Bootcamp doesnt want me to install windows

[Bengaboy]

Hi guys, i have been getting this message :

“The Startup Disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

The startup disk must be formatted as a single MAC OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows”

So I did I bit of googling (im not a total retard ) and looked at this guide...

http://www.zimbio.com/Mac+OS+X/articles/163/How+ensure+Mac+Book+Pro+hard+drive+upgrade

So I format the drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then tried to install windows and it was still coming up with the same error message...

Im sure im just doing something mega wrong , but was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction.

And btw, Im installing windows 7 ultimate - and I have just erased a windows 7 beta partition if that makes any difference.

Thanks

 

[iraiguana]

Erm have you run boot camp assistant and at what stage do you get the error message when splitting your current partition and installing a new fat/NTFS one ?

It should be able to (assuming you have the space) take your current partition and split into two or more and then you are ready to follow how it shows you to install?

 

[Bengaboy]

Erm have you run boot camp assistant and at what stage do you get the error message when splitting your current partition and installing a new fat/NTFS one ?

It should be able to (assuming you have the space) take your current partition and split into two or more and then you are ready to follow how it shows you to install?

It comes up with the error message just after it asks me how much space do I want to use for the windows partition.

Anyone fancy giving me a step by step guide to do that they know that works? Would be mega appreciated

 

[Fillado]

So I format the drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then tried to install windows and it was still coming up with the same error message...

Im sure im just doing something mega wrong , but was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction.

And btw, Im installing windows 7 ultimate - and I have just erased a windows 7 beta partition if that makes any difference.

Thanks

Need a clarification on those bits to help you

Do you mean you have one physical disk that you had partitioned into Mac OS X & Windows 7 Beta? Then you got rid of Windows 7 Beta and formatted over the space that was formally Windows 7 Beta with a "Mac OS Extended (Journeled)" partition?

 

[Cybertronic]

And btw, Im installing windows 7 ultimate - and I have just erased a windows 7 beta partition if that makes any difference.

The problem is right there

I've experienced this before, it seems that the Boot Camp Assistant will only allow you to create a partition and delete it once only. If you try creating another partition, you get your problem

To fix this, I used SuperDuper! to clone my Mac's HD image onto an external HD and copied it back. For some reason this fixed the above problem.

However, I didn't try Disk Utility at the time I had the problem

You should try it to see whether bypasses Boot Camp Assistant's error message?

 

[Bengaboy]

Need a clarification on those bits to help you

Do you mean you have one physical disk that you had partitioned into Mac OS X & Windows 7 Beta? Then you got rid of Windows 7 Beta and formatted over the space that was formally Windows 7 Beta with a "Mac OS Extended (Journeled)" partition?

Right so obviously when I first had the beta, I used boot camp to create a 32gb partition to install it on.

I then removed the beta partition using bootcamp.

I then went into disk utility, went on erase, and then clicked erase free space.

Have not a clue if that did anything beneficial , but I dunno... lol

I thought the whole mac thing was supposed to be easy to use and stuff - Ive had my aluminium macbook for over a year now, and even though I love it , I have come close to selling it a few times because of the frustrations of OSX , and the BS claim of "it just works".

Wont even play .wmv files without flip for mac!!

 

[Bengaboy]

This is copied from here... http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup.pdf

If you can’t partition your disk

In order to partition your disk and install Windows using Boot Camp Assistant, the disk must be a single partition, formatted as a Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) volume. If you have already partitioned your disk using Disk Utility or some other utility, you cannot use Boot Camp Assistant until you restore your disk to a single-partition
Mac OS X volume.

Soooooo - how do I do this?

 

[Feek]

SuperDuper! it all off onto an external drive, boot from that drive, reformat the drive in your laptop to just one partition and SuperDuper! it all back again.

The problem was because you used disk utility to erase the space rather than use the bootcamp assistant to consolidate it back to a single partition, if you'd done that then it would have been OK.

 

[Fillado]

I thought the whole mac thing was supposed to be easy to use and stuff...

It is (in this case) - you were meant to go into the Boot Camp Assistant to remove the Windows partition. And then use it to recreate it again

Wont even play .wmv files without flip for mac!!

