Bootcamp Partition Error: "Files cannot be moved"

[benlangdon]

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...

i did everything that tommy guy you mentioned said to do and moved big files (deleted) erased free space repaired disk and all.

now this thread is huge, im going to read more before i do the defrag rout.

i might just wait till winter break to do boot camp as i plane to do a clean install.

damm i just wanna play call of duty modern warfare 2 and left 4 dead 2

 

[ayeying]

i did everything that tommy guy you mentioned said to do and moved big files (deleted) erased free space repaired disk and all.

now this thread is huge, im going to read more before i do the defrag rout.

i might just wait till winter break to do boot camp as i plane to do a clean install.

damm i just wanna play call of duty modern warfare 2 and left 4 dead 2

Kinda have to. It's either defrag or restore from time machine or restore from a clone. I think the defrag is faster though. Time Machine and Clone are cheaper though but a bit more time consuming.

 

[lucifiel]

Kinda have to. It's either defrag or restore from time machine or restore from a clone. I think the defrag is faster though. Time Machine and Clone are cheaper though but a bit more time consuming.

and there's no guarantee that defrag will work, cloning is the simplest method I find, but it does take some time...

 

[ayeying]

and there's no guarantee that defrag will work, cloning is the simplest method I find, but it does take some time...

Defrag does work. I've done it before. You have to compact all the files so you have a large free empty space to create a partition.

Now, if you have an SSD, that actually doesn't matter anymore. You can create a partition regardless of "unmovable" files.

 

[HughBee]

An Answer from Apple

I had this problem and then called Apple Tech Support who offered the following solution that immediately worked on two MacBook Pro's that were previously giving the 'files cannot be moved message' during BootCamp partitioning.

Shutdown the computer, restart holding Command S Keys. Type the following into the command line:

/sbin/fsk -fy

The computer will run through a repair strategy - when finished repeat the process. If the final message is 'No Problems' then you should be good to go. Type reboot into the command line then proceed to BootCamp Assistant.

Caveat: I am just following the Apple Techs suggestion, I do not know enough about root commands to verify if this approach has any downsides - but it worked!

 

[ShiggyMiyamoto]

I had this problem and then called Apple Tech Support who offered the following solution that immediately worked on two MacBook Pro's that were previously giving the 'files cannot be moved message' during BootCamp partitioning.

Shutdown the computer, restart holding Command S Keys. Type the following into the command line:

/sbin/fsk -fy

The computer will run through a repair strategy - when finished repeat the process. If the final message is 'No Problems' then you should be good to go. Type reboot into the command line then proceed to BootCamp Assistant.

Caveat: I am just following the Apple Techs suggestion, I do not know enough about root commands to verify if this approach has any downsides - but it worked!

Are you sure it wasn't "/sbin/fsck -fy" ? I've tried that, and BCA still says NOPE WON'T DO IT FOR YA~.

 

[philrunclimb]

Are you sure it wasn't "/sbin/fsck -fy" ? I've tried that, and BCA still says NOPE WON'T DO IT FOR YA~.

Hi - yes the poster was right... it is /sbin/fsck -fy I did this and rebooted and now boot camp is happy to partitioon the 32Gb I requested

Hurrah!

BUT now I get a prob wiuth installing Vista - it says it can only be on NTFS partition, and not the bootcamp one... darn!!! what next?

 

[philrunclimb]

Hi - yes the poster was right... it is /sbin/fsck -fy I did this and rebooted and now boot camp is happy to partitioon the 32Gb I requested

Hurrah!

BUT now I get a prob wiuth installing Vista - it says it can only be on NTFS partition, and not the bootcamp one... darn!!! what next?

DOH.... silly me...,ake sure you follow Apple's guide to using bootcamp on their website.. the PDF document. Vista installed and working and took up about 8.5 Gb. Jeez

 

[Tony-Lin]

BCA Alternative

I had the problem to install Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro today. I could only cut 20G for my Windows, beyond that, I got the error. I solved the problem with the following steps:

1. Boot from the Mac OS installation DVD (Snow Leopard in my case)
2. Open Disk Util
3. Select the HDD, and the partition tab
4. Shrink the Mac OS partition to give space for Windows 7 (90G in my case)
5. Create a new FAT partition with the free space
6. Boot from Windows 7 installation CD
7. When prompted for selecting the partition, select the one you have just created, and format it to NTFS.
8. When reboot during Windows installation, remember to hold the ALT key when the screen turns to light grey and select the Windows partition to boot.
9. Continue until the installation is completed, then insert Mac OS installation CD to install boot camp and device drivers.

 

[damnyooneek]

start up with cmd + S the type /sbin/fsck -fy this worked for me

 

[Mackan]

Defragging and compacting the files - basically moving them to the beginning of the partition works fine. It will also make your system more snappy.

 

[johnrs]

Hi - yes the poster was right... it is /sbin/fsck -fy I did this and rebooted and now boot camp is happy to partitioon the 32Gb I requested

Hurrah!

