Boot Camp: The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

[fterh]

Right now I have one partition "Mac OS X", one "Time Machine", and 50GB of unallocated free space.

I tried booting up directly using the Windows 7 installation disc, and even after formatting the unallocated free space using the formatting tool in the installation setup, it says Windows cannot be installed onto that partition because the disk is of different partition style (GPT).

But because I have 2 current partitions, Boot Camp Assistant doesn't work (error message reported in thread title).

How should I proceed?

 

[iNeedToDoHw]

Right now I have one partition "Mac OS X", one "Time Machine", and 50GB of unallocated free space.

I tried booting up directly using the Windows 7 installation disc, and even after formatting the unallocated free space using the formatting tool in the installation setup, it says Windows cannot be installed onto that partition because the disk is of different partition style (GPT).

But because I have 2 current partitions, Boot Camp Assistant doesn't work (error message reported in thread title).

How should I proceed?

i just installed windows. during the bootcamp process, I had to format the bootcamp partition once more manually before i was able to install windows. It seems like you did that though.. try again?

 

[fterh]

i just installed windows. during the bootcamp process, I had to format the bootcamp partition once more manually before i was able to install windows. It seems like you did that though.. try again?

You mean in BCA? But I can't even get past that screen... it keeps saying "Startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

Edit: The problem is Boot Camp Assistant partitions a SINGLE partition disk into 2. I already have 2 partitions, that's why BCA can't proceed.

 

[moderngamenewb]

I keep getting the same error message on mine too. I tried verify and repair in disk utility, that didn't work. I then popped in my Mac Lion disc (I made a dvd copy of the installer), and restarted it into disc utility mode, formated it (made sure it was Mac OS Extended (Journal), reinstalled Lion, did time machine restore, and it's still not working. I also only have one partition on my drive

 

[thundersteele]

GPT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

What version of windows are you trying to install?

Win 7 64 bit should install on that partition. 32 bit Win 7 and some older versions (XP etc) will not work, according to the wikipedia page.

I don't know how to change this/if this can be changed, but I'm sure it will involve formatting the whole HD.

PS: Having the backup on the same disc as the rest of the system is in general not such a good idea - if the HD fails, all data is gone. If you have external backups in addition to this, just ignore my comment.

 

[moderngamenewb]

GPT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

What version of windows are you trying to install?

Win 7 64 bit should install on that partition. 32 bit Win 7 and some older versions (XP etc) will not work, according to the wikipedia page.

I don't know how to change this/if this can be changed, but I'm sure it will involve formatting the whole HD.

PS: Having the backup on the same disc as the rest of the system is in general not such a good idea - if the HD fails, all data is gone. If you have external backups in addition to this, just ignore my comment.

I'm installing 32 bit Windows 7. Back on Snow Leopard when I used it, it would work when I used Bootcamp to partition the drive, and then install it that way. Then I cloned it with winclone, so I could upgrade to Lion without it screwing anything up. I then removed the partition. I then installed Lion. This was back in July. Then last month, I wanted to put windows back on, but it gave me the error message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journal) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows." I installed my DVD of Lion, formatted the drive after a restart into Disk Utility, then reinstalled Lion (and made sure it was Mac OS Extended Journaled), and I'm still getting the same error message. It used to work fine on Snow Leopard

UPDATE: After putting in my copy of Lion to my DVD drive, and restarting into Disk Utility, it was a problem with partitions, so I played around with it, wiped everything off, and then reinstalled Lion. BEFORE transferring anything, I opened Boot Camp and partitioned, THEN I restarted into recovery mode, and then transferred everything from time machine (almost 3 hour process), and now all is well