Boot Camp, Windows XP and Partitioning

Hi folks, spent plenty of time on google the last few hours trying to solve this problem, but to no avail.

Today I decided I wanted to install a Windows XP partition to my Macbook Pro. I did some reading up on boot camp and read the installation instructions. However I don't get very far before I run into a problem.

When I first run the Boot Camp Application, I get to the menu called "Download Windows Support Software". There are two options on this menu, one to download Windows support software for my Mac, and the second option is "I have the Mac OS X disc that came with my Mac or I have already downloaded the Windows support software etc". Now considering I don't physically have the OS X installation disc with me at present (I'm currently out of town), I select the first option to download the Windows support software.

As soon as I select the option, I get an error message that reads the following: "The startup disc cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition." It specifies that I need to restore my HD as a "single Mac OS X extended (journaled) volume". This puzzles me, because when I view my HD in the Disc Utility app, it shows that I have a single volume with no partitions and the format is shown in grayed-out text as "Mac OS Extended". According to this, I already have what boot camp wants... right?

I'm totally foreign to this whole boot camp thing and would appreciate any assistance.

-JP

The error message you received is a bit deceiving. It's telling you that your disk is fragmented and that there is not enough free contiguous space to successfully create a partition.

The way around that is to backup to Time Machine, erase the drive, reinstall OS X, and recover with Time Machine. Fragmentation gone.

Of course to do that, you need your original install disk which you stated you don't have with you. You really need that disk to proceed.

chscag said:

The error message you received is a bit deceiving. It's telling you that your disk is fragmented and that there is not enough free contiguous space to successfully create a partition.

The way around that is to backup to Time Machine, erase the drive, reinstall OS X, and recover with Time Machine. Fragmentation gone.

Of course to do that, you need your original install disk which you stated you don't have with you. You really need that disk to proceed.

Click to expand...

That's making more sense now. I suppose much of the information I was finding about OS X and defragmenting is also incorrect; plenty of people out there saying manual defragmenting is never necessary since OS X has a self-defrag feature built in.

No big deal, I can wait to try this when I have access to my 10.6 disc again in a few days.

Appreciate the help! I'll post my results once I've given it a try.

With reference to defragmenting - for most users, it is not necessary. OS X does an excellent job at keeping files defragmented. What it does not do at all, as best I can tell, is defragment free space. So, for those that are filling up their drives above about 40-50% or have a habit of moving a lot of data on and off the drive, over time, you'll find that both the data and the free space can be scattered from one end of the drive to the other.

The two primary effects of this are: 1) those waiting for some while after getting their Mac prior to using BootCamp Assistant to create that Windows partition and 2) when you hit between 35-50% free space, depending on how much you move data on and off the drive, you may start seeing some slow downs just due to the fact that some of your data is now sitting on the slowest area of the drive.

Another option is to buy iDefrag, but that's about $30. Takes awhile but doesn't require reinstalling OSX. Either way, a backup is essential.

Cheers