Odd Partition Error : "could not modify partition map beacuse...

[rafirafi123]

could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed"

Help!

I am trying to partition my hard drive to set up an XP system on it (I know, but it is for AutoCAD, sorry).

Anyways, when I go into disk utility, and try to set up the partition, it fails. I have a newer uMBP, 375 free GB (trying to set up a 75 GB partition) and it just wont work. Weird. Nothing seems to be online about the problem.

When I set up the partition, it "Options" button is greyed out.

Any suggestions

 

[electroshock]

Boot off your Leopard (or Snow Leopard or Tiger or whatever you have) DVD.

Head to Disk Utility (while booted off the DVD).

Do a 'Repair Disk'.

Then try repartitioning as desired, again.

 

[rafirafi123]

Cool, thank you. I will try when I get home tomorrow. FYI I am running SL

 

[gr8tfly]

If you're going to be setting up the partition for Boot Camp, you need to use the Boot Camp Assistant application. Using Disk Utility won't create a bootable Windows partition. If you haven't already, take a look at the Boot Camp Assistant help (you can print it from the app itself).

You'll also need an XP SP2 install disk at a minimum (which you might have, you just mentioned XP, so I wasn't sure).

The options button is probably grayed out because you can't modify the partition map of your startup drive, while started on it (which for future reference needs to be GUID for a bootable OS-X volume).

 

[Detrius]

You might be lucky, and it could just be an easily fixable software problem (as mentioned by electroshock). Unfortunately, it could be worse. It could be caused by bad blocks on the hard drive. That's never fun.

 

[oslomac]

Boot off your Leopard (or Snow Leopard or Tiger or whatever you have) DVD.

Head to Disk Utility (while booted off the DVD).

Do a 'Repair Disk'.

Then try repartitioning as desired, again.

Yeah, well I would do that, except my Superdrive is out of commission due to the extensive Superdrive failure problem :-/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1918925&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1684759&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2024271&tstart=0

 

[Smokey Funk]

I restarted with OS X Install Disc. Then repaired the hard disk drive and boot camp worked after restart.

 

[maflynn]

I restarted with OS X Install Disc. Then repaired the hard disk drive and boot camp worked after restart.

Do you realize that you're responding to a thread dated in 2009 and in all actuality the OP has resolved his problem one way or another.

 

[k3lit0]

Do you realize that you're responding to a thread dated in 2009 and in all actuality the OP has resolved his problem one way or another.

Actually his reply was very useful to me. While the OP may have solved the problem, the best part about threads like this is that people searching google will find them and hopefully be able to solve their own problems. I hate when a thread has my exact problem and then ends with "I fixed it thanks guys," with no explanation.

<3

 

[youareajerk]

you are a jerk. you are the reason people choose not to help people in forums. you are the reason that people have bad experiences with forums. you are the reason forums are places that make people worry and cringe about placing a post. in fear of jackass ingrates like you. i found this thread very informing up until now. i found the post by smokey very helpful. perhaps if he had seen you in the thread he may not have chipped in and helped others. you may want to consider another hobby, maybe pick up depression and knot tying.

Do you realize that you're responding to a thread dated in 2009 and in all actuality the OP has resolved his problem one way or another.

 

[scottd70192]

you are a jerk. you are the reason people choose not to help people in forums. you are the reason that people have bad experiences with forums. you are the reason forums are places that make people worry and cringe about placing a post. in fear of jackass ingrates like you. i found this thread very informing up until now. i found the post by smokey very helpful. perhaps if he had seen you in the thread he may not have chipped in and helped others. you may want to consider another hobby, maybe pick up depression and knot tying.

I agree, I found it very helpful as well. Although it did not end up working for me, it got me moving in the right direction.

I found another solution for anyone who tries the disk repair and it still doesn't help. In my case, I had free space at the bottom of my hard drive and I wasn't able to resize the mac partition to fill up the space again. What I did was make a partition in FAT format in the space that used to be free. Then, I ran boot camp, and it thought that there was windows already installed, so I told it to remove windows, and it totally removed the partition and resized my mac partition to take up the whole hard drive like I wanted.

 

[mylogon]

Well, Maflynn. Looks like you've been proven wrong again. scottd70192 helped me a lot. Thanks a lot scottd70192. I've been trying this for ages. Worked great!

 

[1point9turbo]

Boot off your Leopard (or Snow Leopard or Tiger or whatever you have) DVD.

Head to Disk Utility (while booted off the DVD).

Do a 'Repair Disk'.

Then try repartitioning as desired, again.

I see this has worked for some people. I have the same problem but my install disk is long gone. Has anyone another way to fix this problem without the install disk?

 

[scottd70192]

Well, Maflynn. Looks like you've been proven wrong again. scottd70192 helped me a lot. Thanks a lot scottd70192. I've been trying this for ages. Worked great!

I'm glad it worked! I unfortunately am still having issues... and repairing the disk has not helped... cause now I am trying to create another partition.... and when I try it in Lion, it tells me the file system verification failed, and then when I boot into the recovery drive and repaired the disk, then tried partitioning from the recovery drive it said it couldn't unmount the disk. So then I tried to boot back into lion and partition, and it did the same file system verification failed error... I'm currently still looking for a solution, haven't come across it yet. Let me know if anyone has had this problem and found a solution.

