First, let’s explore the root causes of these Boot Camp errors on your Mac operating system in the section below.
Causes for the Boot Camp Error on macOS
The Boot Camp error is commonly caused by:
Windows ISO folder issue: During Windows file installation, an error occurs with the “install.wim” file, which exceeds 4GB. It can’t be written to the FAT32 partition that Boot Camp creates by default, as FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit.
Outdated macOS version: Compatibility issues with older macOS versions may prevent support for installation or executable files required for installing a new Windows operating system on a Mac.
Note – While following the methods below to fix this boot camp error, you might end up losing data from macOS. If you have lost data during the process, you will need a reliable mac data recovery tool to retrieve the lost data.
How to fix the Mac boot camp error
Boot Camp Assistant is known to stop functioning due to various reasons, it might return an error that states Boot Camp installation failed while copying the Windows installation files. Follow the mentioned steps in the section below to resolve this error:
Solution 1: Using Disk Utility method to fix the boot camp error
The first step is to force the exit from the boot camp if it is not responding. To do that, follow the steps mentioned here
Press the Option + Command + Escape button to force quit the application. Once you have completed this step, check if your macOS is up to date by verifying the date, and restart Boot Camp again to start the installation process.
If Boot Camp Assistant says that the startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition, complete these additional steps:
- Open Disk Utility, you will be able to find it under the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- Once you go to Disk Utility, Select your Mac startup disk (Macintosh HD) in the sidebar.
- Click on Partition in the Disk Utility toolbar
- If Disk Utility asks whether you would like to add a volume to the container or partition the device, click on Partition.
- Click on OSXRESERVED in the graph that appears, later click the remove button (–) below the graph.
- Click BOOTCAMP in the graph, then click the remove button (–). OSXRESERVED and BOOTCAMP are empty partitions that Boot Camp Assistant created during the failed installation.
- Click on Apply, then click Partition to confirm.
- Open Boot Camp Assistant and try the Windows installation process again.
Solution 2: Repair Disk
An error with partitioning disk may sometimes arise if there are issues with directories or file systems. To resolve the issue, go ahead with the following steps.
Before you begin, make sure you have a backup of your data. Nothing may happen, but it is always a good idea to be prepared.
- Click on Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility
- Click on your hard drive in the left pane
- Select Verify Disk to begin checking your disk
- Wait for the process to complete and produce a status report. Check whether any errors found, click on Repair Disk to repair your disk
Verify if the procedure is successful; all errors will be fixed, and you can now try running Bootcamp again. Check whether it’s working. If not, try running FSCK as explained in the next section.
Solution 3: Run the fsck Command
This is used to verify system files and fix any corruption. Running this trouble-shooter should be done through the command prompt. It may sound complicated and technical, but don’t let it. Just follow the instructions below and you should be fine.
- Restart your Mac and enter single-user mode by pressing Command + S.
- At the command prompt, type /sbin/fsck -fy to verify and repair any disk corruption.
- Once complete, type exit to leave the command prompt.
- Start your Mac normally and try running Boot Camp again.
- Note: These steps may lead to data loss. If you lose data from your Mac operating system, use the Remo Recover Mac Hard-drive recovery tool to recover lost data easily, even after re-installation of the Mac OS.
