I cant install bootcamp...

Make this really simple for me if you choose to answer. Think of me as a baby learning english. I cant install boot camp because i press continue and a message comes up saying:
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.

Help me fix it pls!

Have you gone to Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant???

- Simon

Yes i have

Yes i have and thats where i opened it and got that message.

Is your disk formatted as HFS+ Journaled ?
To find out go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, click on your Hard Drive, then at the bottom it should say Format: Mac OS Extended Journaled.

- Simon

First of all, BootCamp is already part of your OSX. What it sounds like is that you can't get started to run the utility because of the error message. Boot Camp will not create a partition on a drive that is already partitioned - do you have any other partitions on your drive? If so, you'll have to restore the drive to a single partition for Boot Camp to work using Disk Utility.

It says journaled

It says journaled, how do i fix it? What does it mean?

I think you posted the error message incorrectly but what it's trying to tell you is that your drive is fragmented and there is not enough contiguous space to create a partition for Windows.

You have two choices: One is to try to defragment the drive so that enough contiguous space is available: iDefrag $29.95

The other choice is to erase the hard drive, reinstall and use Time Machine to restore. No data lost that way. Afterward, you should be able to run Boot Camp successfully.

theres gotta be another way...

theres gotta be another way...
I dont want to erase my hard drive because i am heavily accident prone and i don't wanna spend 30$ for a program that does something i don't know.

HappyWhaleshark said:

theres gotta be another way...
I dont want to erase my hard drive because i am heavily accident prone and i don't wanna spend 30$ for a program that does something i don't know.

Click to expand...

Then you're between a rock and a hard place I'm afraid.

As chscag says your drive is too fragmented. If you don't know what that means and therefore what defragmenting does try this: (apologies in advance if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs.....)

Imagine the hard disk is bedroom. It's got a bed, desk, clothes all over the floor, boxes of junk cluttering the place up. You want to put a second bed in the room(bootcamps partition). Before you can put that bed in there you need to tidy the room to make some space (defragmenting). Once everything is tidy and in it's place you'll have room to put the bed - again apologies for the simplist analogy.

That, simplistically is what defragmenting does. It shifts all the bits of data that are strewn across your disk into local order at the start of the disk, leaving a data free contiguous chunk at the end. This space needs to be clear for the Bootcamp assistant to do it's job.

Only you now how much you need Windows in bootcamp.... and whether it's worth $29

This is to risky

Alright i defraged it and it still doesn't work. What does journaled mean anyway? I dont think defragmenation has anything to do with he OP and how my mac came up with the message: The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.

Here are my mac thingys in disk utilities:
Mount Point : / Capacity : 64.29 GB (64,290,291,712 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 16.03 GB (16,030,003,200 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 48.26 GB (48,260,288,512 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 247,361 Number of Files : 857,364
I also have another disk next to it called "Home Folder and i have no idea why its there.
Here are its Thingys:
Mount Point : /Volumes/HomeFolder Capacity : 95.27 GB (95,273,402,368 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 14.73 GB (14,730,039,296 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No Used : 80.54 GB (80,543,363,072 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 23,786 Number of Files : 98,660

Here are my mac thingys in disk utilities:
Mount Point : / Capacity : 64.29 GB (64,290,291,712 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 16.03 GB (16,030,003,200 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 48.26 GB (48,260,288,512 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 247,361 Number of Files : 857,364
I also have another disk next to it called "Home Folder and i have no idea why its there.
Here are its Thingys:
Mount Point : /Volumes/HomeFolder Capacity : 95.27 GB (95,273,402,368 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 14.73 GB (14,730,039,296 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No Used : 80.54 GB (80,543,363,072 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 23,786 Number of Files : 98,660

How did you defrag the drive? You needed to boot from the disk you made with iDefrag and let it run overnight if possible. In other words, you needed to do a 100% defrag with the hard drive dismounted.

i pressed the repair button but does defragging have anything to do with my disk being journalled?

Journaled is just the nomenclature Apple uses. Sounds like you did not use iDefrag after all - unfortunately, what Chscag told you is correct - unless you already have another partition on your drive (which you can check quickly by looking in the Finder), you MUST either defragment your drive or erase it and start over. If you run your disk utility or normal disk repair utilities and repair your disk and permissions, that's not the same thing. There are very few disk defragmenting utilities out there and iDefrag is the best one. You are getting the correct advice here from the forum members.

The defragmentation process will take several hours and as noted above, it is best to do it overnight. In my opinion, well worth the $30.

Good luck!

HappyWhaleshark said:

i pressed the repair button but does defragging have anything to do with my disk being journalled?

Click to expand...

That's not the same as defragmenting your drive. You need to use a program specifically designed to remove fragmentation.

I just used my copy of iDefrag 2 to defrag\compact my drive. It took less than 30 minutes for iDefrag to do the job. That was with iDefrag having exclusive access.

If you don't want to spend the money for iDefrag, then follow my other suggestion that I gave you. Reinstall.

Can you open up a terminal window. Type "df -hl" (without the quotes) press Enter and copy and paste the results back here please.

Bootcamp help

Ok there a two ways to fix this problem one way will take 1-2 hours another will take 3 hours plus $30 cash.

The first way is to wipe your macs information and re-install everything
Step
1. back up all your computers information I suggest for this you should read this article Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6: How to back up and restore your files (If you have nothing important on your mac and yo are willing to delete all the information that you have put on after you bought your mac you can skip this step)
2. Insert you mac os backup disc (After buying your mac you should have received two disc's one, which says disc 1 and the other disc 2. If you have a later version of the OS, which you have installed you should insert that disc.
3. Then Restart you computer and after hearing the first sound your computer makes hold down the alt/option key. It will give you a selection of wether to boot from the disc or the mac hard drive (choose the disc and press return(enter)
4. After the computer has booted from the disc look above the top for a tab which says utilities. Select this tab and click Disc utility.
5. After disc utility has opened click on macintosh HD in the side column of that screen and then click on the erase tab.
6. click on format and mac sure it is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".
then click erase, which is on the right.
7. wait till the erase has finished and then close that window and follow the prompts to reinstalling you Mac OS. (don't be worried because your information was backed up at the start!)
8. Once you login try to use bootcamp again. This is located in the applications folder ---> Utilities ----> Bootcamp assist
Make sure your partition will still allow enough space for all your previous items to be put back on your computer.
9. Install Windows (the minimum windows is windows XP don't Try to install windows ME like I did.
10. Once windows has been installed you can switch between operating systems by turning of your mac and then turning it on and holding the alt/option button as of previous. Select the mac os.
11. After logging back onto your mac go back to the applications folder then click on the Utilities folder and then click on Migration Assist.
12. Then Reinstall all your previous mac items and your DONE !


The other option is to buy iDefrag @ Coriolis Systems :: Products :: iDefrag but this may not even work and it costs $34.95 s I would personally stay away from this option!

hope this helps
by the way just went through this all my self about 5 hours ago

Firejack: That'll work..... assuming the OP has just one partition.
If the OP has used iDefrag (as he/she has stated) I suspect the issue is that the Mac HD has two partitions. Erasing and reinstalling on the first partition won't solve this.

Hopefully the OP will get another keyboard it appears to have a sticky 'U' key and will paste back the info I've suggested from terminal.

If that shows there are two or more partitions that's the problem. The bootcamp assistant expects a single partition.

That's the question I asked in my first post - that error message usually means there is more than one partition on the drive.

Cheers