Bootcamp freezes while partitioning HDD

[Tsylord]

I've been trying for days to get bootcamp to work on my 2010 MBP and it freezes every time. When I say freezes I mean, it locks up my entire computer to the point where my only option is to do a hard restart with the power button. Is there any way to get it to partition my hard drive or use another program to do it?

 

[balamw]

I've been trying for days to get bootcamp to work on my 2010 MBP and it freezes every time. When I say freezes I mean, it locks up my entire computer to the point where my only option is to do a hard restart with the power button. Is there any way to get it to partition my hard drive or use another program to do it?

I would suggest booting from your OS X install disc and running Disk Utility from there.

First verify your Mac OS X partition to fix any errors, then you can do what Boot Camp Assistant does in Disk Utility.

I presume you still have a single partition?

First resize the OS X partition by pulling up on the lower right corner to create some empty space.
Then click on the + to add a partition in the empty space
Choose MS-DOS/FAT32 for that partition and label it BOOTCAMP

Then, insert your Windows install media and reboot your Mac holding down Alt/Option. Unlike the assisted Boot Camp install you will need to do do this manually each time Windows wants to reboot during the process.

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[Tsylord]

I've done the repairs and I still don't see an option to partition my hard drive under the disk utility on the OSX disk. I've verified my permissions and only two files can't be fixed, I've also repaired the disk. I've tried the utility over and over again to no avail.

 

[balamw]

This guide has better screenshots than I could provide.

http://macs.about.com/od/applications/ss/diskutilitysize.htm

Pages 3 and 4 contain the information you seek.

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[Tsylord]

I've found out how to partition my drive however it froze as well and refuses to work. Any other ideas? I think I may have to reformat the operating system and start fresh.
-EDIT-
It looks like the partition is freezing while attempting to shrink the original, this is leading me to believe that I have some unmovable files, I think I may be stuck having to do a clean install of the operating system.

 

[davidlv]

I've done the repairs and I still don't see an option to partition my hard drive under the disk utility on the OSX disk. I've verified my permissions and only two files can't be fixed, I've also repaired the disk. I've tried the utility over and over again to no avail.

First, you should be booting from the DVD install disk, then use Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu.
On the left side of the Disk Utility Window, you will see the physical volume and under that the name of the volume. Select the one on top, and then look at the top on the right. You should see a "Partition" tab. Select that and you will see the window referenced on Page 3 in the link above, where you can change the size of the current partition.
Be careful here, you do not want to "partition" the drive, but only resize it!
Then use Bootcamp to make the Windows partition.

 

[balamw]

It looks like the partition is freezing while attempting to shrink the original, this is leading me to believe that I have some unmovable files, I think I may be stuck having to do a clean install of the operating system.

Good. At least now you know where the operation is getting hung up. However, unmovable files usually give you an error message fairly quickly. There are countless threads about that. (e.g. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/191729/).

You could always try making a clone with CCC or SuperDuper to an external HDD or DMG on an external HDD and then partition the disk as desired and restore the clone to the new smaller partition. Just make sure to choose GPT for the partition table.

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[Tsylord]

I've just restored my computer and I'm working on getting everything in order now. I've also managed to partition my hard drive. Whatever the problem was it's gone now.

 

[balamw]

I've just restored my computer and I'm working on getting everything in order now. I've also managed to partition my hard drive. Whatever the problem was it's gone now.

Glad to hear it. In case anyone else has the problem, did you end up doing the clean install or were you able to use CCC/SuperDuper/Time Machine to keep everything as it was?

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[Tsylord]

I did a clean install, I wiped the disk first using the utility and then installed it from scratch, I figured if I just imaged the disk there could be a chance that I was just replicating the problem again.