Partitioning issues... D.U. and Boot Camp

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I have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate that I want to dual boot on my unibody MBP. When I try to use boot camp to create a partition, it says "Files cannot be moved. Back up Disk utility to format it as a single mac os extended volume. Restore your information and try boot camp assistant again."

I try to use Disk Utility to create a partition then. Main Harddrive reads 34 gigs free, so I create a 25 gig partition. it works for a few minutes then says "Partition failed.error, no space left on device."

But.. i have 35 gigs free. I tried erasing free space as well as clearing PRAM on startup.

I made more space and have somewhere around 50 gigs free now. I went through and am trying the same thing, only making a 34 gig partition from the 50 or so... now its just sitting in disk util saying "modifying partition map." Been saying that for 15 minutes or so now...
help!

Specs
2.26 core 2 duo
4 gigs 1067 DDR3
os x 10.5.8

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chscag

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The problem you're experiencing is there is not enough contiguous space to create the partition. Besides, your drive is running out of space. Even if the partition was somehow created and you were able to install Win 7 Ultimate, it would crawl. (Win 7 Ultimate 32X needs around 25 GB to install and the 64X version around 35 GB.)

Buy a larger hard drive, clone the contents from your old drive to the new one, use Boot Camp and install Win 7. You'll get much better performance. Also, while you're at it, why not upgrade to Snow Leopard? That would also give you Boot Camp 3.0 and the ability to upgrade to Boot Camp 3.1 which is what you really should have to run Win 7.

Regards.
 
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alright, should I buy an external HD? I would prefer to get a larger internal, but how could I copy everything over to it?

Also, if possible, I would really prefer not to use Snow, as I've heard some compatibility issues with programs I run, plus I don't want to pay anything...
 

chscag

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A larger internal drive is what you need not an external one. You can't run Windows 7 from an external hard drive. As far as copying the data, you can use either "SuperDuper" or "Carbon Copy Cloner".

You say you don't want to spend any money? Lots of luck then. As I told you in my other post, you really should have Boot Camp 3.0 and 3.1 to run Windows 7 because of drivers. That means Snow Leopard.

Regards.
 
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I agree re the need for the updated drivers that you can only get from SL. However, you can try defragmenting your hard drive using iDefrag (it's not free but it is useful), and then try the install again. Honestly, for $29.00 to upgrade to Snow Leopard and get the latest Windows drivers, there are some things that are really worth paying for ... and that's one of them.
Cheers
 
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Here is how you fix the partition problem

I was having the exact same problem with my macbook. I looked around for possible solutions and this is the solution that works:

The reason your computer won't let you create a partition is because of unusually large files that are fragmented, and thus they can't be moved to create a partition. The way to fix this is to buy a program to defragment these files (e.g. iDefrag). Buy this program and create a bootable disk with iDefrag on it using the cdmaker tool that comes along with your purchase. Boot you computer using this as your boot disk. Use iDefrag set at the "full defragmentation" setting to defrag your hard drive. This takes several hours so be sure to make it an overnight project. I did this then restarted my computer and the partition in boot camp assistant worked perfectly.

Hope this works out for you.

Cheers.
 

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