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alex-dlc

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 12, 2009
41
23
ive tried a few times. dont know what to do anymore.
picture1vgv.png

its a mac mini, 160gb(148gb really) 53gb free, i want to make a 25gb partition for windows 7
 

alex-dlc

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 12, 2009
41
23
what?

im simply trying to make a partition with boot camp assistant, so i can later install windows 7 in that partition.
 

Rodus

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2008
679
0
Midlands, UK
Firstly make sure no apps or virus scanners are running, if that doesn't help then defrag you HD using something like Drive Genius 2, If this doesn't work then back up your Mac, reinstall the OS and reinstall your apps from time machine. Then re-try through bootcamp.
 

malachiman

macrumors regular
Sep 18, 2008
119
0
New Zealand
I had that before too, my drive was to fragmented, to create the partition it needs a certain amount of unfragmented free space. Defrag
 

alex-dlc

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 12, 2009
41
23
ive never defragged. when leopard came out, and they compared it to windows saying 'no viruses...", didnt they also say no defrag ? could you tell me a little about this? is it safe? how long it might take....any help is apreciated,
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,503
"Between the Hedges"
ive never defragged. when leopard came out, and they compared it to windows saying 'no viruses...", didnt they also say no defrag ? could you tell me a little about this? is it safe? how long it might take....any help is apreciated,

Defragging is a possible solution, but rarely helps in these cases. It isn't technically fragmented files that are the issue, it is contiguous space.

This issue comes up frequently with Boot Camp and the best solution is to back up or clone, erase your drive and restore. This will free up contiguous space for BootCamp to partition from.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

alex-dlc

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 12, 2009
41
23
well im not going to erase my hard drive. even if i wanted to, i couldnt because i dont have any other external drive. so defrag better work. should i use drive genius 2? looks like its good
 

uberamd

macrumors 68030
May 26, 2009
2,785
2
Minnesota
well im not going to erase my hard drive. even if i wanted to, i couldnt because i dont have any other external drive. so defrag better work. should i use drive genius 2? looks like its good

You could do an archive and install of OS X, then restore your information that way. It doesn't require an external drive then. I got that to work once.

Its a strange issue. I have had this happen on a Macbook Air that was sent from Apple.
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,503
"Between the Hedges"
well im not going to erase my hard drive. even if i wanted to, i couldnt because i dont have any other external drive. so defrag better work. should i use drive genius 2? looks like its good

You can try, but most have had little success with just defragging. It workds sometimes, but only a small percentage. The only way to be sure to solve the issue is to erase and restore the drive. Sorry.

If you do not have access to an external drive, how do you back up your data? If you have no back up strategy, I would suggest now might be a good time to start one.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

wfj5444

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2008
265
3
I had the same problem. I defraged for around an hour, which was something like 20% complete. That's an online defrag using iDefrag.

I then tried to create a partition and it worked. Seems like it helps if you play around with the size of the bootcamp partition. For example, instead of 90GB use 87 or 91.

Good luck!
 

da1legend

macrumors newbie
Jul 15, 2009
6
0
i defraged using drive genius 2's boot dvd. After that, bootcamp was able to make the partition. took about an hour and a bit for a 120GB HD.
 

alex-dlc

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 12, 2009
41
23
well, ive never had to backup. i dont think i would buy a hard drive, back it up, reinstall leopard....... just to play around with windows 7. thats all i want. ill try making the partition 20 gb instead of 25, maybe even 15. i hope that a defrag works for me, it might be because i looked in disk utillity, and my hard drive is very fragmented. maybe that was because at one point it was full, and i erased a bunch of stuff. what about repairing disk permisions? i never understood what that did.
picture3y.png

so is a defrag safe?
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,503
"Between the Hedges"
well, ive never had to backup. i dont think i would buy a hard drive, back it up, reinstall leopard....... just to play around with windows 7. thats all i want. ill try making the partition 20 gb instead of 25, maybe even 15. i hope that a defrag works for me, it might be because i looked in disk utillity, and my hard drive is very fragmented. maybe that was because at one point it was full, and i erased a bunch of stuff. what about repairing disk permisions? i never understood what that did.

so is a defrag safe?

It should be safe, but ANY time you deal with your disk you should have a backup. I am a firm believer in having a backup strategy. The forum is littered with threads where people tried to partition, Boot Camp, etc. and lost their data. In addition, all disks will fail eventually. How you choose to use your computer is your business, but my 2¢ is to have a backup strategy whether you choose to play with Windows or not. Hard disk space is always cheaper than file recovery.

As I said before, fragmented files are not the real issue, it is contiguous space. If the defragmenting of the flies frees up enough contiguous space, you will be OK. If not, you will still need an erase and restore to achieve your goal.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 

Infrared

macrumors 68000
Mar 28, 2007
1,714
64
Could this be done by running Disk Utility from the installer DVD?

The files on the hard drive wouldn't be in use in that case and so
might be movable.
 

killerrobot

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2007
2,239
3
127.0.0.1
Could this be done by running Disk Utility from the installer DVD?

The files on the hard drive wouldn't be in use in that case and so
might be movable.


Boot off the OSX install DVD, from the Utilities menu choose Disk Utility. You should be able to create a partition more easily if you do it this way because you are not using the HD and system files are not in use so it should be able to move the files to create the partition.
(This is what I was getting at in my first post - sorry I was't clear)

EDIT:To defrag you must also boot off the install DVD. Try partitioning first though.
 

killerrobot

macrumors 68020
Jun 7, 2007
2,239
3
127.0.0.1
boot off the dvd? why do i have to do that?

By using the OS X disk as the boot volume, it never loads the OS, system or programs files on the HD volume. Perhaps using the Disk Utility this way will allow the partition process to move more files because they will not be in use.

The defrag tool in TechTools on the Leopard OS install disk, as do most third party defrag toos, requires that you boot from the disk in order to run the defrag utility.
However, I highly recommend backing everything up because if a problem occurs during defragmentation, the drive might be rendered useless and a fresh clean and install will be necessary.
 
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