How to partition the computer for Boot Camp

bootcampdisk-utilitypartition

I want to create a BootCamp partition on my 13" MBP with a 250 Gb hard drive.

The DiskUtility shows the partition as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
.

When trying to perform a partitioning with BootCamp Assistant, after the progress bar gets to about 40% of partitioning, I get the alert stating:

The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again.

Here's what it looks like:
partitioning problem

Now this gets me confused – what I really should do and what's the core reason of the problem?

Best Answer

Yep, that's kinda odd. Might be because it needs to partition a contiguous chunk, for efficiency reasons, for Windows. If that's the case, and it's got some immoveable files within that contiguous chunk, I could see it having issues.

I wonder if it would be possible to run boot camp assistant from the OS X disk instead. If you can, those files could probably be shifted as you wouldn't be booted from the 1st partition anymore.

Alternately you could create a bootable partition on an external hard-drive and do the same from a fully functioning OS X installation. Finally, the last resort would be to use a 3rd party utility to add that NTFS Bootcamp partition. I don't recommend that route.

Related Solutions

MacOS – Restore Macintosh HD to its original partition configuration

There is no need to delete the CoreStorage Logical Volume Group. Just resize it:

Have a backup!
Reboot into Internet Recovery Mode (hold Option-Command-R) as the machine is restarting). You'll eventually be presented with a Max OS X Utilities window.
In the menu bar along the top of the screen, click Utilities -> Terminal.

At the prompt, enter diskutil cs list and you should get output similar to the following.

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 9B4FB14F-DA7D-46EF-BBB9-FD99166C1E2F
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         920186970112 B (920.2 GB)
    Free Space:   49152 B (49.2 KB)
|
+-< Physical Volume DE3C1DD4-3EA5-4484-AE40-C8BD60AD5F75
|   ----------------------------------------------------
|   Index:    0
|   Disk:     disk0s2
|   Status:   Online
|   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
|
+-< Physical Volume E1C56E99-3ED2-437F-AED0-A454FCC4E983
|   ----------------------------------------------------
|   Index:    1
|   Disk:     disk1s2
|   Status:   Online
|   Size:     799198117888 B (799.2 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family D824D426-8315-405A-A7CD-5B62E549FBAE
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Encryption Status:       Unlocked
    Encryption Type:         None
    Conversion Status:       NoConversion
    Conversion Direction:    -none-
    Has Encrypted Extents:   No
    Fully Secure:            No
    Passphrase Required:     No
    |
    +-> Logical Volume AC1A071B-63D0-488F-AFFF-D296E446FE6B
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk2
        Status:                Online
        Size (Total):          914000052224 B (914.0 GB)
        Conversion Progress:   -none-
        Revertible:            No
        LV Name:               Macintosh HD
        Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
        Content Hint:          Apple_HFS`

Copy the Logical Volume (LV) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVUUID should be the fourth (the fifth if you have a Fusion Drive) listed. In the above example the alphanumeric is:
AC1A071B-63D0-488F-AFFF-D296E446FE6B
Run the following command:
```
diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID partsize  
```
According to the number found above it would be:
```
diskutil cs resizeStack AC1A071B-63D0-488F-AFFF-D296E446FE6B 0g  
```
This will expand your CoreStorage volume to full 1.24 TB
Quit Terminal.app and start Disk Utility and verify the expanded volume.

MacOS – Cannot delete or merge old boot camp partition in El Capitan

Hold down the Command ⌘OptionR keys at startup to boot to OS X Internet Recovery. Once you have started your Mac in OS X Internet Recovery mode, you need to use the gpt command to remove the unneeded partitions. You can then expand your core storage partition to recovery the freed space back into your OS X partition.

To use the gpt command, you need to unmount your physical internal disk. If you are using core storage, then you have to unmount the virtual internal disk first. The commands are shown below. Note: Once booted to internet recovery, the disk numbers may change. The disk numbers used below are based the the values shown in your posted question. The partitions to be removed are 4, 5 and 6 on disk0.

To remove partition 6, enter the commands.

diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk1
diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  remove  -i  6  /dev/disk0

To delete the remaining partitions, repeat the commands.

diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk1
diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  remove  -i  5  /dev/disk0
diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk1
diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  remove  -i  4  /dev/disk0

Now, when executing the command

gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0

the removed partitions should not appear. You can restart back to El Capitan.

Use the Disk Utility application to recover the freed space. Use the steps below.

Highlight the internal disk.
Click on the icon labeled "Partition".
Highlight the free space shown in the pie chart. See example below.
Click on the "-" symbol. Your OS X partition should fill the pie chart. See example below.
Click on the "Apply" button.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – Restore Macintosh HD to its original partition configuration

MacOS – Cannot delete or merge old boot camp partition in El Capitan

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