Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

For some reasons I could not install Boot Camp on my imac. I tried to defrag, reinstalled OSX, repair hard drive but nothing seems to be working. I kept getting error "The disk cannot be partitioned beacuse some files cannot be moved".

I have VMware Fusion but it seems to be very slow to what I want to do on my computer. So my only option is Boot Camp (unless there are other software like Boot Camp out there).

Any suggestion I should do?

Thanks

share|improve this question
How did you defrag it? I had a similar problem once (with shrinking a volume, but not for Boot Camp) and iDefrag did the trick. – Gordon Davisson Jan 30 '11 at 2:26
@GordonDavisson I thought Macs don't need defragging ? – Simon Apr 11 at 11:36
@Simon: OS X uses a number of techniques to reduce fragmentation and its effects (see this old KB article), but shrinking a partition requires that all files be packed together near the beginning of the volume. – Gordon Davisson Apr 11 at 14:22
@GordonDavisson Thx for the info – Simon Apr 11 at 15:48

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Personally, I got around this issue by doing a complete reformat and reinstall of everything. I installed OS X first from disc, then created the Boot Camp partition, then installed Windows.

It definitely isn't the prettiest solution, but a solution nonetheless. I would advise at least waiting to see if anyone has an idea for how to move those "unmovable" files before diving head first into this.

share|improve this answer
I have 300 GB hard drive and have over 113 GB left – Jon Jan 29 '11 at 20:42
How large a Boot Camp partition are you trying to make? Disk usage isn't linear: 1/3 free space doesn't necessarily mean its contiguous, which is why the installer must move files. – Ryan Wersal Jan 29 '11 at 21:15
Finally hit me that you already tried reinstalling OSX. In that case, I would recommend trying to completely free up your hard drive by following Griffo's suggestion. – Ryan Wersal Jan 29 '11 at 21:17
up vote 1 down vote

Sounds like boot camp might be running into a space issue. Boot Camp might have trouble moving your VMWare files. Can you move them elsewhere (off your iMac) and retry? The issue may not be due to overall disk capacity but rather that Boot Camp is trying to use a portion of the disk which is occupied by something it doesn't want to move. As far as I know, the partition you allocate needs to be placed in contiguous space. Even running a defragmenting program doesn't guarantee you won't have fragmentation. You could try reducing the size of the partition you're allocating to Windows incrementally until you get success to see if that's the issue.

EDIT

@Jon Are you running an Intel-based or PowerPC-based Mac? Boot camp won't work on PPC-based macs and just by the sounds of an error you were getting on your other question I'm thinking maybe you have a PPC Mac.

share|improve this answer
I'm going to delete my windows virtual image since I don't use it anymore. we'll see if it will work :) – Jon Jan 29 '11 at 21:49

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.