 

[scottd70192]

I'm glad it worked! I unfortunately am still having issues... and repairing the disk has not helped... cause now I am trying to create another partition.... ...

Okay, so I figured out another solution that may help for those of you that are stuck in a loop of partition errors and couldn't unmount disk errors. Make a Lion install disk, then boot from that. It takes a long time to boot from the install disk, but it will boot. Then run Disk Utility on the install disk, repair the disk, repair disk permissions, and then partition. For me this worked perfectly.

 

[skyfly1234]

YOU, YOU scottd70192, ARE A HERO! THANK YOU SO MUCH. I WANT TO MEET YOU IN REAL LIFE AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT CREEPS YOU OUT, I WANT TO GIVE YOU A BIG HUG. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 

[DevinJDGH]

Finally..

I've had this error after removing my windows 7 partition (for gaming purposes) and now I can resolve the issue, but what if I do not have the correct version of the install disc? (Computer has updated to 10.6.8 but disc is 10.6.3) and the "Repair Disc" option is never available for me..😕

EDIT: Problem solved using Scottd70192's solution (FAT system) ! thank you so much!

 

[shreds87]

Bad news and some good news on my end. Lion doesn't like to boot from an external DVD drive (sigh...apple) so unfortunately I was unable to boot into the install disk and repair permissions/partition the HDD in disk utility there.

Luckily, this gave me the idea to boot into safe mode (hold shift at startup instead of option as you would with boot camp), and give disk utility a try there--worked with no problems. Might be worth trying if any of you are rocking dual internal hard drives (and so do not have an internal superdrive) or if your superdrive is broken.

Now we find out if I can restore Snow Leo to the new partition and triple boot Lion, SL and Windows 7!

edit: everything seems to have worked, tri-boot is up and running.

 

[theSeb]

Okay, so I figured out another solution that may help for those of you that are stuck in a loop of partition errors and couldn't unmount disk errors. Make a Lion install disk, then boot from that. It takes a long time to boot from the install disk, but it will boot. Then run Disk Utility on the install disk, repair the disk, repair disk permissions, and then partition. For me this worked perfectly.

I keep an exact bootable copy of my main os drive on an external hard drive, created by Carbon Copy Cloner. When I have such issues, I boot from the external drive in OSX, run Disk Utility on the internal hdd and fix any issues that way.

 

[fhall1]

Great thread...I had to use "Repair Disk" in order to get my partition to take up the old bootcamp space, but at least it works now!

 

[PriapusZA]

I too had this problem.

What I did was use repair disk and verify disk in disk utility. After doing that, I was able to partition the drive as needed.

 

[krahd]

Many thanks, this somewhat bizarre workaround worked like a charm!

Cheers!
-k

I'm glad it worked! I unfortunately am still having issues... and repairing the disk has not helped... cause now I am trying to create another partition.... and when I try it in Lion, it tells me the file system verification failed, and then when I boot into the recovery drive and repaired the disk, then tried partitioning from the recovery drive it said it couldn't unmount the disk. So then I tried to boot back into lion and partition, and it did the same file system verification failed error... I'm currently still looking for a solution, haven't come across it yet. Let me know if anyone has had this problem and found a solution.

 

[foshasta]

Okay, so I figured out another solution that may help for those of you that are stuck in a loop of partition errors and couldn't unmount disk errors. Make a Lion install disk, then boot from that. It takes a long time to boot from the install disk, but it will boot. Then run Disk Utility on the install disk, repair the disk, repair disk permissions, and then partition. For me this worked perfectly.

Is there a way to make an install DVD? Mine disappeared.

 

[Dalton63841]

Is there a way to make an install DVD? Mine disappeared.

All you have to do is burn InstallESD.dmg to a disk.

If you're going to be setting up the partition for Boot Camp, you need to use the Boot Camp Assistant application. Using Disk Utility won't create a bootable Windows partition. If you haven't already, take a look at the Boot Camp Assistant help (you can print it from the app itself).

This is just completely and utterly WRONG. Boot Camp Assistant is nothing more than a "pretty" front end for Disk Utility to set up a dual boot. You can do it from Disk Utility and it will work exactly the same.

 

[gr8tfly]

This is just completely and utterly WRONG. Boot Camp Assistant is nothing more than a "pretty" front end for Disk Utility to set up a dual boot. You can do it from Disk Utility and it will work exactly the same.

First, it's not wrong (notice SHOUTING wasn't required 🙄) - it's the procedure recommended by Apple. To avoid digressing into talking about multiple ways of adding the partition, it's easier to use the word need, especially when you can't make assumptions about the experience of the OP.

Yes, DiskUtility (or diskutil) will create the new partition, but for those less versed in using DiskUtility (or, cl tools), it's just easier to let Boot Camp Assistant guide them through the installation process.

I would say the same about removing the partition. It's less error prone to use Boot Camp Assistant for the inexperienced.