That's like saying Windows won't play .mov files without Quicktime. Shocker there

As for getting Windows onto your Mac you have two options:

Back Up Any Important Data!

1. Assuming you are using Snow Leopard (can't remember if this feature is there in Leopard/Tiger)... Go into Disk Utility > Click on your Hard Disk (not the partitions, the hard disk that is shown as *Size* *Make* *Model*) > Partition Tab > Click on the not-OS X partition > Click the little "-" button below > Hit Apply. This should mean you have one continous Mac OS X partition again. Boot Camp should now work!

2. Ignore Boot Camp. Boot Camp is Apple's name for easy-partitioning-of-a-Mac-for-people-who-don't-care-but-wish-to-run-Windows. Just format over that free space/partition as FAT32 (so you know what you're after in the Windows installer), boot from your Windows DVD and install from there. You might have to hold ALT everytime it reboots so you can make it go into the Windows partition.

I can't say for certain No. 2 will work but it *should* work.

 

[Bengaboy]

SuperDuper! it all off onto an external drive, boot from that drive, reformat the drive in your laptop to just one partition and SuperDuper! it all back again.

The problem was because you used disk utility to erase the space rather than use the bootcamp assistant to consolidate it back to a single partition, if you'd done that then it would have been OK.

Ok, so how do I reformat the whole drive to a single partition?

And I did actually do it all in bootcamp , but it ballsed up obviously, dont know how

 

[Feek]

Open Disk Utility.

In the panel on the left, select your hard drive.

Click Partition on the right.

Below that, under Volume Scheme: use the drop down to select 1 Partition.

At the bottom, click on Options and make sure that GUID Partition Table is selected. Click OK.

Ensure that the Format: box on the right is set to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Click Apply.

I think that's about all you should need.

 

[Bengaboy]

Right, nothings working and its doing my breasts in

So Im using superduper to save a disk image (there was another option, but it wanted to delete everything of my hard drive to do it - NOOOOOO WAY!!) and then , when its finished, im going to restore it from that disk image , and it will work?

Unless Im missing something, and many thanks for everyones help by the way - much appreciated

 

[Feek]

Plug in your external drive (I'm assuming you're making a backup on an external drive). Run SuperDuper!, make sure the 'copy' and 'to' fields are the correct drives, ie 'copy' is your source and 'to' is the destination then the third box 'using' should be "Backup - all files", click on Copy Now.

That will make a full bootable copy of your main drive onto your external one.

Test it. Shut down the Mac, turn it back on while holding down the option (alt) key and you will get a list of bootable drives. One of those will be the one you've just copied to. It will take longer to boot from an external drive than the internal one.

If you find your external drive isn't bootable then it's possible it's not formatted correctly. Yup, the old formatting chestnut again! Reformat it as I described above, making special care that you click the Options button and use GUID because if it's not that then it won't be bootable.

Once you've got a good backup you can boot from then you can repartition and reformat the internal drive, run SuperDuper! again but this time the source drive is your external one and the destination the internal.

Good luck!

 

[Bengaboy]

Cheers Feek - the backups almost done , taking ages.

As soon as its done , ill do exactly what you say and job will hopefully be a goodun

All this so I can play a few games when I go back to base!!! Never again...

 

[Bengaboy]

Also feek, obviously having never used super duper before, how long should it take at the 3rd stage (After successful copy) ?

It has done all of the backing up, but is currently Converting back up of hard drive - Mac - and its taking quite a while... Getting a bit worried is all!

It done stages 1 and 2 in 2 hours and has been on that stage for an hour now. I am transferring 80gb worth of data. Cheers!

 

[Bengaboy]

The backup failed at 4 hrs, because I didnt have enough space on my hard drive (due to a time machine back up done today that I stupidly forgot about :/ lol)

Ive given up , Im going to make sure all of my videos and music are backed up , and then reinstall osx so I can have a fresh macbook. I can monitor what Im actually installing then!!

Many thanks for your help guys, much appreciated!

 

[iraiguana]

You can delete time machine backups you know ?
shift+apple+backspace (I think its that :s) will bring up the delete without it saying its protected, and ask for your password. Then you can do the backup.