[Goldfinger]

I got ready to install bootcamp yesterday but at the partitioning part it just stopped and informed me that it couldn't partition the drive because it couldn't move some files. And it suggested me to do a complete system reinstall. What's up with that ? Anybody got a fix for that or know what the source of the problem could be?

[TheMosco]

Its because your drive is fragmented and it can't allocate the amount of free space that you are asking for. You can either do a re-install, or you can use something like idfrag to defragment your drive. You could also try lowering the size of your partition after erasing some large files but thats probably not going to work.

[Goldfinger]

I'll try that then. My Windows partition would be 20GB and I've got 150GB of free space left on my HD. Ah well.

[pheonixash]

Repairing the volume with Disk Utility from the Mac OS X disc worked for me.

[cgc]

I have the same problem but after repairing permissions and repairing the structure I can't even create a 5GB Windows partition on my MacPro with 92GB free space.

[rehoot]

I also had mysterious problems with bootcamp. If all else fails, you can try this method, which involves reinstalling OS X--it worked for me after the bootcamp process failed about a dozen times.

Follow this link and look for the long list of instructions posted by me (rehoot):
http://forums.macnn.com/104/alternat...d/#post3480011

[cgc]

Tried iPartition and still cannot create Bootcamp partition. I'll wait until Leopard's release and reformat. It would be nice if Bootcamp told me what files couldn't be moved so I could fix the problem...

[silver]

You dont have to reformat your drive to get bootcamp working. If you want you can just backup to another disc then reclone back to the original drive. Takes time but if you really want XP or Vista then this is a nice workaround, not to mention that your drive gets a nice free defrag in the process.

iPartition and iDefrag don"t even do an adequate job of partitioning. Google shows many have encountered issues of varying degrees.


silver

[ghporter]

Boot Camp WILL NOT work for you if you already have your disk set up with more than one partition. It's not designed to do that, and will flatly refuse to even try. You don't want to partition your drive before running Boot Camp, you want to consolidate its contents so that they can be moved appropriately by BC's partition routine.

A full backup and restore should consolidate all the drive's contents. It's safe, it's reliable, and it's easy to do.

[cgc]

I didn't mean to say "iPartition." I meant to say I used "iDefrag" and that didn't cure my problem. I know I have to have an unpartitioned HDD to install Bootcamp onto.

[ghporter]

Big slip up there-you had me confused.

[sieb]

Just run disk repair off the OSX install disk (from within disk utility on the disc), or you can boot into single-user-mode and run fsck. LyraTechnicalSystems.com � Blog Archive � MacBook Boot Camp Rhapsody iRiver Oddities

[cgc]

Originally Posted by sieb 

Just run disk repair off the OSX install disk (from within disk utility on the disc), or you can boot into single-user-mode and run fsck. LyraTechnicalSystems.com � Blog Archive � MacBook Boot Camp Rhapsody iRiver Oddities

Tried that...no go. Thanks.

[Krank]

Originally Posted by silver 

You dont have to reformat your drive to get bootcamp working. If you want you can just backup to another disc then reclone back to the original drive. Takes time but if you really want XP or Vista then this is a nice workaround, not to mention that your drive gets a nice free defrag in the process.

iPartition and iDefrag don"t even do an adequate job of partitioning. Google shows many have encountered issues of varying degrees.


silver

Please pardon Me for reviving this thread. I came upon it through Google, as I have the exact same problem right now on my MacBook.

Can you please tell me how to clone my system? I have an external HDD with plenty space, but it's formatted in FAT32.

[rehoot]

The best way to clone a drive is to boot from your original OS X install disks, and from the first or second screen, look in the menus and find a command that will be something like "Open Disk Utility" or "Run Disk Utility" (different versions of OS X are a bit different). Then click on the hard drive icon inside Disk Utility (such as "Macintosh HD") and then try clicking on the icon at the top for "New Image." You could also try looking in the menus for New/Disk Image. It should prompt you for a name of the image, then point to the external hard drive.

Do whatever you are going to do (repartition?), then boot from the install disks again, go to disk utility, click on the hard drive icon, then try clicking the "Restore" tab that is below the men icon bar near the center of the screen. You can search this forum if you get stuck.

