Bootcamp volume is unremovable

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Level 1

19 points

Bootcamp volume is unremovable

I installed windows on my MacBook. In the Bootcamp assistant, I did the partitioning on battery (I had around 90%, so I though it would be fine), During the setup process I couldn't select English UK as the UI language, the time zone from Berlin/Bern/Geneva and the Swiss currency, with the Swiss German keyboard setup, it kept giving me an error that it is an invalid UI language, so I quit the setup process with the red arrow on the top right, it warned me if I wanted to leave setup and I clicked yes.

After this I restarted into the Mac because I had to take some notes quickly. After a while I tried to boot into windows, but now there was a blue error screen saying that my PC couldn't start properly, I tried to connect an external keyboard and clicking F1 to enter recovery environment but that also didn't work an brought me back to the error page. I tried to go in to Mac Recovery mode and then using disk utility to delete the bootcamp volume and restore the space back to the original partition, but I keep getting an error saying that I don't have enough space?? I don't understand how I don't have enough space to get space??

I have tried erasing the bootcamp partition and then restoring it, but I got the same problem, what can I do??

(I have made Time Machine backups btw, but don't aim on factory resetting the whole device because then I'll have to reinstall every app again)

Here is an iCloud link to all the photos:

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0d2xivnZwp-_b-DspQLal7ZFg#Community

Thanks a lot in advance

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Aug 25, 2023 3:07 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PRP_53

Level 10

91,411 points

Aug 26, 2023 7:53 AM in response to Aary_D

From what I have seen when a Manual Deletion of a Partition made by BootCamp has been attempted and goes wrong.

Not what you may want to hear, but Wiping the Entire Drive 100% clean of everything is needed.

This would remove the Bootcamp Partitions(s) and everything else

Start with a Fresh Installation

Use Migration Assist using " (I have made Time Machine backups btw, ) and choose Only your User Account.

Nothing more

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

203,284 points

Aug 25, 2023 4:33 PM in response to Aary_D

Unfortunately, because you attempted to remove it manually, it may have left it in a state where even BCA can't rectify the situation. I'll put out a call to the other seniors here. There are several that have much more in depth knowledge about how to fix this than I do.

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Answer 3

Aary_D Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 26, 2023 3:50 AM in response to -Bubba-

OK, this is the output:

aary@Aarys-MacBook-Pro ~ % diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 200.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_APFS Container disk1 50.7 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +50.7 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s3

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 9.1 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume ASRDataVolume_888 700.4 KB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Preboot 3.5 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume Recovery 1.1 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +200.0 GB disk2

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 79.4 GB disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 1.9 GB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.1 GB disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 3.2 GB disk2s4

5: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 9.2 GB disk2s5

6: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 9.2 GB disk2s5s1

aary@Aarys-MacBook-Pro ~ %

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Answer 4

-Bubba-

Level 6

10,326 points

Aug 26, 2023 9:19 AM in response to Aary_D

Hang on, there might be a way to save it without a full erase. I'm assuming your BC partition was the 50GB one? Try running the below commands in Terminal in order from top to bottom.

This should erase the container contents:

sudo diskutil apfs deletecontainer disk0s3

This should make the erased container into free space:

sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s3

Finally, this should expand your main container to fill the space:

sudo diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0

No guarantees, but if you're gonna delete it anyway you may as well try this first. Regardless of what you plan to do, please make sure your backup works!

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