Q: Partition Not Appearing

Good to see the Restore in progress.

Okay so I had to leave my computer last night to go somewhere.

When I came back I just got a circle with a slash through it after the apple screen.

Is this because I didn't have the exact version of OSX as the time machine back up? I had upgraded to El Capitan but didn't do any of the smaller updates.

No I'm back to internet recovery mode where it now, won't let me reinstall OSX because there's a newer version of the OS on there. It says: "You can't upgrade this version of OSX because a newer version is installed".

Any ideas?

Thanks again for helping so much.

If you have El Capitan on TM and El Capitan on the internal disk, minor version differences are not relevant. If you have beta OS X versions on the backup, you do no want to mix Beta OS X versions with standard OS X versions.

You can also restore only your User data and files from TM backups, if you do not need OS X from TM.

Okay. I don't have any beta versions on the backup.

I realized I was in "Internet Recovery Mode" and that I could just reinstall El Capitan by going into "Recovery Mode". I'm doing that now so I can start fresh again.

To get just user data and files from TM Backups, do I still do that from with in Recovery Mode or is that something I can just do from the desktop?

Please see

OS X Yosemite: Transfer your info from a computer or storage device

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

Okay so after reinstalling El Capitan, my whole desktop was restored back to normal.

The only thing that seems to be left over is the number of partitions that I have. It seems as though there is still a partition that is not showing up in Disk Utility. I can see it in terminal though and it's the same size as my original bootcamp partition.

Disk Utility(it's not finished indexing, I'm guessing that's why it's showing so much "Other":

Output of diskutil list:

Niks-iMac:~ Nik$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

  #:                      TYPE NAME                    SIZE      IDENTIFIER

  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB  disk0

  1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB  disk0s1

  2:          Apple_CoreStorage OSX-Macintosh-LVG      121.0 GB  disk0s2

  3:                Apple_Boot Boot OS X              134.2 MB  disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

  #:                      TYPE NAME                    SIZE      IDENTIFIER

  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB    disk1

  1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB  disk1s1

  2:          Apple_CoreStorage OSX-Macintosh-LVG      3.0 TB    disk1s2

  3:                Apple_Boot Boot OS X              650.0 MB  disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

  #:                      TYPE NAME                    SIZE      IDENTIFIER

  0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD          +3.1 TB    disk2

                                Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

                                88C3D13E-0390-402B-B45C-C0D1B6756E3A

                                Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

  #:                      TYPE NAME                    SIZE      IDENTIFIER

  0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *5.0 TB    disk3

  1:                        EFI EFI                    209.7 MB  disk3s1

  2:                  Apple_HFS Time Machine Backup ... 5.0 TB    disk3s2

Sorry, well actually it looks like there are two partitions of 121GB and 121.3GB. One of those may be the second partition that started all of this.

CodeAlpha7 wrote:

 

Sorry about not being able to talk, I eventually just wiped my Mac, nothin much was on it.

If it resolved your issues, the nuke-and-pave solution works.

From your diskutil list output, there are not BC partitions. You have a single 3+ TB CS Logical Volume Group and Logical Volume (LVG/LV).

You will need to run BC Assistant if you need to install Windows.

Okay I just wanted to make sure.

I know there aren't any Bootcamp Partitions but I was getting confused by disk0 being 121.3GB and disk0s2 being 121GB. Are those just the SSD part of the fusion drive?

Thanks a million for all the help.

I noticed, of course, that you're all over these forums helping people with these problems. Most of the postings seem like they are case-specific because they always have different numbers included in the steps, etc. That's what led me to make a post of my own and ultimately comment on this post.

Is there anyway I can help you create a centralized post that helps solve most of these problems so that you don't have to spend so much time with each person? You may actually like it, so of course disregard this if it's not a huge deal to you. I was just thinking that you probably spend a lot of time helping other people out with these problems.

If there's a way I can help make your life easier in doing it. I'd like to do so.

A 121 GB raw disk (disk0) is sliced into disk0s1 (EFI) and additional parts. If the remainder is used as a single partition disk0s2 and disk0 look very similar, but off by about 200+ MB. The nomenclature of disk0sN where N is a number indicates 'slices' of the same disk disk0.

nikharper wrote:

 

I noticed, of course, that you're all over these forums helping people with these problems. Most of the postings seem like they are case-specific because they always have different numbers included in the steps, etc. That's what led me to make a post of my own and ultimately comment on this post.

 

Is there anyway I can help you create a centralized post that helps solve most of these problems so that you don't have to spend so much time with each person? You may actually like it, so of course disregard this if it's not a huge deal to you. I was just thinking that you probably spend a lot of time helping other people out with these problems.

 

If there's a way I can help make your life easier in doing it. I'd like to do so.

In most cases, generic help is sufficient. Arriving at the conclusion to provide the generic steps is individual-specific. I have thought of writing a document tip, but not many people spend time with it. Think of a doctor and individual attention, rather than a document with dos and donts. I started one at OSX and Bootcamp discussion . It is in it's current state, because going deeper vertically or broadly, horizontally, is also driven by the comfort level of the reader in dipping their feet into 'cold water' conceptually. 

Yeah I totally get that.

Not many people are going to feel comfortable when doing things like erasing the contents of a hard drive from Terminal. I definitely found myself at the edge of my knowledge on this one, prompting me to get on the forum to get help.

Well I wish Apple was paying you for this. It seems like you're on here constantly.

Thanks a lot for the help man.

Hey Loner T,

After fixing everything with you last month. I was in the middle of the job so I didn't want to try and install Windows again.

Now I have purchased Windows 10 and I'm trying to install it via BCA but I've gotten two different errors when trying two separate times.

On this screen:

AFTER pressing format on the bootcamp drive I'm getting this error:

We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files.

I had tried again to install windows by getting rid of the partition and trying again. On that same screen pictured above I got the error:

"Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."

Any help appreciated of course.

nikharper wrote:

 

AFTER pressing format on the bootcamp drive I'm getting this error:

 

We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files.

What is Drive 1? Do you have any external storage attached to your Mac? This will usually generate the error you report.

 

I had tried again to install windows by getting rid of the partition and trying again. On that same screen pictured above I got the error:

 

"Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."

Did you remove the partition using BC Assistant or Disk Utility? You should not mix both.