"Hello, I need to install my windows 10 system on my Mac (OS 12.13), I run Boot Camp Assistant and load the ISO file, but when I click Continue, get an error message "Not enough space on startup disk to repartition. You must have at least 50GB of free space." I have 64GB free and I have SSD (128GB), what’s the problem?"
Without a doubt, you must have created Windows 10 bootable disk, but on Windows operating system. But when are supposed to create it on a Mac, it seems a far-fetched possibility. Boot camp Assistant is a software which helps you experience Windows activities on Mac and you use it to create Windows 10 bootable drive on Mac. But on many occasions a strange issue seems to surface, creation of the Windows 10 bootable disk is impeded with a message which says "There is not enough space available on the disk" or "Your Bootable USB drive could not be created".
Does that mean Boot camp fail you? Not Really. Sometimes the size of your ISO file using which you create the Bootable disk is way too large then this issue is quite certain to come. This error might also appear if you are trying to install the October 2018 edition of Windows 10 on a Mac device which is operating an earlier version of Mac operating system.
If boot camp says not enough space on startup disk, you can try to use the last win 10 version. For this method to work out, first you have to download the Windows 10 April 2018 Edition to your MacOS, and then install it. Next check the Windows requirements to know whether your Mac shall be able to handle this new edition of Windows or not. For the information, all the Windows OS versions, be it 7/8/10 can be handled by the latest models of MacOS.
Step 1. So to begin with this method, check if your Mac has enough space to run Windows 10.
Step 2. Now go to the link given here and download Windows 10 April 2018 edition.
Step 3. Open a new "Finder" Windows. Go to "Applications", then "Utilities".
Step 4. Click on the "Boot Camp Assistant" option and then click on the "Continue" button.
Step 5. From the right-hand panel, browse to select your ISO file of the directory.
Step 6. Next partition the hard disk to offer at least 55 GB for Windows OS and the rest for MacOS.
Step 7. Click on the "Install" option and booting up of Windows begins. Select the drive named "Bootcamp" while the booting continues. Simultaneously, choose your language, account details, timeline, etc.
Step 8. Eventually, accept all the terms and conditions of Bootcamp and the software needed later on. You will be asked next to restart the system, so click "OK" and it will be done. Now after the system boots, try to create the bootable disk this time. Graciously, this time, the error message will not pop up. But still, if it resurfaces again, try out the next method.
Though the first method was quite simple to attempt, it might fail at various times. Thus here we are going to use a third-party tool, known as PassCue ISO Editor, which can help you Extract, Burn, Create, Copy Disc, Edit a bootable disk without losing any data. So basically here we will re-create the downloaded ISO file which will compress it to reduce its size to an extent that there will be enough left to create the bootable disk.
Step 1. Firstly download the software from the official website of Passcue, install it and run it. In the main window, you will see there are 5 features built in it. Burn, Extract, Cretae, Edit and Copy Disc. To install a Windows on Mac, you need to chose first option: "Burn" and next.
Step 2. Suppose you’ve downloaded a Windows ISO file on your Mac desktop, then insert your USB on computer which the program installed on, click Browse button to load your ISO file to program.
Step 3. For windows 10 ISO, then choose UEFI mode to process. Select your file format from the "System File" section as FAT, FAT 32, NTFS.
Step 4. Click Burn button to start writing ISO file to USB drive, it will take 5 - 10 minutes to complete the burning process.
Step 5. When the burning process is finished, check if there is some booting files in it, eject your USB drive and insert to your Mac computer, and set USB as first boot order, it will load the windows installation interface.
After tried these two ways and you still get messages "Boot Camp says not enough free space...." then It is possible that there is not enough free space in a single congruent area on your SSD, in other words, fragmentation is keeping you from being able to partition. There is other possible solution would be to use a 128 GB or larger flash drive to save Windows installation files.
Nadine is the Editorial Director at PassCue Studio. You can also find her on social network.
