Bootcamp won't partition...

To circumvent all the installing and restoring *****, you can use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the Mac OS X volume to an external, properly formatted*, HDD, boot from that, erase the internal HDD via Disk Utility and its Partition tab, then clone the contents of the external HDD back to the internal HDD and run Boot Camp Assistant again.

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How to format a new HDD/SSD to install Mac OS X or make a bootable copy onto​

If you only have your TM HDD at hand and it has enough free capacity, you can also use that, as it won't overwrite the TM backup folder (Backups.backupdb) with the correct settings, but when cloning back, make sure to exclude that folder.

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Maybe have a look at Advanced Search to find similar threads:

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It is unnecessary. I tried iDefrag on several of my external HDDs, which have gone through a lot of copying and deleting routines. iDefrag reported a fragmentation of less than 2 % on all HDDs. I had much higher numbers when using Windows 2000 and XP.

 

I installed Windows XP and Ubuntu via rEFIt once, I guess Windows 7 should be the same. Maybe have a look at Advanced Search, as this is a topic, that comes up quite often.

 

As CCC makes a bootable copy, be it to an external HDD connected via Firewire or USB 2.0 or an internal HDD connected via P-ATA or S-ATA, you can actually BOOT from that bootable copy.

1. Download CarbonCopyCloner
2. Connect the external HDD to your Mac, and either format it properly or have it already be in the proper format

How to format a new HDD/SSD to install Mac OS X or make a bootable copy onto​

3. Open CCC
4. Select "SOURCE" - which is your INTERNAL Mac OS X partition
5. Select "TARGET" - which is the partition on the external HDD you want to clone to
6. Click the "CLONE" button
7. Enter your password
8. Do whatever you want, spend time with the Mac or someone else
9. Cloning has finished
10. For easiness: Go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the clone and click "RESTART"
11. Wait for the restart to complete
12. Open Disk Utility
13. Format the internal HDD properly - see 2. for instructions
14. Repeat steps 3. to 11.

 

Yes, you can use that partition, just move all the contents of it into one folder, for easier recovery (as Mac OS X has quite some folders to copy), and make sure, the HDD is using GUID as partition map scheme (as pointed out in my earlier post at step 2).

 

Also check the Advanced Settings to let CCC not delete contents on the target volume:

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I personally have a small bootable external drive (120GB) with Drive Genius and that's how I defrag my internal drive..

Because if some files are "in use" any defrag app will not touch it..