Boot Camp Assistant does not have enough space even though it should.

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Level 1

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Boot Camp Assistant does not have enough space even though it should.

I recently tried to use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10 on my 2015 MacBook Air. During my research on how to do this, I started Boot Camp Assistant a couple of times just to check things out. I already had the ISO file downloaded and selected. I had enough space available to use to partition the disk and everything worked but I never actually hit install. Then I tried to backup my Mac to an external hard drive just in case something went wrong. I cancelled the backup because it was taking too long and I wanted to install Windows 10. I was finally ready to install it for sure this time and I opened up Boot Camp Assistant and did everything the same, however, when I press continue as soon as I open the app it gives me this error message:

The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned.

You must have at least 40 GB of free space available.

This is very odd since I had not changed anything since the last time I tried it except for starting a time machine backup. I tried redownloading the ISO file but that did not do anything. I tried restarting several times, doing first aid on my disk and nothing is letting me use Boot Camp Assistant. When I go to About This Mac, it tells me that I have 57 gigabytes available.

Can somebody please help me figure out how to use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10?

Thanks

Posted on Apr 21, 2018 7:41 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 22, 2018 12:17 PM in response to carter1511

carter1511 wrote:

This is very odd since I had not changed anything since the last time I tried it except for starting a time machine backup.

Welcome to the wonder that is called High Sierra. See About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support for details on the mystery of a local snapshot.

Post the output of

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

from macOS Terminal.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 22, 2018 12:17 PM in response to carter1511

For the time being, run

sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-04-21-191430

and repeat for any that may appeared since you last ran the command. Now you can try BC Assistant again.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 26, 2018 2:30 PM in response to Marnus26

Can you post the output of

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

May 22, 2018 4:53 AM in response to mikechehab

mikechehab wrote:

Thank you so much! IT WORKS.

Excellent.

mikechehab wrote:

It got my head in for a few hours till I gave up on it and looked up the solution and that's when I found yours.

The solution has been posted on quite a few fora. The problem is related to BC Assistant not being able to handle the local snapshots correctly.

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Answer 5

carter1511 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 22, 2018 6:05 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you so much for helping me with this issue.

I ran the Terminal command and the output was:

com.apple.TimeMachine.2018-04-21-191430

I also opened the Time Machine application and saw what you and the About Time Machine local snapshots - Apple Support article described and there was a Local Snapshot from yesterday.

Is there a way to remove these local snapshots?

I had never used a backup system on my Mac before but I just enabled it in settings in the Time Machine section. I did what I thought was turning all of this off but local snapshots may still be enabled. Here is a screenshot of my settings page.

Do you think it just took one local snapshot and they are going to be disabled now?

Thanks very much.

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Answer 6

lenakira

Level 1

8 points

Apr 23, 2018 10:21 AM in response to carter1511

Hi there Loner T, I found this thread which is the similar problem I'm facing after merging Windows partition back into one.

I tried this command "sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /", and I had removed the local snapshot but I am still facing this issue as screenshot below.

When I startup BCA this is the message that I'm facing:

Is there any step that I went wrong? Thanks in advance 🙂

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Answer 7

Marnus26

Level 1

8 points

May 26, 2018 10:12 AM in response to Loner T

Hi

I have this same problem and I have run the script and still the problem is still there. I still says that i need 39Gigs of free space and I have cleared time machine and everything I can think of and now with 300gigs avaliable I still have this message tab opening up that says that i need more space. What should I do?

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