Can not remove mac osx base system drive

Question

Level 1

17 points

Can not remove mac osx base system drive

Hi folks..

Just trying to do a complete clean install of Mountain Lion. I booted up from a USB and erased the Macbook hardrive completely.

However I see a second drive/partition below that says 'disk2 - Mac OSX Base system' and it's about 2 gigs in size. I want to wipe and delete this too so that I will have just one single partion but disk utility will not letr me even touch it.

The 'erase' and Security options are greyed out and inactive and there is some text to the right that says: "This is the start up partition you can not erase it".

I don't see how it can be a start up partition as it's only 2 gigs in size and the main 750 gig drive has already been wiped.

How can i get rid of this drive/partition completely?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Sep 30, 2013 10:28 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 5, 2017 10:27 AM in response to Res_Q

you need to use the Terminal to see all of your drives first I'd type "exec bash" press enter then type "diskutil list" and see the list of drives it gives and also to get more detail type "hdiutil info -debug" to get more detailed information on each volume and its location. I currently have had my "OS X Base System" corrupted with malware and am trying to figure out how to get that figured out. The problem is I have 17 random tiny Volumes that it says are located in RAM and RAMFILE so if you've got that issue when you do hdiutil info -debug you've probably got the same future iWannaCry type virus I think my computers/network has. So far wiping and calling and doing just about everything isn't successful for various reasons. It's actually pretty funny running my computer in single user verbose mode gives me this drunken output dialog that clearly was written by either a drunk person or someone who doesn't speak english very well or both. Good luck. Youll need it, no one is very knowledable in this that I've found.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,370 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:33 AM in response to xpirex

That's Mt. Lion's Recovery volume which you could have used to erase the working volume and do a clean install of Mt. LIon. To get rid of it you may have to try to repartition the entire drive with Disk Utility.

Otherwise, reboot with the Command+R keys held down to boot into the Recovery volume. Once there run Disk Utility to again erase the working volume and then do an install of Mt. Lion. This method is much easier and quicker than doing it from the USB device.

OT

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Answer 3

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:45 AM in response to Old Toad

I don't want a recovery volume at all.

Sorry what do you mean do a reinstall of Mountian Lion? And that this method is better then doing it from the USB?

The USB is how I will install Mt.Lion, I have no other method.

I did as you suggested and rebooted with Command+R and its now attempting an internet recovery with a grey spinning globe on the screen.. Is that normal? How can it even get online when nothing is intalled?

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Answer 4

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:55 AM in response to xpirex

Ok it booted up in recovery mode and still the options to wipe the recovert drive are not available. All greyed out still.

I did as you suggested and erased the main drive again. But all that did was rename it now to disk_2 and the little 2 gig drive/partition has become now disk_1.

Could you please explain to me how I can partition everything? I don't quite understand what your saying.

Thank you.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,370 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:53 AM in response to xpirex

If you boot into the Recovery volume you can resinstall Mt. Lion from there.

OS X: About OS X Recovery

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

215,370 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:56 AM in response to xpirex

I don't believe one can install Mt. Lion without a Recovery partition.

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Answer 7

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 10:59 AM in response to Old Toad

Will that get rid of the 2 gig drive/partition?

Yes you can install Mt.Lion without a recovery partition. I just did it on my other Macbook and it only had a single main partition with no recovery partition at all.

It installed problem free.

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Answer 8

Old Toad

Level 10

215,370 points

Sep 30, 2013 11:04 AM in response to xpirex

Then you'll have to boot into your USB system and use Disk Utility to repartition your boot disk into a single partition because the entire drive needs to be unmounted to do so. Then install Mt. Lion. But I don't know how one would tell the USB install not to create a recovery partition.

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Answer 9

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 11:09 AM in response to Old Toad

When I installed Mt. Lion on my other Macbook I also did it from USB and it did not create any recovery partition at all.

Take a look..

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Answer 10

gumsie

Level 4

2,185 points

Sep 30, 2013 11:49 AM in response to xpirex

Cannot offer anything useful to you right now but I'm curious. Why would you not want a recovery partiton?

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Answer 11

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 11:53 AM in response to gumsie

My computers rarely if ever screw up. I have other recovery methods that I prefer so don't need any of my drive space taken up with unecessary things.

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Answer 12

gumsie

Level 4

2,185 points

Sep 30, 2013 11:56 AM in response to xpirex

Oh Ok. If they work for you.

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Answer 13

xpirex Author

Level 1

17 points

Sep 30, 2013 1:24 PM in response to gumsie

The suggestion supplied by Old Toad worked.

Thanks a lot folks for all our input and help. Much appreciated. 😉

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Answer 14

Res_Q

Level 1

10 points

Dec 1, 2015 7:58 PM in response to xpirex

Jumping in here, as I have been struggling to erase a virus-infected base system as well...the base system doesn't show in disk utility when you are opening disk utility outside of recovery mode. If you are working on the mac, and open disk utility, you won't see it. But it's there. 😮

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