Reformatting Drive

[RageBiker]

I have an intel-based mac book, 2.4ghz Intel core 2 duo, 4GB ram with a 250GB hard drive and i have snow leopard installed to be exact. I would like to partition a small piece (7GB) and Install windows onto it by using Boot Camp, However, when I try to partition using boot camp I get this error message:

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.

Now, my hard drive is already formatted in Mac OS Extended(journaled), my question is, does anyone know how to fix this so I can partition my drive successfully?

I don't mind reformatting and clearing out my drive back to nothing to fix it, however, I don't know how to do that either

 

[chscag]

The error message is telling you that there are some fragmented files which can not be moved. In other words, there is not enough contiguous space in which to create a Boot Camp partition. (Which by the way, 7 Gb is too small in most instances.)

To correct the error the easiest way is this:

First use Time Machine to make a backup to an external drive. Reboot your machine with your Snow Leopard DVD, (hold down C key after the POST chime sounds) escape from the install process. Select Utilities, Disk Utilities from the top menu. Erase the entire hard drive, reformat as HFS+ extended Journaled and as one partition.

Reboot the machine again with the Snow Leopard DVD. Install Snow Leopard, use your Time Machine backup when asked if you wish to restore from backup.

Reboot again. You should be back in Snow Leopard with everything as you had before. Now use the Boot Camp assistant again. This time it will work.

However, consider making the BC partition larger as 7 GB is too small for most Windows usage. I recommend making the partition at least 15 GB.

Regards.

 

[RageBiker]

Thank you, what do i do if I don't have an external drive?
I don't have anything important i can't just reinstall so would you recommend just erasing and starting over?

 

[chscag]

Yes, you can certainly do it that way if you wish. However, not having a backup strategy is not good computing. You may need a backup someday. Consider purchasing an inexpensive external USB 2 or FW400 drive for the future.

If you have nothing on the drive you wish to save, just follow my instructions above about erasing the drive and reinstalling Snow Leopard but leave out the parts about using Time Machine.

Regards.

 

[RageBiker]

Thanks a bunch! I do have an external drive, however it already has about 100GB of stuff on it and i'd have to erase it to reformat it and use it for the back up of the mac OS so I don't want to use it. I'll just do it without the backup, thanks a lot for all your help!