Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Bootcamp Partition Error: "Files cannot be moved"
- Thread starter watchmainspring
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Been having the same issue myself today. Got my MBP last week but was waiting for Win 7 RC before using boot camp.
Manage to fix it by deleting items from my Downloads and Docs, including the iso file for the RC and on some of the advise from this thread, changed the target Windows partition size from 90 to 85GB, seems to have done the trick as Boot Camp is now partitioning my HDD as I type
Edit: Spoke too soon, that blasted error message came up just as the progress bar was getting to the end, arghhhh!
Manage to fix it by deleting items from my Downloads and Docs, including the iso file for the RC and on some of the advise from this thread, changed the target Windows partition size from 90 to 85GB, seems to have done the trick as Boot Camp is now partitioning my HDD as I type
Edit: Spoke too soon, that blasted error message came up just as the progress bar was getting to the end, arghhhh!
Looks like everyone seems to have had their own fix to this issue, but in case it helps anyone, here's mine:
1. Erased free space via disk utility
2. Repaired permissions, ran maintenance scripts, rebuilt prebindings, and cleaned system log archives all via Leopard Cache Cleaner, a free maintenance app.
After a restart, I was able to partition my HD via boot camp utility. Both my first (failed) attempt and my second successful attempt were both for 19gb of partitioned space for windows.
1. Erased free space via disk utility
2. Repaired permissions, ran maintenance scripts, rebuilt prebindings, and cleaned system log archives all via Leopard Cache Cleaner, a free maintenance app.
After a restart, I was able to partition my HD via boot camp utility. Both my first (failed) attempt and my second successful attempt were both for 19gb of partitioned space for windows.
Finally, a simple answer that works!
So, I didn't want to go through the whole defragging rigmarole, and I also found a site that said it is unnecessary, as every time mac installs updates, it optimizes the system and reorganizes the files, which although it isn't exactly defragging, is almost as good. My problem was that even though I had 60gb free, I couldn't even create a 5gb partition... This website told me that if there is a large video file recently added, the partition can't figure out how to move it. So I ransferred the file to an external drive, deleted the copy on my hard drive and voila! The whole thing worked. Before that, I had verified and repaired disk permissions, erased free space, freed up about 40 gb of hard drive space, turned off all sharing and restarted the system...none of which worked. Hope this can help someone!
So, I didn't want to go through the whole defragging rigmarole, and I also found a site that said it is unnecessary, as every time mac installs updates, it optimizes the system and reorganizes the files, which although it isn't exactly defragging, is almost as good. My problem was that even though I had 60gb free, I couldn't even create a 5gb partition... This website told me that if there is a large video file recently added, the partition can't figure out how to move it. So I ransferred the file to an external drive, deleted the copy on my hard drive and voila! The whole thing worked. Before that, I had verified and repaired disk permissions, erased free space, freed up about 40 gb of hard drive space, turned off all sharing and restarted the system...none of which worked. Hope this can help someone!
Alright smarty pants, I couldn't get Coriolis to burn me a working CD, so I put iDefrag on my other mac and formatted it in target disk mode.
Thanks very much for the help. You are a modern day genius, a gentleman, and a scholar.
Sam
Try this and see if this will work without defragmenting your HD OR cloning the HD.
Start up in Safe Boot and use Boot Camp in Safe Boot.
Before i couldn't create a partition on normal boot, even though i have 126GB free. I started out with 50GB and it didnt work, tried 40GB, 30Gb, 20Gb, 10Gb, and 5GB didn't even work. I restarted my computer and started up as "safe boot" and it worked. It worked for me but i'm not too sure that it will also work for you. Please try this simple solution and tell e if this works for you.
If you don't know how to start up n safe boot, you turn on the computer and when you hear the intro sound, you hold shift until the apple logo appears (you'll know that it will start up in safe boot by the amount of time it takes to actually load up.
Start up in Safe Boot and use Boot Camp in Safe Boot.
