Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Boot Camp failed on 3TB Fusion - 1TB gone missing

Just tried to install Windows using Boot Camp on the new 3TB supporting version.

It hung at the partitioning stage, and I was left with a messed up Disk Image and about 1.2TB less disk space than I had before. I tried a full restore via Recovery Assistant, but now Disk Utility seems to think I only have a 2TB disk.

I went back in to Recovery Assistant to try a reinstall, and it again showed Macintosh HD as a 2TB volume, so doesn't look like that will solve the problem either.

Any ideas? I'm outside of my 90 days tech support so thought I'd ask here before paying for a call.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 15, 2013 9:22 AM

Best reply

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Posted on Mar 15, 2013 9:26 AM

First of all, I doubt that the space has disappeared. Probably, Boot Camp resized your OS X partition but didn't create the Windows partition, so you have that "lost" space. To recover it, follow these steps:

1. Open Disk Utility and select the hard disk at the top of the sidebar.

2. Go to Partitions tab and you will see a bar similar to this:

3. As you can see, at the bottom right of "Macintosh HD" volume, you can select it, so put the cursor on it and drag it to the bottom of the sidebar. Finally, press Apply, and you will recover your lost space

View in context

92 replies

Apr 4, 2013 10:38 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

Try this, as it worked for me... but with that fusion drive, you never know (!!!!).

Use disk utility under the recovery mode, not from the OSX. This allowed me getting access to the greyed partition and re-agregate it into the "one fusion drive"

Hope this will work for you....

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 4, 2013 10:50 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

Raymond Jones1 wrote:

I'm ready to burn this iMac. This is the second iMac I've gone through this problem on.

I booted from the DVD drive by restarting the computer and holding down the C key. I then started the windows 8 installer. I then located this "ghost" partion and deleted the partion. It then labels this partion as unallocated space as seen in the picture below.

Note when I select the drive labeled Drive 0 Unallocated space... all options are greyed out!

When I close the installer and get back into Mac OSX, it shows that partition still exists, but it is now of the type "Free Space". All options are greyed out in disc utility and now my Hard drive shows that only 2.2 TB are available out of 3TB. So I've basically lost 1TB of storage space that is not formatable. Please help!

Reboot into recovery (command-r) erase the internal disk, select MacOS as the resultant format. Reinstall from your backup. (If you don't have backup then make one before you start)

Apr 4, 2013 11:42 AM in response to Csound1

I have a Time Machine backup of all my files which is great.

Tech support had me enter into recovery mode. Even after erasing the disc the partion remained. I guess I'll see what happens at 5:15 with my phone call in.

Apr 5, 2013 7:33 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

Well, another hour on the phone with tech support and no luck. He had me select the "Free Space" partition and try to delete it by clicking on erase free space button. It took over 3 hours to finish and nothin happened. I'm still in the same position. I cannot get rid of this "Free space" partition.

This is the stupid partition I cannot get rid of...

Even if I select the flyout where it says "Free Space" and try to change it to Mac OS extended journaled & hit apply, nothing happens. It doesn't do anything.

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 5, 2013 7:42 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

Deleting free space will not change anything, you need to delete all partitions (except recovery) on the drive and then create a new one. Everything on the drive will be lost so backup first.

Apr 5, 2013 7:58 AM in response to Csound1

I've erased the drive three seperate times with Apple Support. We did it through disc utility in OS. We did it through disc utility in recovery mode and once in disc utility using internet recovery mode. I've reinstalled OS X 4 times already. That chunk of "Free Space" still remains.

I've tried to do some research and it seems the only way to fix this is to return the drive and get a new one, use a program called iPartition or do some fancy magic using terminal. I have another phone call with Apple Support tonight. Just the way I want to spend my Friday night.... 😠

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 5, 2013 8:01 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

I am not talking about erasure, question, yes or no answer please.

Have you deleted the partition(s) (not free space, not operating systems etc), you would do this from the partition tab of Disk Utility?

(iPartition does not do anything that Disk Utility can not do) don't waste your money.

Apr 5, 2013 10:48 AM in response to Raymond Jones1

Will iPartition work? I downloaded the demo and it seemd to be able to access the 'greyed out' free space partition that I was totally unable to access through Disk Utility in any way shape or form. I have a new drive waiting to be installed at my nearest Apple store, but would actually happily pay the £36 for iPartition if it saved me from the hassle of having to take the iMac in get it repaired and then collect it again.

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 5, 2013 10:56 AM in response to Wattonski

iPartition does nothing at all that can't be done with Disk Utility, why waste money.

Apr 5, 2013 11:06 AM in response to Csound1

It'll have to be the repair job then, 😠

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 5, 2013 11:29 AM in response to Wattonski

Have you tried to delete the partition in Disk Utility (not erase the partition, delete it)

Apr 5, 2013 11:39 AM in response to Csound1

It's greyed out and can't be deleted through any method. This is the problem we are all having - the partition that was created during the boot camp process is totally inaccessible.

Apr 5, 2013 11:45 AM in response to Wattonski

I got MacOS back on my free partition just by doing a full re-install of Mountain Lion. That then got me to the stage of having two logical partitions but one Macintosh HD of 3Tb in size, and then from here I could install Boot Camp just fine.

I think that basically when you first try to do anything with Boot Camp Assistant it will try to take you to the 2.2TB + 800Gb split on your hard drive, and then you can never come back from there. The point is you don't actually need to come back from there, as OS X will continue to treat your drive as if it only had one partition (or two, if you later install Boot Camp).

Csound1

Level 9

59,979 points

Apr 5, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Wattonski

Wattonski wrote:

It's greyed out and can't be deleted through any method. This is the problem we are all having - the partition that was created during the boot camp process is totally inaccessible.

OK, just so I am clear did you (in DU) select the drive in the left hand sidebar (the topmost entry) then go to the Partition Tab, select the Mac OS partition and delete it then continue through all other partitions. And you were booted from an external drive (or recovery) when you tried?

Apr 5, 2013 11:56 AM in response to Csound1

Tried them all - greyed out every time.

Boot Camp failed on 3TB Fusion - 1TB gone missing