[Krank]

Originally Posted by rehoot 

The best way to clone a drive is to boot from your original OS X install disks, and from the first or second screen, look in the menus and find a command that will be something like "Open Disk Utility" or "Run Disk Utility" (different versions of OS X are a bit different). Then click on the hard drive icon inside Disk Utility (such as "Macintosh HD") and then try clicking on the icon at the top for "New Image." You could also try looking in the menus for New/Disk Image. It should prompt you for a name of the image, then point to the external hard drive.

Do whatever you are going to do (repartition?), then boot from the install disks again, go to disk utility, click on the hard drive icon, then try clicking the "Restore" tab that is below the men icon bar near the center of the screen. You can search this forum if you get stuck.

I'm not quite sure about this, would be happy if you'd elaborate on some points.

1) After I've created the image, how do I repartition?
2) When you say 'try', does it mean it might fail?

A third question is: can I create a disk image on a drive that's FAT32 formatted? If so, will it work the other way as well?

Thanks a lot.

[Krank]

bump

[Krank]

Anyone?

[ghporter]

What you do depends on what you want as the final result. In general, if you want your Mac to run Windows as well as OS X, it works best (and easiest) to start with a single OS X partition, and use Boot Camp to create a partition for Windows, then install Windows in that partition.

The above discussion assumes that you're having problems because of fragmentation or other problems with your OS X partition. When you clone it, the cloning tools are expected to create a more compact, unfragmented image of your installation. Now you simply use Disk Utility (from your OS X install disc!!!) to reformat the drive as a single partition, and then use DU to restore your cloned image. That's a lot of words, but it comes down to "copy the working but fragmented OS X installation, wipe out the drive, then restore the copy." Once that's done, you can use Boot Camp and get Windows working.

A "disk image" is a file-albeit a LARGE one, so you should be able to store it anywhere you want (that has enough space). Effectively, if OS X would see it and mount it, you could save your image file on a wood burning stove!

[Krank]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

What you do depends on what you want as the final result. In general, if you want your Mac to run Windows as well as OS X, it works best (and easiest) to start with a single OS X partition, and use Boot Camp to create a partition for Windows, then install Windows in that partition.

The above discussion assumes that you're having problems because of fragmentation or other problems with your OS X partition. When you clone it, the cloning tools are expected to create a more compact, unfragmented image of your installation. Now you simply use Disk Utility (from your OS X install disc!!!) to reformat the drive as a single partition, and then use DU to restore your cloned image. That's a lot of words, but it comes down to "copy the working but fragmented OS X installation, wipe out the drive, then restore the copy." Once that's done, you can use Boot Camp and get Windows working.

A "disk image" is a file-albeit a LARGE one, so you should be able to store it anywhere you want (that has enough space). Effectively, if OS X would see it and mount it, you could save your image file on a wood burning stove!

Thanks for your reply.

Turns out it wasn't possible to save a .dmg of the system on the external FAT32 formatted drive. I re-formatted the drive in Apple Journaled, then it worked.

But I'm now facing the prospect of cloning back to the internal drive. First time around I got an error message, could this be because I did not check 'erase recipient drive' (not sure of exact wording) in the disk utility menu?

[cgc]

I used SuperDuper to clone my internal drive to an external drive, then cloned it back and used BootCamp to repartition. Also WinClone worlks great to backup windows BootCamp partitions.

[Krank]

Originally Posted by cgc 

I used SuperDuper to clone my internal drive to an external drive, then cloned it back and used BootCamp to repartition. Also WinClone worlks great to backup windows BootCamp partitions.

I don't know if you responded to the original post or mine. My situation is that I've created a disk image of my system with Disk Utility, but it won't clone it back. Is it a matter of checking 'erase disk'?

[@pplejaxkz]

I just recently tried to repartition my HD as I could install Linux on there, and I came up with the exact same error. The last time this occured I did a reinstall of Leopard and everything worked fine after that. I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for but it's the only way I was able to resolve this issue.

As for now I put too much effort into my Leopard Setup so installing Linux may have to wait a little while. And I don't like virtual environments. Whatever you do, when messing with partitions, back your stuff up. I know you've been told this before though. Good luck!

