"We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" on Windows startup

Long post:

I am currently trying to have both Windows and OS on my macbook pro.

I have a USB drive with Windows 10 iso on it. When I go to bootcamp, everything goes normally as it should. When i get to the part where I choose the bootcamp partition, it gives me the error that it needs to be NTFS Format. At that point I click format, like all the youtube videos tell me; however, this is when the error "We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one" comes up.

I've looked up the error and found things that say I need to do a PRAM restart, which I have. And then other ones that say I need to delete the second EFI partition. But the thing is that there is only one EFI partition listed and I was afraid to delete it so I didn't.

Please help me.

The picture of the error screen is below.

Thank you in advance, internet heroes.
Jake

Use Boot Camp assistant to remove the partition, then try to set it up again. You can not delete the partition with Disk Utility, you need to use Boot camp assistant.

ferrarr said:

Use Boot Camp assistant to remove the partition, then try to set it up again. You can not delete the partition with Disk Utility, you need to use Boot camp assistant.

Click to expand...

Just tried. Same result

You've got one too many partitions on that drive. Partition 1 is your EFI boot partition (must be there, do not delete or macOS will not run)

Partition 2 is likely the partition where macOS is installed. And it appears it's full as there is no room showing on it which may also be a problem.

Partition 3 is your Recovery Partition for macOS.

Partition 4 is unknown to me. It says OSXRESERVED. Reserved for what?

Partition 5 is probably the one you created for Windows.

In other words, your hard drive looks to be messed up and Boot Camp will refuse to install Windows on it.

Do you have a backup of your macOS installation? If so, you might want to erase that drive and reinstall macOS. Afterward you can attempt to install Windows 10 again.

Well this is incredibly anti-climactic but I tried the partition again WITHOUT using the USB drive and it worked... Very happy; however, sorry for wasting your time! Thanks for the help


Jake

Thanks for posting back. It appears that "extra partition" we spoke of may in fact been caused by the USB drive. Anyway, glad things worked out OK. Enjoy Windows and your daily updates. LOL.

Thanks! I had the same issue and removing the USB stick with windows iso file worked!

Welcome to our forums.

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