Before i couldn't create a partition on normal boot, even though i have 126GB free. I started out with 50GB and it didnt work, tried 40GB, 30Gb, 20Gb, 10Gb, and 5GB didn't even work. I restarted my computer and started up as "safe boot" and it worked. It worked for me but i'm not too sure that it will also work for you. Please try this simple solution and tell e if this works for you.
If you don't know how to start up n safe boot, you turn on the computer and when you hear the intro sound, you hold shift until the apple logo appears (you'll know that it will start up in safe boot by the amount of time it takes to actually load up.
please help me, ive gotten this error all day. i erased the font cache, restarted, ... i dont know what i have to do. it says the mac partition has to be journaled? could this problem be because i have an idisk? do i have to clear the empty space? i dont get that. please help guys
I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM:
bootcamp refuses to move the files once you partition and then undo and try to redo another partition.
the only way i have found to fix this problem is to boot your mac with the OS X installation cd. then go to the utilities at the top menu bar and select Disk Utility then the tab Partition. Change the size of your mac hd (smaller) to the desired free space you want to be freed up and select apply. Add another partition by clicking the plus sign at the lower left and call it whatever you like.
Reboot and remove the disk and go to your Utilities and select Disk Utilities. Remove the new Partition you have just created and expand your mac had back to full length. Click Apply
This way of partitioning the drive is able to move the files which Bootcamp assistant is not. Now you can open bootcamp again and select the same size for windows as you freed up for the "other" partition.
Problem solved
bootcamp refuses to move the files once you partition and then undo and try to redo another partition.
the only way i have found to fix this problem is to boot your mac with the OS X installation cd. then go to the utilities at the top menu bar and select Disk Utility then the tab Partition. Change the size of your mac hd (smaller) to the desired free space you want to be freed up and select apply. Add another partition by clicking the plus sign at the lower left and call it whatever you like.
Reboot and remove the disk and go to your Utilities and select Disk Utilities. Remove the new Partition you have just created and expand your mac had back to full length. Click Apply
This way of partitioning the drive is able to move the files which Bootcamp assistant is not. Now you can open bootcamp again and select the same size for windows as you freed up for the "other" partition.
Problem solved
This did not solve my problem. I get essentially the same error when partitioning via disk utility running off the Snow Leopard installation DVD. It spends several minutes verifying the disk and then when it moves to the 'shrinking disk' stage it returns the error very quickly.
I had this problem several months (closer to a year) ago and I ended up having to run some sort of bootlegged defrag software that was made to be booted via the optical drive. It was a massive pain and I have no idea what it was called or what I did with the bootable disk, but it literally rewrote all the data on my HDD sequentially and then randomized the free space again sequentially. the whole process took ~9 hours but it did in fact work. I would really love to not have to do this again, but I need Windows for my C++ class so alas I will do what I must.
This would have been a greeeeeeeeat 'little thing' for Snow Leopard to have fixed
agreed it'd be nice to have a fix something that seems to have such a high likelihood of occuring. or at least more info about what exactly is causing the problem.
i reformatted an external i had to hfs+ to make it into a time machine... now should I boot into my install cd, format the harddrive and then restore from the time machine? will that (theoretically) make everything hunky dory or would it be a better idea to use a full backup with disk utility rather than time machine?
or would it be better to try and do the creating a partition trick.. seems to have at least some success for some people here... just trying to not waste too much time doing this here
i reformatted an external i had to hfs+ to make it into a time machine... now should I boot into my install cd, format the harddrive and then restore from the time machine? will that (theoretically) make everything hunky dory or would it be a better idea to use a full backup with disk utility rather than time machine?
or would it be better to try and do the creating a partition trick.. seems to have at least some success for some people here... just trying to not waste too much time doing this here
well i've tried a couple things..
i turned of file sharing. zeroed all my free space.
another forum mentioned copying a lot of large files (so that the new versions are written at the beginning of the disk) and then trashing the old ones. This didn't work for me at all.
