jdalbright

Q: Unable to Overcome error - "The Startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

Hello!

 

I am attempting to install Windows on my iMac (late 2013, running 10.11.6) with no success.  I have created the ISO on a flash drive, but when I attempt to use the Boot camp Assistant, I am remitted to the following screen:

Screen Shot 2016-08-11 at 1.19.53 PM.png

I did my best to investigate solutions. The cause, per apple's support discussions, is that there is an alternate partition preempting (stopping) the boot camp assistant from partitioning the hard drive.  I investigated the partitions on my hard drive after disconnecting all peripheral devices and found this:

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-11 at 2.02.12 PM.png

This shows the main partition: Macintosh HD, the bootcamp partition: BOOTCAMP; and 2 unknown partitions: "Apple HDD ST100DM003 Media" and the same ***M004.  I was able to delete the first Apple HDD ST100DM003 partition, and ran first aid on the fusion drive after the second one would not delete.  I also cannot delete the boot camp partition.  I continue to get the same message when I attempt to install windows on a partition of the Fusion Drive using Boot Camp Assistant - "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". 

 

Any suggestions??

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 11, 2016 12:17 PM

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Q: Unable to Overcome error - "The Startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 11, 2016 2:47 PM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 11, 2016 2:47 PM in response to jdalbright

    Please post the output of the following OSX Terminal commands.

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

     

    A Fusion drive is expected to have EFI, OSX, Recovery HD on each of the underlying physical disks. If your previous Windows installation attempts have failed, it can leave the disks in a state where BCA will not use/modify them.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 12, 2016 3:59 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 12, 2016 3:59 AM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for the reply Loner T. I am not sure if I've tried to install windows on this computer before, but what you're describing sounds like the issue.  What's the best option?  I tried internet recovery mode last night restoring the computer from a time machine back up with the Apple Techs said would not recover the BOOTCAMP partition, but unfortunately the artifacted partitions still exist.  Here's the output from the commands you listed:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-12 at 6.56.53 AM.png

     

    Any help you can offer would be great, thanks!

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2016 10:23 AM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2016 10:23 AM in response to jdalbright

    Please disconnect your 4TB external disk. It interferes with Windows installation. Do not connect it, till Windows is fully installed.

     

    We need to merge disk1s4-disk1s6 into a single contiguous chunk.

     

    1. Erase disk1s3 and convert it to JHFS+ - diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ PT1 disk1s3

    2. Erase disk1s4 and convert it to JHFS+ - diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ PT2 disk1s4

    3. Merger all chunks into a contiguous chunk - diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BOOTCAMP disk1s4 disk1s6

     

    Please post the output or any errors you see for these commands, before we go further.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 12, 2016 10:25 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 12, 2016 10:25 AM in response to Loner T

    So far so good!

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-12 at 1.24.38 PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2016 11:06 AM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2016 11:06 AM in response to jdalbright

    We missed disk1s3.

     

    Merger all chunks into a contiguous chunk - diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BOOTCAMP disk1s3 disk1s4

     

    disk1s3 being without Recovery HD bothers me a bit.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 12, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 12, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Loner T

    Copy; I managed to gunk up the plan... Attempted to use BCA after successfully deleting all partitions (attempting to follow the prompt from BCA)... Current disk information:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-12 at 3.35.39 PM.png

    I have a full recovery option through time machine; everything backed up on separate hard drive (external).


    Will standby for instructions

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2016 12:41 PM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2016 12:41 PM in response to jdalbright

    Boot into Internet Recovery and restore your TM backup, and post the output of

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

     

    once the restore is complete. Let us see what it looks like once restored.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 12, 2016 5:13 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 12, 2016 5:13 PM in response to Loner T

    Just finished restore from TM backup.  Output as follows:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-12 at 8.12.11 PM.png

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 12, 2016 5:58 PM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 12, 2016 5:58 PM in response to jdalbright

    Did you get any errors during the restore? On a regular Fusion drive, there is a Recovery partition on each physical disk, but you do not have one on disk1. Here is an example from a Mac mini.

     

    diskutil list

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         128.0 GB   disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

       4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                127.7 GB   disk0s4

    /dev/disk1

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1

       2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.3 GB   disk1s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               650.0 MB   disk1s3

    /dev/disk2

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:                  Apple_HFS OSX-FusionHD           *1.1 TB     disk2

    /dev/disk3

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *48.2 MB    disk3

       1:                  Apple_HFS Adobe Flash Player I... 48.2 MB    disk3s1

     

     

    diskutil cs list

    CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group DF140929-90E7-48E1-AC3D-C9C75BA88D1D

        =========================================================

        Name:         OSX-FusionHD

        Status:       Online

        Size:         1127375384576 B (1.1 TB)

        Free Space:   69632 B (69.6 KB)

        |

        +-< Physical Volume C856A74C-EB57-4D1F-8223-0A22215218ED

        |   ----------------------------------------------------

        |   Index:    0

        |   Disk:     disk0s2

        |   Status:   Online

        |   Size:     128030257152 B (128.0 GB)

        |

        +-< Physical Volume 80D91A14-CCC9-47B1-B071-B9ADFF23924F

        |   ----------------------------------------------------

        |   Index:    1

        |   Disk:     disk1s2

        |   Status:   Online

        |   Size:     999345127424 B (999.3 GB)

        |

        +-> Logical Volume Family 019D610F-21AC-4B54-AB0A-6D5F90D520A7

            ----------------------------------------------------------

            Encryption Status:       Unlocked

            Encryption Type:         None

            Conversion Status:       NoConversion

            Conversion Direction:    -none-

            Has Encrypted Extents:   No

            Fully Secure:            No

            Passphrase Required:     No

            |

            +-> Logical Volume D9DC0F70-38C7-4AE6-BAC4-CFBE0F8D4F68

                ---------------------------------------------------

                Disk:                  disk2

                Status:                Online

                Size (Total):          1118844862464 B (1.1 TB)

