Why is Boot Camp Assistant a piece of crap!

[Flynnstone]

I'm trying to use Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition.
I'm going around in circles.

I've removed my 120G drive and replaced it with a 320G on my MacBook.
I made one partition : Mac OS Extended (journeled).
Used SuperDuper to move all my data to it from the old drive
and I keep getting BCA (CRAP) saying :
Anyone have ideas what I can do?
Also I tried to a fresh install with my Leopard disk. It didn't think the computer was valid and refused to install. Its a white MacBook. Not a Hackintosh!

 

[neilhart]

It appears that your machine has one or more issues. If you can not install Lepoard from DVD... it is not a BootCamp Assistant problem.

If it were my problem, I would start by running the hardware diaganostics found on the original restore DVDs.

Neil

 

[r.j.s]

Is the disc (Leopard) a retail disc or restore?

 

[JNB]

I did the same thing a while back (HDD replacement to a larger drive), BC'd the new disk with a larger partition and restored the Windows data with WniClone, and the entire process was absolutely flawless.

I really don't think the problem is with BCA, here. The big clue is the problem with trying to reinstall Leopard. Whether you're using a retail disk or Restore disk, I suggest you boot from that and see if it allows you to reformat the new HDD, install Leopard, and BC the second partition. If that's successful, you can still restore from the SD image to the Mac partition.

As previously mentioned, using the Apple Hardware Test disk that came with the machine (it's a separate disk) is not altogether a bad idea.

A question: Did you have a BC partition on the old drive as well?

 

[LtRammstein]

Doesn't sound like a specific hardware issue, but more of a permissions/file system issue.

An Apple Hardware Diagnostics test (using the Leopard Install Disc, reboot and hold down the 'D' key) could help, but I don't see it working well at all. Next best thing to do is check to make sure the drive itself is not at fault.

 

[micsaund]

I think this is what I saw. The OSX partition was not "compact" enough, so I did a Carbon Copy Cloner to an external drive, and then back to the internal drive. This caused all of the data to be written in a single large block, which left plenty of freespace for BC to partition.

It was non-optimal, but it also wasn't that big of a PITA thanks to the ease with which I could image OSX to an external FW drive.

Mike

 

[Flynnstone]

I did the same thing a while back (HDD replacement to a larger drive), BC'd the new disk with a larger partition and restored the Windows data with WniClone, and the entire process was absolutely flawless.

I really don't think the problem is with BCA, here. The big clue is the problem with trying to reinstall Leopard. Whether you're using a retail disk or Restore disk, I suggest you boot from that and see if it allows you to reformat the new HDD, install Leopard, and BC the second partition. If that's successful, you can still restore from the SD image to the Mac partition.

As previously mentioned, using the Apple Hardware Test disk that came with the machine (it's a separate disk) is not altogether a bad idea.

A question: Did you have a BC partition on the old drive as well?

1 OS X (extended,journaled) on 120 gig before. I ran Parallels without a Win partition.
1 OS X (extended, journaled) on 320 gig now.
I ran Apple Hardware test, both simple and extensive, no problems found.

I partitioned the 320 gig to be one big extended, journaled partition as BC request.
I booted from my previous, 120g mounted as external and tried BCA. It said can use an external drive. Dead end. PITA PCA.
I tried to do a fresh install with Leopard disk. It didn't like my MacBook.
I used SuperDuper again to copy from external to internal. Ran BCA again. back initial problem. Going around in circles and getting very frustrated.

What did you do? Step by step?
Any help is appreciated.

 

[Flynnstone]

I think this is what I saw. The OSX partition was not "compact" enough, so I did a Carbon Copy Cloner to an external drive, and then back to the internal drive. This caused all of the data to be written in a single large block, which left plenty of freespace for BC to partition.

It was non-optimal, but it also wasn't that big of a PITA thanks to the ease with which I could image OSX to an external FW drive.

Mike

I did something like that.
I mounted the 320 externally via USB.
Used SuperDuper to move data from internal to external.
Swapped drives and rebooted.
Tried to run BCA .... and the frustration started.

The I can't install Leopard has me worried.

Computer history:
- bought a prior rev refurb from Apple store in Dec '07
- had a problem with mouse pad/button.
- return to Apple.
- They said Engineering would like to hold onto this computer and they would replace it with a brand new current rev (Feb 2008) MacBook.
- No problem for me.
- mid 2008 upgrade RAM to 4 gig
- No problem with this machine at all.

I think I was trying to install Leopard from a retail version.

 

[YanniDepp]

I had the same issue when I upgraded my MacBook's HD from 80GB to 250GB. I think I used SuperDuper, might have been CCC though.

In the end, I did a fresh install, and it worked fine after that.

 

[LtRammstein]

I would run DiskWarrior to see if the file system (structure) is messed up in such a way that it's causing BCA to not run properly.

Like I said, doesn't sound like a hardware issue, just a file system.

 

[neilhart]

If your machine can not boot and run from a "GOOD Retail" OSX 10.5.n DVD you are just kidding your self. The fact that are having problems with BCA that you are copying from one place to another is just an indication that the code is glitched in some manner.

Obtain the restore DVDs for your machine or obtain a retail version DVD of OSX 10.5.n and start from there.

Neil