Boot Camp Assistant - Stuck on Partitioning

[sesnir]

I've been working on this problem for days, and can't find a solution anywhere that I've searched.

It all started when I wanted to extend my Windows partition. First, I tried shrinking my OS X partition via Disk Utility and then extending the partition via Windows Disk Management. Since the free space was to the left of the Windows partition, it would not let me extend. So I used a third party tool and it hosed my partition table, losing my OS X/Recovery HD partitions. I used another third party tool to recover those, but at the cost of losing my Windows partition.

So, still wanting to extend my Windows partition, I decided to start over. I deleted the Windows partition and initiated the Boot Camp Assistant process. It gets stuck at "Status: Partitioning Disk", with the progress bar stopping at the same spot (just under the "n" in the "ing" of "Partitioning") every time (and I've left it there for 8+ hours). I get no error message.

Since I had issues extending the Windows partition, I figured maybe it would help to defrag and move data to the "front" of the drive. I used iDefrag and ran the "Compact" algorithm (on the whole, unpartitioned drive), which took several hours. Unfortunately, the fragmentation appears unchanged according to iDefrag.

But then, I had an idea... I used Disk Utility and successfully created the 150gb partition I wanted Boot Camp Assistant to make. Doesn't this prove that fragmentation isn't the issue? Disk Utility was able to do it in a matter of minutes. I deleted the new partition (since BCA requires a single partition) and merged it with the OS X partition. Shouldn't this put 150gb of free space at the end of the drive?

So here I sit in Boot Camp Assistant again, and the progress bar is stuck at the exact same point.

What should I do? I know there's one more thing I haven't tried: Wiping the drive, restoring from Time Machine, and trying BCA again... but that one makes me nervous.

Has Boot Camp Assistant ever taken more than 8 hours to partition? Should I run a "Full Defrag" through iDefrag? Should I wipe and restore from Time Machine?

Thanks in advance for any help...

 

[johnhurley]

Wiping the drive, restoring from Time Machine, and trying BCA again... but that one makes me nervous.

Based on what you described that approach makes sense to me. Once you get as far down the path of hacking and re-hacking partitions as you apparently are any advice from the sidelines about fixing your partition problems ( unless from a really advanced expert ) is probably just going to be suspect.

Another approach is getting a time machine backup and then pulling the current drive and re-installing onto a different drive. That gives the the option of falling back onto your current drive.

 

[sesnir]

Update -

I tried going into the recovery HD and doing a reinstall of Lion, but that didn't solve the issue.

So I bit the bullet and erased the OS X partition. It's currently restoring from Time Machine, to be completed in about 4 hrs.

If this doesn't work, then I'm out of options. I think it'll work... but I won't get my hopes up.

 

[sesnir]

It didn't change a thing... formatting the entire hard drive and restoring from time machine was just a waste of time.

I'm really not sure what more I can do now... maybe install Lion fresh, install Windows, and *then* restore from time machine?

I'll ask Apple Care at 5:45...

Btw, I can't swap hard drives because this is in a 2011 iMac.

 

[sesnir]

Ok this is my final update, and I'm posting it for anyone who might find this thread via Google.

AppleCare suggested that Parallels was interfering with the Boot Camp Assistant partitioning process. I uninstalled it, but it didn't change anything...

So I went with the nuclear option, and wiped out the hard drive again. Then, I installed Lion fresh but did not restore any of my files.

And it worked... the drive partitioned in seconds. Once I'm finished installing Win7, I'll use Migration Assistant to import my Mac data.

I wonder if I should have tried creating a new account, logging in, and trying it there... oh well.

What a nightmare...

 

[saurabhj]

Just wanted to post my experience here incase someone stumbles here. (I did)
I had the same issue with bootcamp getting stuck while partitioning the drive.

I did not have the patience to re-install everything - so I took a chance by directly partitioning the drive using the Mack Disk Utility.

Set aside 100 Gigs for Win8 and then rebooted with my Win8 drive.

It is also worth mentioning that I had refit installed:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/refit/

Which let me boot into whichever partition (or device) I wanted.
So I am not sure if this would have worked without refit.

But, try this. My Windows is working good (so far). Will report any issue if it comes up.

My setup is:
Mac Book Air running Lion with Boot Camp 4.0 and Windows 8

And oh: @sesnir:
I tried your suggestion of creating a new account. That did not work.

 

[sylph1111]

I am stuck on bootcamp partition screen. what should I do now?