I then tried to create a partition in disk utility, but it was unable to do so, saying "partition cannot be resized. try reducing the amount of change in the size of the partition". very descriptive, mr mac! lol
so i guess i'm gonna be stuck just wiping my drive, reformatting and restoring from a time machine backup.. but that will take a good long time won't it! (any idea how long it would take on a 320 gig drive with 100 gigs of free space?) plus it makes me really paranoid.
i turned of file sharing. zeroed all my free space.
another forum mentioned copying a lot of large files (so that the new versions are written at the beginning of the disk) and then trashing the old ones. This didn't work for me at all.
I then tried to create a partition in disk utility, but it was unable to do so, saying "partition cannot be resized. try reducing the amount of change in the size of the partition". very descriptive, mr mac! lol
so i guess i'm gonna be stuck just wiping my drive, reformatting and restoring from a time machine backup.. but that will take a good long time won't it! (any idea how long it would take on a 320 gig drive with 100 gigs of free space?) plus it makes me really paranoid.
This has worked for me twice
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080120064811786
The link refers to 'Verification Failed' error, but running the 'fsck -f' command has twice corrected the partition error about files not being moved, and allowed me to set up my Boot Camp partition.
The first time, I tried de-fragging my HD and Boot Camp Assistant still would not partition, even though there was a lot of empty space relative to the Boot Camp partition I was trying to set up. Moving large files off my HD, etc. also did not help.
In the second case, I had even more hard drive space on my 13" MBP (I have a 500GB hard drive), but was getting the error after removing the partition to wipe my Windows install and trying to create the partition again (this is a known problem.) Remembering how I fixed it the first time, I ran the fsck command and it found some sort of error in the disk size, and corrected it. I re-booted into OSX, and Boot Camp Assistant then worked fine.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080120064811786
The link refers to 'Verification Failed' error, but running the 'fsck -f' command has twice corrected the partition error about files not being moved, and allowed me to set up my Boot Camp partition.
The first time, I tried de-fragging my HD and Boot Camp Assistant still would not partition, even though there was a lot of empty space relative to the Boot Camp partition I was trying to set up. Moving large files off my HD, etc. also did not help.
In the second case, I had even more hard drive space on my 13" MBP (I have a 500GB hard drive), but was getting the error after removing the partition to wipe my Windows install and trying to create the partition again (this is a known problem.) Remembering how I fixed it the first time, I ran the fsck command and it found some sort of error in the disk size, and corrected it. I re-booted into OSX, and Boot Camp Assistant then worked fine.
Reformatted and clean installed Snow Leopard...
...and I'm STILL getting the same error!
How is this possible? Shouldn't a clean install of Snow Leopard have rendered my hard drive totally empty and basically brand new? How can there be files that can't be moved? The only thing I've installed are whatever software updates were available - is it possible that those software updates are causing the problem?
Everyone keeps talking about reformatting and reinstalling as the last resort...well I bit the bullet and went for it, but I still can't partition. Any ideas?
...and I'm STILL getting the same error!
How is this possible? Shouldn't a clean install of Snow Leopard have rendered my hard drive totally empty and basically brand new? How can there be files that can't be moved? The only thing I've installed are whatever software updates were available - is it possible that those software updates are causing the problem?
Everyone keeps talking about reformatting and reinstalling as the last resort...well I bit the bullet and went for it, but I still can't partition. Any ideas?
One thing that helped me is reinstalling all Snow Leopard and just after reinstallation create partition.
Another option if you don't fancy a complete reinstall is using SuperDuper to create a disk image and restore that.
I posted about it here http://bit.ly/4fazMo
I posted about it here http://bit.ly/4fazMo
Try running fsck
Guys, try running the fsck command as I posted above- it worked twice for me after defragging and clearing up space, etc. didn't work.
Let us know if it worked, it was a lifesaver for me.
Guys, try running the fsck command as I posted above- it worked twice for me after defragging and clearing up space, etc. didn't work.
Let us know if it worked, it was a lifesaver for me.
