8 Ways to Fix 'Your disk could not be partitioned' on Boot Camp

While many users managed to install Windows on Mac smoothly, some may encounter various problems, such as Boot Camp stuck on "Partitioning Disk" or the error we will address today, "Your disk could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk. Please run First Aid from within Disk Utility to check and fix the error."

The error doesn't seem related to a specific macOS version, as you may find "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, etc. You may run into this issue due to disk errors or insufficient space for Boot Camp. Here, we will summarize the ways to fix "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Boot Camp.

You can share these fixes with your favorite platform by clicking the button below.

Fix 1: Repair your disk with Disk Utility

You might have followed the warning torun First Aid to check and repair disk errors that may cause "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Boot Camp. If so, make sure you are doing it from macOS Recovery. Otherwise, follow the steps below to verify your startup disk's health and repair its data structures if needed:

If Disk Utility found no error, it means that the issue isn't caused by errors on your Mac hard drive. You can continue with Fix 3.

If Disk Utility can't repair your startup disk, try running the fsck command in Single User mode, as we will describe next, or back up your Mac and perform a clean macOS reinstall.

Fix 2: Run the fsck command to fix corruption

The fsck (file system check) command can verify the consistency of your Mac's file system and perform the necessary repairs. Running the command line tool fsck in Single User Mode is often the next choice if Disk Utility wasn't able to repair your drive. Note that the way to boot into Single User Mode differs on different Macs.

To perform the fsck check on Intel Macs with the T2 chip and Apple Silicon Macs, Apple recommends using Terminal in Recovery Mode.

On Intel Macs with the T2 chip:

On Apple Silicon Macs:

On Intel Macs without the T2 chip:

Once you are in Single User Mode, you can carry on the steps below to fix the boot drive:

You can then open Boot Camp Assistant and try installing Windows again. If Boot Camp still pops up "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Big Sur, continue reading the fixes below.

Fix 3: Remove unallocated free space

Besides checking and repairing your Mac hard drive, Apple also suggests you check for unallocated free space and remove it, if any, to deal with "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Monterey or other macOS. This way, you make the free space available to be partitioned with Boot Camp.

Retry with Boot Camp Assistant to see if the issue persists. If it still gives "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Big Sur/Monterey, move on to the next fix.

Fix 4: Troubleshoot the issue by creating a FAT partition

Since Boot Camp doesn't offer details about the error "Your disk could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk," we can manually create a FAT32 partition of the same size as you intended with Boot Camp to get more information. After all, this is essentially what Boot Camp failed to do. 

How to troubleshoot "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey:

When Disk Utility finishes partitioning your Mac hard drive, it will likely fail but displays more information about the error. You can Google the error to find more specific instructions on solving the issue, then use Boot Camp to partition your disk again. We will list some common solutions below, so keep reading.

Fix 5: Delete your local snapshots

Often time, Disk Utility won't let you erase the drive but shows the error "APFS Container Resize error code is 49153 Error: -69606: A problem occurred while resizing APFS Container structures."

If you have Time Machine enabled, it's likely making snapshots that prevent you from partitioning your Mac. In which case, you can turn off the automatic backup of Time Machine and delete the local snapshots to fix it.

How to terminate "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey:

It may take a few minutes if you have many local snapshots. Once all local snapshots are deleted, run Boot Camp to check whether the warning shows up. If you have resolved the issue with the methods we mentioned above, don't forget to share them with your friends.

Fix 6: Turn off FileVault

You may also come across the error "APFS Container Resize error code is 49187. A problem occurred while resizing APFS Container structures. : (-69606)." when creating the test FAT32 partition. If that happens, you need to check and disable FileVault as it may interfere with Boot Camp.

Suppose you still receive "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Boot Camp; try our next trick.

Fix 7: Turn off Optimize Mac Storage

If you back up your Mac with iCloud, you might have enabled "Optimize Mac Storage" to save space on your Mac. When it's on, files you haven't viewed for a while will be kept in purgeable space, which should be removed by the operating system when the space is needed.

However, macOS may fail to release the purgeable space on Mac when you need the space to create a Windows partition and cause the error "Your disk could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk." So, it's advisable to turn off "Optimize Mac Storage" before using Boot Camp and re-enable it when things are done.

If, unfortunately, this fix didn't stop Mac from showing "Your disk could not be partitioned." on Boot Camp, proceed to the next solution.

Fix 8: Downgrade/upgrade macOS

If you are not running the latest macOS, consider updating to the newest available version and installing Windows on it. Doing this can fix certain bugs in your current operating system that may result in the Boot Camp partition error and equip it with more security patches. You can check the available update in System Preferences > Software Update.

Nevertheless, if you are using the latest macOS and none of the above solutions managed to resolve the issue, you can downgrade the macOS you are currently running to an earlier version. For instance, if you get "your disk could not be partitioned." on Monterey, you can downgrade from Monterey to Catalina as Big Sur may be buggy on Intel CPUs.

Did these solutions help you get rid of the warning, "Your disk could not be partitioned. An error occurred while partitioning the disk."? Please share it with your friends.