Boot Camp Assistant cannot partition

The other day at work I was given the task of setting up Windows 7 on a little MacBook. As per normal, we got Windows ordered in and the customer dropped off their laptop. However I had a couple of issues when performing the BootCamp.

I kicked the process off by running the assistant, aligning the partitions how I wanted them (and the customer agreed on), and set it to partition. However I got this error:

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

Some how I had a feeling that there might have been some errors on the drive that may have faulted this. So I run the Disk Utility on the drive from the CD and sure enough the drive had several error and were repaired.

I reattempted the partition, but same error. I spent a bit of time on the net finding a solution, and I did find one.

Solution:
Boot Mac OS X in Safe Mode, run the Boot Camp Assistant and partition the drive.

This worked for me, however the assistant didn't recognise the Windows 7 DVD despite the DVD being genuine.

Solution:
After the partitioning, cancel the assistant and boot into normal mode. Continue the Boot Camp Assistant, and the setup will start to boot from the DVD.

Since it took me a while to find a solution on the net, I thought I would write up my experience to hopefully help someone else.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2012 at 10:59 PM

    i exactly the same problem but when i try to start partition on safe mode osx, it's not recognizing the windows 7 dvd, and not even the partitioning is starting so i cant do as u say, do u have a suggestion?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel BJanuary 11, 2012 at 6:53 PM

    From your comment I can suggest that make sure you do this in two parts... 1) Boot to Safe Mode and partition the disk 2)Boot to Normal Mode and continue the install. Also, like in my case it may be worth running a Disk repair on you Hard Drive using Disk Utility. Let me know how you go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 21, 2012 at 1:10 AM

    I tried to make partition in Safe mode using bootcamp but it is looking for installation disc. but during safe mode, of course, it didn't recognize the dvd/usb. how to make bootcamp partition in safe mode w/out installation disc?

    ReplyDelete

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