Coriolis CD maker error
Okay so i have been having similar problems, and decided to try iDefrag. I made the bootable CD, and when i tried to mount it, it said the computer could not read the disk. I had loaded all the booting information from the Mac Install Disk (i was prompted to when i first used CD Maker) and the CD maker appeared to make the CD without problems. I also tried booting it from the newly made CD, and the computer simply ejected the disk and booted up regularly.
I used a DVD+RW disk and also tried a CD+R and a DVD+R disk (not sure if any of that matters). if someone could post a solution that would be great, im not sure why this isnt working.
Okay so i have been having similar problems, and decided to try iDefrag. I made the bootable CD, and when i tried to mount it, it said the computer could not read the disk. I had loaded all the booting information from the Mac Install Disk (i was prompted to when i first used CD Maker) and the CD maker appeared to make the CD without problems. I also tried booting it from the newly made CD, and the computer simply ejected the disk and booted up regularly.
I used a DVD+RW disk and also tried a CD+R and a DVD+R disk (not sure if any of that matters). if someone could post a solution that would be great, im not sure why this isnt working.
I have the same problem, and also can't seem to get a live option to erase my HDD in Disk Utility. Really not sure how could get that option back... Would doing a clean install from my SL disc be the best option?
Hi guys!
I had the same problem with boot camp-assistant not being able to move some files, thus, not creating the partition needed for windows.
What did it for me, was the same aflick86's solution. booting up from the OS X DVD, Fire up disk utility from the DVD, verify and repair disk permissions, verify and repair your disk. Then choose the MAC OS X HDD, not the name, but the one with the model number. go to the Partition tab, and add a new partition with the '+' sign, change the size of your partition, it is likely that it won't go as small as you want it, but it's better than reinstalling OS X, remember to choose FAT from the drop-down menu. When finished partitioning, boot into OS X and fire up the boot camp-assistant, this time it will recognize the FAT partition and ask if you want to install windows or remove the partition.
I had the same problem with boot camp-assistant not being able to move some files, thus, not creating the partition needed for windows.
What did it for me, was the same aflick86's solution. booting up from the OS X DVD, Fire up disk utility from the DVD, verify and repair disk permissions, verify and repair your disk. Then choose the MAC OS X HDD, not the name, but the one with the model number. go to the Partition tab, and add a new partition with the '+' sign, change the size of your partition, it is likely that it won't go as small as you want it, but it's better than reinstalling OS X, remember to choose FAT from the drop-down menu. When finished partitioning, boot into OS X and fire up the boot camp-assistant, this time it will recognize the FAT partition and ask if you want to install windows or remove the partition.
Interesting... I'll have to try that. I've been getting this error as well, and I've solved it in the past, but I have the sudden urge to [re]install Windows 7 on my MacBook, and this is getting in my way. As for many others posting to this thread, reformatting is NOT an option. I don't have means of backing up my video and music files that total to 300 GB+. I just "fsck -f"'d twice. Before that I deleted large Virtualbox VM files, and before THAT I defragged overnight via iDefrag. I'm going to try and partition before I try this.
Also, is there any way to tell what files are in the way of such an error? That would help A LOT of people get through this frustrating situation.
Thanks for the idea!
EDIT: I just tried to partition and it spit the error at me. Gonna try the process Tommy mentioned.
EDIT 2: I just did Tommy's process, and I tried to make a 60 GB partition. After a minute or so of "shrinking disk" it told me to try to make a smaller one. That's what's running right now. I've also tried this exact method, except I have Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X installed, and I told Disk Utility to format the partition to be created as Windows NT File System (NTFS) to try and save a step when installing Windows 7 itself.
EDIT 3: Tried with a 32 GB partition, and it still complains that I need to make a smaller partition. I'm gonna try and do this again via OS X vs being booted up from the installer.. I give up if it still complains, as I've deleted and/or moved anything too large for it. Screw it if it doesn't want to cooperate. I'm posting this from my Linux PC in case anyone is wondering how I have internet access...