Boot Camp won't partition, do I HAVE to wipe my hard drive?

[davidg4781]

I previously had a Windows partition that I created with Boot Camp. I was running out of room and wanting to try out Windows 7, so I deleted it and tried to create a larger one. So far, i have not been able to create a new partition. The error I'm currently getting reads "Verification failed. This disk could not be partitioned. Use Disk Utility to repair this disk."

When I do that, I usually get that it needs repairing, I repair it, and then it happens again. I've done the repairing using the Leopard DVD or booting from another hard drive that's bootable.

Another error I was getting said there is currently data there that cannot be moved. That errors told me to back up, wipe my hard drive, and do a reinstall.

I really don't want to have to do that, and I really don't NEED Windows, but I did recently want to play some games and dug up my old games for Windows.

 

[MacDawg]

You can try running iDefrag

I believe some have had success doing that
I personally have never used it

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[fiercetiger224]

You could also try partitioning the disc inside of Disc Utility, and see if it'll let you create a FAT32 partition. If it doesn't work, it seems that files may be fragmented to the point where you don't have enough space for the disc to defrag, so it might help to clean up some space and see if that helps.

 

[LtRammstein]

I got the same issue with mine, and you do have to reformat your entire drive. The reason that I came up with that was behind this is that the GUID Table (partition table) somehow got corrupted and labeled the Leopard partition as the 2nd partition instead of the first. I could be wrong, but it seemed the most logical.

If you have a Time Machine backup, you'll be fine. Just insert your Leopard DVD.

Utilities > Disk Utility > Hard drive > Erase (Mac OS Extended (Journaled))

Utilities > Restore from Time Machine Backup

It took my machine about 1.5 hours to restore from a Time Machine backup. If you don't have a drive with Time Machine, you can try Carbon Copy Cloner, but you'd have to install Leopard and all the updates again.

 

[limo79]

Maybe try to use AppleJack: http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

 

[ebotee]

You can try running iDefrag

I believe some have had success doing that
I personally have never used it

Woof, Woof - Dawg

I used iDefrag to get around this error. HFS can become fragmented but it cannot defragment itself completely while the HFS partition is in use. I ended up installing Tiger on a USB drive and booting from that and then running iDefrag from the USB drive. After the HFS partition is defragmented as much as possible, try partitioning your drive again in Boot Camp Assistant.

 

[davidg4781]

Thanks for all the replies. I do have a few more questions.

If I do use iDefrag and it allows me to partition my hard drive, could I have any other issues that a complete wipe will prevent? I am getting those errors stating to run Disk Utility to repair the drive, but it's coming up with either no errors or number of folder errors (or something like that).

Now, let's say I do decide to do a complete wipe. I currently have a 250GB HDD being used as a TM backup. It's using a bit over 100GB. Would I be able to create a folder on that drive and back up my own stuff? I really would like a complete reinstall, just to make sure everything is fresh and clean.

I'm probably going to do something Friday. I'm off, and I'll have time to play around with this.

 

[PIUsesMac]

I actually just ran into this same problem a few days ago when trying to partition to install Windows XP. A family member who is Mac Tech support for a local school district recommended a defrag tool, or to skip partitioning completely and use Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Since I already had a Time Machine Backup, I decided it would be easier to wipe the drive and restore, which worked nearly flawlessly--the only thing that "didn't" work was my applications, which I had to manually restore using Time Machine within the OS, rather than the full restore from a Boot Disk.

Like you, I tried every option I could think of to avoid wiping my drive, including Boot Camp Assistant, Disk Utility, and even Partitioning using Terminal commands... none of them worked.

While wiping the drive is a scary thought, Time Machine does an excellent job of making it look like nothing had ever changed.

 

[davidg4781]

Thanks. Maybe I'll do that Friday.

I think I read Mac users really don't have to wipe and reinstall as often as Windows users, but the nerd in me still enjoys a few days rebuilding the system. Too bad I can't just wait until Snow Leopard comes out. I guess maybe I can, but it just bothers me that there's something wrong with my hard drive and I can't fix it.

 

[davidg4781]

Update:

I've been trying to do a TM backup of my current drive. It'll get to a certain point and then say there was an error and it cannot continue. I've erased the TM drive, restarted, and I get the same message. I tried moving my files over (music, movies, photos) and the movies would stop on a file I recorded with EyeTV. I messed around with that a few times and I got the same error on the same file.

I deleted all the EyeTV files (they were recordings of home movies, I'll just rerecord) and so far, TM's doing ok. It also saved me 40GB of TM backup.