                Conversion Progress:   -none-

                Revertible:            No

                LV Name:               OSX-FusionHD

                Volume Name:           OSX-FusionHD

                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

     

    Before you run BC Assistant, can you boot into Internet Recovery and run Utilities -> Terminal and execute

     

    diskutil repairDisk disk0

     

    Copy (Command+C) the output, exit Terminal, start Safari and Paste (Command+V) as a reply to this discussion.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 13, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 13, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Loner T

    Loner T-

     

    In Internet Recovery Mode, ran repairDisk on disk0. Following is the output:

     

    -bash-3.2# diskUtil repairDisk disk0

    Repairing the partition map might erase disk0s1, proceed? (y/N) y

    Started partition map repair on disk0

    Checking prerequisites

    Checking the partition list

    Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required

    Checking for an EFI system partition

    Checking the EFI system partition's size

    Checking the EFI system partition's file system

    Checking the EFI system partition's folder content

    Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces

    Checking booter partitions

    Checking booter partition disk0s3

    Repairing file system

    Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume

    Checking extents overflow file

    Checking catalog file

    Checking multi-linked files

    Checking catalog hierarchy

    Checking extended attributes file

    Checking volume bitmap

    Checking volume information

    Trimming unused blocks

    The volume Boot OS X appears to be OK

    File system check exit code is 0

    Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required

    Reviewing boot support loaders

    Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions

    Verifying storage system

    Checking volume

    disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers

    disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers

    disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels

    disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels

    Logical Volume Group B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 spans 2 devices

    disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume

    Logical Volume Group has a 1609 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy

    Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint

    Load and verify Segment Headers

    Load and verify Checkpoint Payload

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Incorporate 26 newer non-checkpoint transactions

    Load and verify Virtual Address Table

    Load and verify Segment Usage Table

    Load and verify Metadata Superblock

    Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees

    Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume

    Load and verify CBC88389-287C-4922-A878-87DA429F6985

    Load and verify 7302EC98-A25A-4DF1-AA46-7FE51F610044

    Load and verify Freespace Summary

    Load and verify Block Accounting

    Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses

    Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid

    Load and verify Segment Cleaning

    The volume B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 appears to be OK

    Storage system check exit code is 0

    Repairing storage system

    The volume disk0s2+disk1s2 cannot be repaired when it is in use

    Checking volume

    disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers

    disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers

    disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels

    disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels

    Logical Volume Group B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 spans 2 devices

    disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume

    Logical Volume Group has a 1609 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy

    Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint

    Load and verify Segment Headers

    Load and verify Checkpoint Payload

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Load and verify Transaction Segment

    Incorporate 26 newer non-checkpoint transactions

    Load and verify Virtual Address Table

    Load and verify Segment Usage Table

    Load and verify Metadata Superblock

    Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees

    Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume

    Load and verify CBC88389-287C-4922-A878-87DA429F6985

    Load and verify 7302EC98-A25A-4DF1-AA46-7FE51F610044

    Load and verify Freespace Summary

    Load and verify Block Accounting

    Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses

    Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid

    Load and verify Segment Cleaning

    The volume B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 appears to be OK

    Storage system check exit code is 0

    Updating Windows boot.ini files as required

    The partition map appears to be OK

    Finished partition map repair on disk0

    -bash-3.2#

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 13, 2016 6:35 AM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 13, 2016 6:35 AM in response to jdalbright

    This looks clean. Have you run a SMC/NVRAM Reset with all external storage disconnected? If yes, run BCA, use a USB2 flash drive of 8-16GB and check how far you get. Do not put your ISO on the USB, put it in your Desktop/Documents folder. The USB will be erased and formatted.

     

    If you need a valid ISO, please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home .

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 13, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 13, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Loner T

    I Have not run a SMC/NVRAM Reset At all yet.  I will check this out.  I have a valid .ISO of Windows 10 on a flash drive (64gb) ready to go sitting Around waiting for BCA to get past the initial screen (which still throws the same partitioning error).

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 13, 2016 7:26 AM in response to jdalbright
    Level 7 (24,002 points)
    Safari
    Aug 13, 2016 7:26 AM in response to jdalbright

    You do not want to use two USB disks, one for Installer, and one for the source of the ISO. There should only one USB which be erased/formatted. You should move the ISO to Desktop/Documents folders.

     

    If you have a TM backup, it may be time to rebuild your Fusion drive.  As a test, go into Disk Utility and try to create a FAT32 partition of the size you want Windows to be.

  • by jdalbright,

    jdalbright jdalbright Aug 13, 2016 7:28 AM in response to jdalbright
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Windows Software
    Aug 13, 2016 7:28 AM in response to jdalbright

    Ran SMC and then NVRAM reset... no joy. I still get the same partition error thrown when I attempt to utilize boot camp assistant.

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