Windows – Bootcamp Not enough space but nothing helps!

bootcampdisk-spacewindows

So, I have kind of the same problem as some other people on here, but then different. I also want to install windows on my Mac. I also get the problem where it says I do not have the required 40 GB of free space. But any solution I can try on the internet doesn't work. "The sudo tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 999999999999" doesn't work, nothing works, and it frustrates me to the max. Apple support does not really help either because they just keep telling me to clear out mor space. I am currently at almost 50 GB of free space, but now they want me to go get 55 while I read that even people with 100GB free have this problem. Any suggestions?

Also: Mac info:
MacOS High Sierra version 10.13.6
Macbook Air 13 inch 2017
1,8 GHz Intel Core i5

Edit: just after I posted all of this the report thing went from saying you need 40 GB of free space to you need to have 39 GB of free space

Edit 2:

Diskutil list output:
diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         121.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE   IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +121.1 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            77.9 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 22.0 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.1 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

Edit 3:
Also, I just open my console while trying it. It gave the same message, BUT, I saw something pop up in my console at the moment I pressed the button. I don't know if if helps, but here is that out put:

16:54:56.751775 -0400   kernel  containerGetMinimalSize:2027: Called on Physical Store, tier-0

16:54:56.751799 -0400   kernel  spaceman_get_max_allowed_shrink:5928: max_available_space 9881477 currently_allocated 19689516 currently_allocated_in_fixed_fs 0

16:54:56.751806 -0400   kernel  spaceman_get_max_allowed_shrink:5930: sm_free_count: [MAIN]=9881546, [TIER2]=0    sm_reserved_space: [MAIN]=159, [TIER2]=0

16:54:56.751811 -0400   kernel  spaceman_get_max_allowed_shrink:5932: sm_fs_reserve_block_count 0, sm_fs_reserve_alloc_count 0

16:54:56.751817 -0400   kernel  spaceman_get_max_allowed_shrink:5942: Used space move overhead is 615297, setting max_allowed_shrink to 9266180

16:54:56.751822 -0400   kernel  spaceman_get_max_allowed_shrink:5958: Minimal free space threshold_blocks is 2000, updating max_allowed_shrink to 9264180

Edit 4:
Output of the diskutil apfs resize container disk0s2 limits:

Resize limits for APFS Physical Store partition disk0s2:
  Current Physical Store partition size on map:   121.1 GB (121123069952 Bytes)

Minimum (constrained by files/snapshots):       84.9 GB (84860887040 Bytes)

Recommended minimum (if used with macOS):       95.6 GB (95598305280 Bytes)

Maximum (constrained by partition map space):   121.1 GB (121123069952 Bytes)

….

Best Answer

This answer is in respond to you post comment which I have repeated below.

In that case I will go and look for other ways to install windows, I have seen some stuff about installing it without bootcamp.

The basic steps needed for your 2017 Mac have been post as the accepted answer to this question: How to install Windows 10 into a 2013 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, USB flash drive or third party tools?

If you edit your question and include the output from diskutil list, I could post the steps for your particular situation.

The numbers do not look good. If you shrink your macOS partition to the minimum recommended size of 95.6 GB, then you can create 25.5 GB of free space for Windows 10. (In other words: 121.1 GB - 95.6 GB = 25.5 GB) This Microsoft website states you will need 20 GB to install Windows 10, but the Boot Camp Assistant creates a temporary partition to hold the Windows installation files. This additional space is larger than the difference between 25.5 GB and 20 GB. The Boot Camp Assistant will not install Windows because there really is not enough free space.

One possible solution would be to use a 16 GB or larger flash drive to hold the Windows installation files. Once the files are transferred to the flash drive, you could delete them from the macOS volume and thus create more free space.

One possible procedure to install Windows 10.

Use the the Boot Camp Assistant to download the latest Windows Support Software for your Mac. Look for the "Action" pulldown on the Boot Camp Assistant menu bar. On my Mac, these files were downloaded to the ~/WindowsSupport directory.
Create a FAT32 formatted volume labeled "BOOTCAMP" on the 3rd partition of the primary disk. Basically, enter the command below in a Terminal application window.
```
diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 96G FAT32 BOOTCAMP 0
```
Use the Disk Utility application to erase a 16 GB or larger flash drive. Choose the parameters shown in the image below.
Mount the Windows iso file and copy the contents to the "WINSTALL" volume. In my case, the label "ESD-ISO" was used to identify the Windows iso. To perform the copy operation, you will need the enter the cp command from a Terminal application window. Below are the commands I usually enter. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.
```
cd  /Volumes/WINSTALL
cp  -Rv  /Volumes/ESD-ISO/  $PWD
```
Note: This command will take a while to complete. Be patient!
Copy the Windows Support Software to the "BOOTCAMP" volume. Below is the command I usually enter. If necessary, make the appropriate modifications.
```
cp  -Rv  ~/Downloads/BootCamp5/  $PWD
```
Next, you need to boot from the flash drive. Hold down the option key immediately after restarting your Mac. Release the option key when the Startup Manager window appears. Select the icon labeled "EFI boot". Next, select the arrow below the "EFI boot" label.
Install Windows. When asked: "Where do you want to install Windows?", proceed as follows. First select the "BOOTCAMP" partition. Next, click on the "Format" button. Finally, click on the "Next" button.
If the Mac boots back to macOS, goto the Startup Disk pane of the System Preferences application, unlock, select Windows and click on Restart button. Windows will continue installing.
When Windows finishing installing, make sure the Windows Support Software is installed.

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

Windows – get bootcamp to use existing free space on physical disk

More people have problems with BootCamp trying to partition manually than any other way. This is what I would do:

Boot into recovery mode.
Get into disk utility
Delete the partition you created for Windows
Expand your Mac partition all the way into the available space
Now (assuming you already have the BootCamp media created) Run the BootCamp.app and follow the prompts
Part of the process will present you with a graphical representation of your disk and allow you to set as much space as you want for both the Mac and Windows partition.

The thing you have to learn (or un-learn as the case may be) coming from Linux or Windows is that the first thing you should do is nothing. Let the App and/or Operating System do it's thing the way it wants to. Which means things like, "just plug it in," "follow the prompts in the app," or as a last resort read the (usually brief) instructions in the app or on Apple's support web site.

I've been supporting Macs and PCs for 20+ years and it is a whole different mindset. Yes you can tinker, it's just a different method. What you did is not wrong, it just adds unnecessary complications making it necessary to then work around Apple's work-around that they build into BootCamp so you would not have to do all the partitioning manually.

Best Answer

One possible procedure to install Windows 10.

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Windows – get bootcamp to use existing free space on physical disk

Related Question