BootCamp The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned

[chamukov]

I am currently trying to install bootcamp, however i am experiencing the following error: "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned." "You must have at least 42GB of free space available."

I have checked my storage and i have 62GB available storage. I have checked and my Time machine is switched off and I have also tried sudo tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 999999999999 in terminal and still not working. I would really appreciate if someone can help. I am using macOS Mojave. Thanks

 

[MacDawg]

Not sure if it is still this way, but back in the day, your free space had to be contiguous and not spread out
You could clone to another disk and clone back to get everything written consecutively and put the free space together

 

[chamukov]

Not sure if it is still this way, but back in the day, your free space had to be contiguous and not spread out
You could clone to another disk and clone back to get everything written consecutively and put the free space together

Not sure how should I do that, is it really difficult ?

 

[treekram]

If you are using APFS (not HFS+) on a single-disk Mac (such as the MacBook Pro 2012 Retina or later), using the Terminal app, type in the following and post the results:
diskutil ap resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 limits
(IMPORTANT: don't forget the word "limits" at the end.)

If you are not using APFS or have multiple disks, in Terminal, type in "diskutil list" and post the results. Or, if the amount you get for the "Current Physical Store partition size" doesn't match your disk, also run the "diskutil list" command and post the results.

For example, on my computer, if I type this in, I get:
Resize limits for APFS Physical Store partition disk0s2:
Current Physical Store partition size on map: 499.9 GB (499898105856 Bytes)
Minimum (constrained by file/snapshot usage): 179.4 GB (179415547904 Bytes)
Recommended minimum (if used with macOS): 190.2 GB (190152966144 Bytes)
Maximum (constrained by partition map space): 499.9 GB (499898105856 Bytes)

and I'm using only 73GB. So there is a difference in what is being used and what the OS will allow my APFS container to size to (and thus, how much can be used for Boot Camp).

 

[chamukov]

If you are using APFS (not HFS+) on a single-disk Mac (such as the MacBook Pro 2012 Retina or later), using the Terminal app, type in the following and post the results:
diskutil ap resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 limits
(IMPORTANT: don't forget the word "limits" at the end.)

If you are not using APFS or have multiple disks, in Terminal, type in "diskutil list" and post the results. Or, if the amount you get for the "Current Physical Store partition size" doesn't match your disk, also run the "diskutil list" command and post the results.

For example, on my computer, if I type this in, I get:
Resize limits for APFS Physical Store partition disk0s2:
Current Physical Store partition size on map: 499.9 GB (499898105856 Bytes)
Minimum (constrained by file/snapshot usage): 179.4 GB (179415547904 Bytes)
Recommended minimum (if used with macOS): 190.2 GB (190152966144 Bytes)
Maximum (constrained by partition map space): 499.9 GB (499898105856 Bytes)

and I'm using only 73GB. So there is a difference in what is being used and what the OS will allow my APFS container to size to (and thus, how much can be used for Boot Camp).

with the first command I am getting this
Current Physical Store partition size on map: 250.7 GB (250685575168 Bytes)

Minimum (constrained by file/snapshot usage): 197.7 GB (197652381696 Bytes)

Recommended minimum (if used with macOS): 208.4 GB (208389799936 Bytes)

Maximum (constrained by partition map space): 250.7 GB (250685575168 Bytes)

I have attached image what I am getting with diskutil list

 

[treekram]

It looks like the OS doesn't want to resize your container maybe because it would be too close to the recommended minimum. You can try deleting all of your local snapshots and see if re-running the "diskutil ap resizeContainer /dev/disk0s2 limits" command reduces the "Recommended minimum" amount. It might not. Or you can try copying to an external disk and then deleting a few large files to see if that makes a difference.

If doing these steps does make a difference in the "Recommended minimum" amount, you can try again to see if it will install Boot Camp.

Your container plus the EFI partition is taking up your entire disk so I think your main alternative if you can't get Boot Camp to install would be to erase the disk and re-install. You may want to see if anybody has any better answers before taking this step.

If you do have to take this step, you should download the Mojave installer, create a USB install flash drive. Back up your SSD using either Time Machine or cloning software. You would boot from the install USB flash drive, erase the disk and re-install the OS. You would setup your user account, but I would not copy back all your data onto the SSD at that point. I would instead run Boot Camp and let it partition the disk first and then when that is done, you can run the Migration Assistant app to copy back the data you have in Time Machine or the clone disk.

The other alternative you would have is to put Windows on an external disk but this is not something that Boot Camp will normally allow - it will require extra steps of installing something like VirtualBox (I haven't done this but I have seen this alternative and it seems to work).

(To delete local snapshots, in the Terminal app
tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots x where 'x' is the date suffix that the above command produces