User profile for user: Steggad
Steggad Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

error when installing Windows using Bootcamp

“Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer file's <ImageInstall› setting. Make sure the setting references a valid partition and restart the installation.”


I am distraught beyond the point of physical pain by the amount of times I seen this cursed text on the screen of my MacBook.

I have MacBook A2141 (MBP 16 2019 1Tb i9) and for the past 40 hours I have attempted every single solution I could find on internet to my problem and not a single one worked.


First things first, there’s some background that has to be explained: I already HAD a bootcamp installed, but I needed to reinstall it due to the fact that I created a 60 GB C disk and it was not enough. Other than that, I was using two other ExFAT partitions in order to supply my Windows with enough space, but when your windows constantly has only 1 GB of free space on C and you constantly have to clean it, find apps you can move to other drives and sit on %AppData% each day eliminating the biggest folder that appeared in 24 hours, it is hard to call it a pleasant user experience. I had two other partitions: one for 150 GB and another for 100 GB. And it appears the fact I didn’t first delete the partitions prior to erasing bootcamp is what caused all of this to happen.


I didn’t delete partitions because I had some important program files on 150 GB one, and it would soothe program recovery process later on if I saved them up. I went into the Bootcamp assistant and after I erased the 100 GB one, started restoring process. But, to my surprise, my Macintosh HD drive didn’t just get additional memory: it was just gone. Literally. I was entering disk utility, and all I saw was a 150 GB disk and 700 GB space I had left for Mac - other 150 was nowhere to he found. I managed to recover the lost space when I moved info from the partition I saved to Mac folder and formatted it to APFS - I was left with “Unknown container 4”. I was able to delete the partition and recovered my full disk space. Now, this is where the fun starts.


No matter what in the world I tried, Windows installation would always end with the error I described above. Here’s the full list of things I tried:


  • Several windows ISOs numbering 6 were used and changing iso would not influence the issue completely, obviously not a ISO issue
  • I have tried to install bootcamp before full reset and after full reset - didn’t help (I tried it two times, first using the reset option in settings and second by going into internet recovery utility, formatting the disk and reinstalling the mac)
  • I have cleaned NVME and CMS - this shown no change to the issue
  • I tried installing it using a flash drive, but when installing it would show an error about missing drivers for installation or it would show that it cannot find the drive where to install
  • I tried finding the AutoUnattend.xml file while in windows installation using cmd - could not find it. (that’s were the problematic parameter is supposed to be)


From what I see, Windows installer cannot see the partition where to install itself to, question is can I fix that? I am desperate. I tried every single fix that I was able to find and nothing unfortunately helped.

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Apr 23, 2025 11:16 PM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
64,652 points

Apr 24, 2025 4:29 PM in response to Steggad

Windows Bootcamp does not like having partitions changed once installed. If you want to make a change, then you must use Bootcamp Assistant to remove Windows in order to return the Windows partition into the APFS Container used by macOS.


You can try using Disk Utility to delete each Windows partition to see if you can get one partition in addition to the Apple partition/Container and the hidden EFI partition used by Apple (disk0s1 usually). If it doesn't allow you to merge everything back......doubtful it will, but worth a try since what do you have to lose?


Speaking of losing......you do have a good backup of your macOS data I hope since modifying partitions & drive layouts is very risky and could cause data loss if something goes wrong. If you don't have a good backup, then you need to do this immediately before doing anything else if that data is important to you. I hope you also have a good backup of the Windows data as well.....it doesn't sound like it from your description, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.


The simplest way forward if you still haven't succeeded by this point would be to start completely over by performing a clean install of macOS which involves erasing the whole physical SSD (Intel Macs only) followed by reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup. Then try using Bootcamp Assistant to reinstall Windows.


If you are comfortable with the command line or are just adventurous hoping for a less drastic option, then you can using the instructions I provided in this other thread where you can use the command line to delete each non-Apple partition followed by merging the resulting "(free space)" part back into the macOS APFS Container. I tried to explain the process in general, but each post is also for a specific user case. If you read my posts carefully, then you should have more than enough information to apply it to your Mac's current situation since I have no idea what your drive layout looks like now.


Links to two different posts with different drive layout issues:

Deleting non-Apple partitions & merging back into the main macOS APFS Conainter -- HWTech - Apple Community


Single post with yet a different drive layout:

Another situation needing to delete non-Apple partitions to merge back into main macOS APFS Container -- HWTech - Apple Community



And this is worth repeating:



If you don't have a good backup, then you need to do this immediately before doing anything else if that data is important to you. I hope you also have a good backup of the Windows data as well. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes. Plus the MBPro 16" (2019) model has a Logic Board with a very high rate of failure...if it ever fails, don't even bother having it repaired.



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User profile for user: Steggad
Steggad Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apr 27, 2025 2:01 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks a lot for your reply, however I gave up. I have already wiped completely clean my macs ssd and installed the mac os - this did not resolve the issue. I even tried to install a second mac os and making a partition for it and this didn’t help as well. I didn’t care enough about my data - everything I had was just junk, old music projects I didn’t care about. I simply upgraded my windows pc that i had to a new processor and i left this mac to work as a mac till the end of his days. Anyway I wanted windows only for gaming - it was not bad previously, but it wasnt good as well

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error when installing Windows using Bootcamp

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