addrum
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition

So I get this error that I see a lot of people have. I recently reformatted my HDD to one partition of Mac OS X Extended Journaled format after having Bootcamp. I'd now like to reinstall bootcamp now my drive is one partition however I get the above error. I checked my disks by holding down the option key and it appears that there are still remnants of my old Bootcamp partition left as you can see in the picture (sorry for poor quality):

 

IMG_20140822_193947.jpg

So I guess OS X still thinks I have bootcamp and thus 2 partitions even though in my disk utility you can clearly see the whole drive is one partition:

 

Screen Shot 2014-08-23 at 14.50.21.png

How do I fix this?

 

Thanks,

Adam

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Aug 23, 2014 6:50 AM

Close
addrum

Q: The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 Next

  • by 213JB,

    213JB 213JB Aug 23, 2014 9:21 AM in response to addrum
    Level 2 (380 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 9:21 AM in response to addrum

    Boot Camp: Partition alert message when using Boot Camp Assistant

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 10:06 AM in response to 213JB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 10:06 AM in response to 213JB

    Well I don't know if you saw my Disk Utility screenshot but I don't have any other partitions visible. The OS seems to think there is but I only have one when I view in Disk Util so your solution won't/doesn't help.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 23, 2014 12:35 PM in response to addrum
    Level 10 (207,995 points)
    Applications
    Aug 23, 2014 12:35 PM in response to addrum

    Disconnect the flash drive and try again.

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 12:40 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 12:40 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Still no luck. Here's a diskutil list copy/paste from terminal if that helps:

     

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            3.0 TB     disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

     

    If I have to reformat again I will, but I'd really like to avoid that.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 23, 2014 12:56 PM in response to addrum
    Level 10 (207,995 points)
    Applications
    Aug 23, 2014 12:56 PM in response to addrum

    The partition table looks normal, so that isn't what's causing your problem. I don't use Boot Camp and I know almost nothing about it, so that's all I can tell you. I'll ask the moderators to move this thread to the Boot Camp forum.

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 12:59 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 12:59 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Okay thanks. I thought I put it there, woops.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 23, 2014 1:03 PM in response to addrum
    Level 7 (24,098 points)
    Safari
    Aug 23, 2014 1:03 PM in response to addrum

    Please run

     

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    diskutil cs list

     

    from OSX Terminal.

     

    If Bootcamp Assistant is not used to delete Bootcamp partition, there is no clean up of the MBR. Your problem seems to stem for that.

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 1:05 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 1:05 PM in response to Loner T

    Adams-iMac:~ Adam$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Password:

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 97451/255/63 [1565565872 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 - 4294967294] <Unknown ID>

    2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

    3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

    4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused     

    Adams-iMac:~ Adam$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=3000592982016; sectorsize=512; blocks=5860533168

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 5860533167

           start        size  index  contents

               0           1         PMBR

               1           1         Pri GPT header

               2          32         Pri GPT table

              34           6        

              40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

          409640  5858853952      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      5859263592     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      5860533128           7        

      5860533135          32         Sec GPT table

      5860533167           1         Sec GPT header

    Adams-iMac:~ Adam$ diskutil cs list

    No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

    Adams-iMac:~ Adam$

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 23, 2014 1:54 PM in response to addrum
    Level 7 (24,098 points)
    Safari
    Aug 23, 2014 1:54 PM in response to addrum

    Please remove the ExtHDD (Seagate) and the 32GB USB and run diskutil list.

     

    Your USB also has a bootable partition which you are using to re-install Bootcamp/Windows which will show up when Alt is used.

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 1:59 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 1:59 PM in response to Loner T

    Adams-iMac:~ Adam$ diskutil list

    /dev/disk0

       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0

       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            3.0 TB     disk0s2

       3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

     

    So if I removed the USB it shouldn't show up? And that still leaves the other Macintosh HD partition that's preventing me from using the assistant.

    Ok, I'd like to reinstall through Bootcamp Assistant as I feel more comfortable doing it that way. And I remember it lets you move a slider to assign the size to the Bootcamp partition. Obviously this error is preventing me from getting to that stage.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 23, 2014 2:42 PM in response to addrum
    Level 7 (24,098 points)
    Safari
    Aug 23, 2014 2:42 PM in response to addrum

    If you use Bootcamp Assistant, you should have only the internal drive and the USB that you built. BA will automatically boot using the USB into the Windows installer. Based on your GPT and fdisk output, you have a single GPT, and the installer will create appropriate entries on the MBR side (fdisk) and boot you into windows, without having to use the ALT key.

     

    You do realize that you have a 3TB drive which can cause issues due to the 2TB limit.

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 23, 2014 3:55 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 23, 2014 3:55 PM in response to Loner T

    Yeah I get that. I have installed Bootcamp before, I had issues, reformatted, back to the start. I've never had issues with the drive being 3TB before, it worked just fine the first time I installed it. I still get this error:

     

    Screen Shot 2014-08-23 at 23.53.37.png

     

    And as you can see from my earlier Disk Util screen cap, I only have the one partition.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 23, 2014 5:32 PM in response to addrum
    Level 7 (24,098 points)
    Safari
    Aug 23, 2014 5:32 PM in response to addrum

    On a working system, I have the following GPT and fdisk setup. The only difference that I can spot is the way your MBR is setup. Your MBR ends at 4294967294 not 5860533168 which is the full size of your disk. The entire disk should be in the MBR to start with, so BA can split it out. How much pain is it for you to reformat your disk and start from scratch? I do not have a 3TB internal drive to test. The other option is to use fdisk -e (interactive mode) and set the ending value to 5860533168 and try the BA again.

     

     

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

    Password:

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=1000555581440; sectorsize=512; blocks=1954210120

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1954210119

           start        size  index  contents

               0           1         MBR

               1           1         Pri GPT header

               2          32         Pri GPT table

              34           6        

              40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

          409640  1452530904      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      1452940544     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      1454210080         992        

      1454211072   499998720      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

      1954209792         295        

      1954210087          32         Sec GPT table

      1954210119           1         Sec GPT header

     

     

    sudo fdisk /dev/disk0

    Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 121643/255/63 [1954210120 sectors]

    Signature: 0xAA55

             Starting       Ending

    #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]

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

    1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>

    2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 - 1452530904] HFS+       

    3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1452940544 -    1269536] Darwin Boot

    *4: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [1454211072 -  499998720] HPFS/QNX/AUX

  • by addrum,

    addrum addrum Aug 24, 2014 1:16 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2014 1:16 AM in response to Loner T

    Is Interactive Mode safe/the best option? I've just got everything set up again so I'd rather not reformat if I can avoid it. Could you write out the steps for interactive mode?

Page 1 Next