Volume Bootability after Failed Boot Camp Partition Attempt

[Vivaldi]

Hello,

Upon attempting to partition my volume under Boot Camp, I'm left with an error telling me that "some files could not be transferred" and to back up the volume's contents and reformat the partition under the Mac OS X boot disk.

The problem concerning Boot Camp's inability to partition I can solve - I'm backing up the volume right now, and I'll defragment the disk and remove a few unnecessary large files. My problem, however, is that I do not have access to a Mac OS X boot disk at this time, due to reasons I am too angry to explain. I am concerned over whether or not the disk will boot up at all; if I won't be able to boot up the volume, then I will not have any access at a computer (at this time).

Just to be safe, I did a Disk Utility disk verification just to see if anything seemed amiss, and it responded with "the volume appears to be OK".

I'm grateful for any assistance.

 

[BlueRevolution]

In a number of jurisdictions, it is legal to download a copy of software that you already legally own. I suggest that you research copyright law in your jurisdiction prior to doing so, but this may be your best option. I don't think you'll be able to do anything without a fresh install. All disks of the same version of Mac OS X are the same – there are no serial numbers or anything like that to deal with.

 

[Vivaldi]

That is nice to know (no sarcasm; it really is, considering the fact that I'm a paranoid, parsimonious freak who fears the government more than I fear bears), but as I don't have access to DVD-RWs yet (I'm currently out of the country; I can probably find a store somewhere), I can't do that yet, so now I'm just worried about whether or not the hard drive in question would boot if I were to restart or shut down the computer.

Thanks for your response.

 

[BlueRevolution]

I doubt it. Without a fresh install, it is unlikely that you will be able to get the system working at all, let alone running smoothly.

However, if you download a disk image of an OS X installer, you can restore it to a partition on your internal or external hard drive and boot/install from that. No DVD required.

 

[lamina]

I had precisely the same issue. I used iDefrag, which seemed to F my file system beyond repair.

My suggestion is to boot to your restore disk, or an OS X install disc (insert, shut down, hold down C while pressing power button until you see the grey .

From there, run Disk Utility and see if you can restore your disk to one partition without erasing everything. Unfortunately I was not able to, so I had to reformat. Thank Steve for Time Machine.

Anyway, I was still able to boot to OS X, but it was really sluggish, and Disk Utility from within OS X did report that there were issues with the file system structure.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hello,

Upon attempting to partition my volume under Boot Camp, I'm left with an error telling me that "some files could not be transferred" and to back up the volume's contents and reformat the partition under the Mac OS X boot disk.

The problem concerning Boot Camp's inability to partition I can solve - I'm backing up the volume right now, and I'll defragment the disk and remove a few unnecessary large files. My problem, however, is that I do not have access to a Mac OS X boot disk at this time, due to reasons I am too angry to explain. I am concerned over whether or not the disk will boot up at all; if I won't be able to boot up the volume, then I will not have any access at a computer (at this time).

Just to be safe, I did a Disk Utility disk verification just to see if anything seemed amiss, and it responded with "the volume appears to be OK".

I'm grateful for any assistance.

The message that the Boot Camp Assistant gave you (which normally says "Some files could not be moved" rather than "transferred" which throws me off a little) is thrown out before the actual partitioning is physically begun so it really should not have any effect whatsoever on the bootability of your existing OSX installation- or to put it another way, your Mac should boot the same after the aborted partitioning as it did before you ran the Boot Camp Assistant.

The message regarding backing up the volume and reformatting it is just Apple providing the simplest method for relocating the files that could not be moved to prepare a single contiguous block of free space that the Boot Camp Assistant requires for the establishment of the BC partition. Backing up the files and then formatting the volume before restoring them in essence winds up defragmenting the disk in order to provide the largest possible single block of free space in the end.

Since you don't have your disks with you, I would just suggest you hold off on installing Windows via the Boot Camp Assistant until you have them in hand again- and that at that time before you even begin the Windows installation you do a full OSX backup anyways! In the meantime, your OSX installation should work just as it did before the attempt to partition.