Cant Partition Disk during Bootcamp install

Hello..

I have read every thread and conducted everything possible I have come across online and am still stumped with no success...

My first issue was when I had "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple" selected in the "select tasks" window of the bootcamp assistant my progress bar ended up freezing.

... So then I decided to search forums and discovered an alternative... I could go to everymacdotcom and access my macbook pro's model identifier. By doing this I could now access the direct download link for bootcamp.

Ok... So now I go back to bootcamp assistant and uncheck "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple" and just leave "Install Windows 7 or later version" selected.

I go ahead and allocate 20GB of disk space to be partitioned and click install... The status tells me its partitioning the disk, then I get the alert "Your disk could not be partitioned An error occurred while partitioning the disk"...

...then I searched a little more... Someone mentioned I should move all the large files off my drive onto an external i.e. video files.

I did just that... erased them from drive and emptied trash as well. Now... I go ahead and click install and get the same message

I dig a little deeper now and find another thread where someone is saying that I should go to disk utility and repair disk/verify disk... I did that as well... and no spades.

Also... Its important that I mention that I had my external connected and disconnected when I clicked install just to test whether or not that could be the issue, and still both times- fail.

Here are my specs:

model identifier: MacBookPro6.2
8gb memory
2.66ghz i7
500 gb HD
270gb available space
version 10.8.4
Lion
windows 7 pro
2011 msoft


any help would be much appreciated

thanks

Derek

It sounds like your hard drive may be fragmented and there's not enough continuos space to do a Boot Camp partition. I can't be sure because the error you received is not the usual error that occurs when that happens.

The usual cure for the above problem is to make a Time Machine backup, erase the drive, reinstall OS X, and then restore from Time Machine. That will get rid of the fragmentation and possibly allow Boot Camp to create the partition.

Also, you need to download the support software for Windows 7 from Apple otherwise you will wind up with a Windows 7 installation that's dead in the water. In other words, no drivers.

Make sure the hard drive bis formatted Mac IS Extended (Journaled) in a single partition prior to starting BootCamp Assistant.