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Krank 

I don't know if you responded to the original post or mine. My situation is that I've created a disk image of my system with Disk Utility, but it won't clone it back. Is it a matter of checking 'erase disk'?

When I clone I have it erase the destination prior to writing the files onto it. Probably unnecessary. So workflow goes like this:

1. Use WinClone to clone Bootcamp to a file on Mac hard drive partition
2. Use SuperDuper (or CCC) to clone Mac harddrive to external, erasing destination
3. Boot into the external (cloned) drive
4. Make sure external drive is a complete clone (e.g. check for important files...never had any problems)
5. Erase the internal drive
6. Use bootcamp to create a new (larger) windows partition on the internal drive
7. Clone external drive to internal drive
8. Winclone restore to the new Bootcamp partition

I forgot if I needed to use bootcamp to create the new larger partition on the internal drive because I haven't had to enlarge my drive for a long time.

Hope this helps...let me know if you have any questions.

[Krank]

Originally Posted by cgc 

When I clone I have it erase the destination prior to writing the files onto it. Probably unnecessary. So workflow goes like this:

1. Use WinClone to clone Bootcamp to a file on Mac hard drive partition
2. Use SuperDuper (or CCC) to clone Mac harddrive to external, erasing destination
3. Boot into the external (cloned) drive
4. Make sure external drive is a complete clone (e.g. check for important files...never had any problems)
5. Erase the internal drive
6. Use bootcamp to create a new (larger) windows partition on the internal drive
7. Clone external drive to internal drive
8. Winclone restore to the new Bootcamp partition

I forgot if I needed to use bootcamp to create the new larger partition on the internal drive because I haven't had to enlarge my drive for a long time.

Hope this helps...let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks a lot for your help. I'm still not sure: how do I boot into the external clone? It's on a FW HDD. Many people recommend CCC for cloning - but is there any reason to prefer it over Disk Utility (which works when booted from the OSX install disk)?

[seanc]

You boot into the external clone of OS X by holding down the option key on startup. This will give you a list of bootable volumes. The new cloned volume should be in here and you can double click it to boot from it.

[Krank]

Originally Posted by seanc 

You boot into the external clone of OS X by holding down the option key on startup. This will give you a list of bootable volumes. The new cloned volume should be in here and you can double click it to boot from it.

This is where I'm stuck, as the .dmg I've created on the external FW HDD doesn't appear as boot volume. I've started a separate thread in the main forum (as I don't want to keep bumping this old thread started by someone who probably have his problems solved by now).

http://forums.macnn.com/90/mac-os-x/...y/#post3723299

You help is much appreciated!

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Krank 

This is where I'm stuck, as the .dmg I've created on the external FW HDD doesn't appear as boot volume. ...

Originally Posted by Krank 

... Many people recommend CCC for cloning - but is there any reason to prefer it over Disk Utility (which works when booted from the OSX install disk)?

With CCC or SuperDuper there are no worries of the clone not booting. Try CCC since it's free and see if it solves your problems...

[Krank]

Originally Posted by cgc 

With CCC or SuperDuper there are no worries of the clone not booting. Try CCC since it's free and see if it solves your problems...

But doesn't CCC just make a sector-for-sector clone, thus not defragmenting as is the whole point?

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Krank 

But doesn't CCC just make a sector-for-sector clone, thus not defragmenting as is the whole point?

I use CCC to backup my internal drive to my external, then I remove the bootcamp partition on the internal drive, and then use CCC to restore from the external drive. When use Bootcamp to create a larger partition I have no problems (like I did before I CCC'd twice). Seems to me it defrags or does something defrag-like.

P.S. I've tried iDefrag and it did not allow me to enlarge my Bootcamp partition so I don't quite get the "I need to defrag" bit, though I have no idea why this works I'm grateful it does. YMMV.

[Krank]

Thanks a lot.

[b spot]

I was having the same problem and was able to fix it by clearing out my font cache. I used MainMenu to do this (free) and I was up and running without risking the $30 for iDefrag which might not have solved my problem anyways.

http://www.santasw.com/