If you have an Intel based Mac, and at least 10.5 “Leopard” MacOS, then you can install Windows natively into a separate partition and dual boot between the two.
Just run the Boot Camp application from Applications/Utilities, and have a Windows XP/Vista/7 install disc ready.
The first stage in this process is to re-size the current MacOS partition, and create a partition for Windows on the end of your hard drive. This stage has caused problems for me many times, due to this error:
“”The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.”
The solution to this, according to Apple Support, is to backup everything and reinstall MacOS, formatting the drive. Pathetic
I’m not backing up my whole hard drive and formatting?! I’ve got homework due tomorrow and I need this done now!
It seems there is quite a common cause to this problem: the sleepimage file. This file is used for safe sleep, which is a feature of newer, portable macs which allows the computer to be restored to it’s previous state if all power is lost during sleep. It is a large file (the size of your total RAM). The crucial part though is that it seems to be stored right at the end of your partition, and “cannot” be moved!
So, you can safely delete this file for the purposes of the Boot Camp partition re-sizer, because the file will be automatically re-created later.
Run Terminal from Applications/Utilities and type the following:
‘sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage’
then type your administrator password.
Straight away, after the prompt returns for you to type something again, type ‘exit’ and try the Boot Camp utility again.
If this doesn’t work, there is more things you can try:
Use an offline disk defragmentation tool. Offline is key here, because if it is running like a normal application inside of MacOS, it will not be able to move these pesky mystery files either. iDefrag is an excellent choice for this.
If neither of these have worked, it might be because your disk is somehow corrupted, or in some other bad state.
Boot from the Leopard Install Disc, select Utilities at the top, and run Disk Utility. Select your hard drive, and clicking “Verify Disk”, and then “Repair Disk”.
Or, if you don’t have access to the Leopard Install Disc, reboot into single user mode by holding down Apple + S at start-up, and then type ‘fsck -fy’ and the prompt. This will repair any hard drive errors.
Deleting the sleepimage file took less than 20 seconds. The people in forums saying things like “if Apple says you have to format your whole disk, then that’s what you have to do!” really infuriate me. It comes from an attitude towards computers caused by a lack of understanding. There’s nothing wrong with a lack of understanding, but posting that kind of advice is not helpful.