BUT now I get a prob wiuth installing Vista - it says it can only be on NTFS partition, and not the bootcamp one... darn!!! what next?

Just thought I would add that this worked for me too. I have a 27" imac and needed to reinstall windows 7 again and was getting the black screen as expected so removed the ATIKMDAG.SYS file, but now getting a "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered ......" so I have deleted the bootcamp partition and tried to recreate it and ran into the "file cannot be moved" etc

 

[ErikFace]

I first tried the whole /sbin/fsck -fy deal. That didn't work. So I took the desperate advice of Tony-Lin. That didn't work either

I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.3. 2.4 ghz.

I've made a partition before about a year ago. I screwed up with the activation code and after 30 days, I wasn't able to use Windows anymore. So I deleted the partition and I've had this issue ever since.

 

[iFusion]

Im still getting this error, I managed to solve it last time by running "Compact" in iDefrag, but this time I thought id try a full defrag (I deleted Windows 7 to install Windows XP due to space, now I have enough space I want Windows 7 back)
After I did a full defrag the error was still occurring, bit strange but I thought I might need to do compact, I did that and it finished in about 15 minutes. So I go to try again, but still nothing.

Anyone got any ideas?

I refuse to backup the contents and reformat cus that seems completely unneccessary, theres no reason why I shouldnt be able to use Boot Camp
I have 81GB available and only want a 20GB partition.

 

[lucifiel]

Im still getting this error, I managed to solve it last time by running "Compact" in iDefrag, but this time I thought id try a full defrag (I deleted Windows 7 to install Windows XP due to space, now I have enough space I want Windows 7 back)
After I did a full defrag the error was still occurring, bit strange but I thought I might need to do compact, I did that and it finished in about 15 minutes. So I go to try again, but still nothing.

Anyone got any ideas?

I refuse to backup the contents and reformat cus that seems completely unneccessary, theres no reason why I shouldnt be able to use Boot Camp
I have 81GB available and only want a 20GB partition.

The Carbon Copy method works, but it is tantamount to back up and reinstall. In terms of contiguous space, it's the best solution. It really won't take more than 2 or 3 hours since you have more space than I do. It took me 1 hour to back up with CCC and another hour to CCC back to my original HD. I only have about 30 gigs of data though, so YMMV.

 

[n.m.e]

I had heaps of problems with the error. Then i deleted 25gig of music, restarted, had 25 gig free and made a 25gig partition and it finally worked. Its taken me days, i also tried right after deleting the files and it didn't work so may it have been the restart?.. anyway now i have windows!

 

[stonecold001]

The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be move

Backup computer. And then do erase and install that should work and then partion bootcamp.....

 

[whidbeyben]

Apple's method does work

I've had my 15" i7 MBP a few weeks and started using Virtual Box with XP, which worked fine for IE, but wouldn't run a program I need to view video from a video surveillance HD (Lorex PC Viewer), so I decided to try Boot Camp, and ran into the "unable to partition- files in use" problem. This wasn't an issue of space since on my 500GB HD, there was at least 350GB available.

I did end up following Boot Camp Assistant's suggestion to back up (I used time machine- but beware the problems with getting Time Machine to back up a Filevault protected home folder- you need to be logged out of that Filevault protected user and logged in as anyone else, then manually force a time machine backup). I held my breath as I rebooted with the MacOSX install disk and formatted the hard drive, then reinstalled from the time machine backup. I was relieved when 2-1/2 hrs later, things were back to their original state, except now Boot Camp Assistant was able to create the 21GB Windows partition it needed.

It's good to know that Time Machine can restore a volume to its original state. Too bad Boot Camp Assistant required that but it did work.

 

[fkntotalkaos]

I had the same problem.
I got Office 2004
and I got everything that matches for NOT-WORKING.
I tried 5GB and more lower, when I had 22Gigs of free space.

BUT, as soon as I got rid of VM files from Parallels, partitioning succeeded.

Dumb question but how do I remove the VM files from Parallels. I tried trashing all Parallels crap.. but still get the bootcamp error

 

[dudethechad]

When partitioning so that I can install XP, bootcamp claims that specific files cannot be moved, making it so that I am unable to install XP.

It then orders me to ~gasp~ back my files, and reinstall OSX.

Anyone else have this error message?
I wanted a 14GB partition, and that would leave about 16 additional gigs free on the OSX partition


I am NOT reinstalling X! Anyone got any ideas?

Ok, i have gotten this error two different times on two different computers. The first time i got it was on my 24inch iMac. The second time was just recently on my 17 inch macbook pro. I was very upset when i got it on the macbook because it was a nightmare with my 24 inch. It turned out that the cause of the error on the 24inch was that the hard drive had physical damage to it, making it impossible to repair in disk utility and eventually resulted in a hard drive failure. (The darkest part of my life). So you can imagine i was very distressed to see the same error message on my brand new macbook pro. So i read this thread and decided to sleep on it. When i woke up today i decided to bite the bullet and backup/restore/recover. I booted with the install disk like it says. I opened disk utility like it says. I clicked verify disk like it says. And what do u know, the disk needs to be repaired. I click repair and after about 10 minutes of pacing around my house, i get the green-texted congratulations on a successful repair. This is where my experience with the macbook began to branch away from that of the iMac. i decided before i wanted to backup/restore/recover, i wanted to see if that simple repair was the issue, so i rebooted, opened up bootcamp assistant, set my partition and it worked! Within 5 mins, it was partitioned and ready to go. Now i know that this won't help everyone since it couldnt help my iMac, but i suggest trying it before you give up entirely on having windows. Hope this helped!

