problem??

So next is to transfer the 3.0 usb files onto a 2.0 fat formated one and try reboot on that thing...

To be continued...

Looking forward to it...

Drive0:Partition 3 is OSX Recovery HD (620MB). Please try Drive0:Partition 4 (BOOTCAMP).

onMac.failure -

I was running into exactly the same issue - but my issue didn't seem to be related to the type of drive I was using as Loner T suggested.

I went into Disk Utility and found the partition that Boot Camp Assistant created for me and wiped it clean and changed the format to FAT in the dropdown.

From there I was able to go back into the windows boot and clicked the partition and I formatted it on the Windows side and Windows installed seamlessly. I had a couple of restarts that forced me to go back into it "from the beginning" but it was clear that it was making progress each time. Currently running Windows 10 on my MBA 13 El Capitan.