 

[jsruok]

Repair disk with Disk Utility

Using Disk Utility's repair options worked for me.

 

[SanjayVyas]

Dont need iDefrag if the file blocking the partitioning is a swapfile

If the swap file is the one which has been placed at the end of the volume, re partitioning will not help. Rather than using an expensive app like iDefrag (~ $30) ... just disable the VM for a while and delete the swap file.

Step 1:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist
sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*

Step 2:
Once this step is done, go back to Bootcamp assistant and the partitioning should go thru. Thereafter you can re enable the swap file.

Step 3:
sudo launchctl load -wF /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Confirm that the swap file has been created in /private/var/vm/

Step 4:
Now go ahead and tell Bootcamp to boot into windows CD.

Guys, this worked for me and I didnt have to pay $30 just for moving one file. But I DO NOT provide ANY guarantees. Please do the sensible thing and backup your OSX partition before you try this stunt.

If it works for you, drop me a line on sanjay dot vyas at gmail dot com

 

[mipmap]

Solutions summary

For anyone arriving at this thread recently, here is a summary of the solutions. I'm only listing ones that *have been confirmed by at least one person to fix this problem*.

1) Reinstall OS - Boot Camp's recommended solution. Very time consuming.

2) Defragment - Requires purchasing iDefrag for $30. Defragment your internal (boot) drive and try Boot Camp again.

3) Clone & restore - Requires free SuperDuper. Backup your internal drive to another drive, erase the internal drive, then restore the backup to the internal drive. This is essentially another way to defragment.

4) Manual partition resize - Boot from an OSX DVD, run Disk Utility from there, shrink the OSX partition on your internal drive, then create a new FAT partition in the free space, then format the FAT partition to NTFS when installing Windows.

5) Apple Tech support's solution - Startup machine with Command + S. Run /sbin/fsck -fy. Repeat process. Reboot and run Boot Camp.

6) Clean startup - Reboot your machine. Run Boot Camp before running anything else.

7) Move large files - Moving large files (videos, Parallels VMs, etc.) to an external drive allows Boot Camp to proceed for some.

8) Disk Utility - Run Disk Utility and perform zero free space, repair permissions, and repair disk. Some of these may not be necessary (zero free space probably makes no difference) - but it doesn't hurt to do all three. NOTE: You should probably boot from an OSX install DVD so Disk Utility has full access to the internal boot drive. If you don't have the DVD, you can boot from a cloned drive you previously made by holding down Option at machine startup. See 3) above for how to clone your drive.

My personal experience: Solution 8) fixed it for me, where previously not even a 5GB Windows partition could be created by Boot Camp even though I had 40GB free on my 120GB internal drive. Zero free space and repair permissions worked by running Disk Utility directly from my internal drive, but I had to boot from an external cloned drive and run Disk Utility from there in order for Repair Disk to work completely on the internal drive.

Hope this helps others arriving at this thread now. Feel free to extend this summary if you have another solution that you have confirmed fixed this problem in at least one case.

-Erik

 

[techno91]

A simpler solution that worked for me...

1. Go to "Disk Utility", add a second partition as MS-DOS FAT type. Make it the size you want your Windows partition. I made mine 32GB. Don't worry, disk utility will not corrupt the main partition (as long as you don't actually erase it!).

2. Go back to bootcamp assistant, restore it back to one partition. I know this is redundant, but if we want boot camp to do the setup, we have to do this.

3. Restart boot camp assistant, and redo the partition creation steps, it shouldn't error out anymore.

That's what worked for me. Just thought i'd share.

 

[Coolbreeze84]

1. Go to "Disk Utility", add a second partition as MS-DOS FAT type. Make it the size you want your Windows partition. I made mine 32GB. Don't worry, disk utility will not corrupt the main partition (as long as you don't actually erase it!).

2. Go back to bootcamp assistant, restore it back to one partition. I know this is redundant, but if we want boot camp to do the setup, we have to do this.

3. Restart boot camp assistant, and redo the partition creation steps, it shouldn't error out anymore.

That's what worked for me. Just thought i'd share.

I have a 27-inch imac and I downloaded iDefrag and it didn't fix my problem. I'm annoyed that I wasted $30 but I guess it's good to have a defragger...

Anyway, can someone post more precise details on how to use disk utility? I'm not sure how to add a second partition using that program. Also, what does MS-DOS FAT type mean?

Sorry, fairly new to Macs here.