Barncore
Level 1
(1 points)
Q: Boot camp: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"
Hey guys,
Would really appreciate some help on this!
I used to successfully use bootcamp and have an extra partition so i could use Windows aswell, until my HD crashed and i had to take it to the Apple Hospital. When i got the computer back and restored my old backup Time Machine clone, i couldn't create a new partition for Windows. It doesn't let me get passed the first screen.
What happens is: I load up Boot Camp as usual, push Continue passed the Introduction screen, then i get a msg pop up that says:
The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.
The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.
Then i push Ok and it goes back to the BootCamp introduction screen. I.e. i can't get passed this msg.
I looked in Disk Utility and of course my internal HD already is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) so i have no idea why it isn't being recognised as one partition.
What do i have to do to be able to install windows on this computer without having to format my entire Mac and installing everything again? I really need the exact clone of what i have right now. I do have an external HD for making backup clones using Time Machine though.
Some specs:
- Boot Camp Assistant version is 3.0.1
- Mac OSX 10.6.2 (yeah i guess i'm old school now)
- 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM
- I have no other partitions currently, just my current mac one
Any questions just ask. I would love to resolve this tonight.
iMac (27-inch Late 2009), iOS 6.1.2
Loner T
Level 7
(23,908 points)
1. It is not necessary. Leave it at 10.6.2. If there are any other issues, they can be tackled, if necessary. There may be driver issues if you choose a Windows7/Windows8+ OS and try it on SL 10.6.
2. Apple Hospital may be the answer.
3. You can use diskutil mergePartitions disk0s2 disk0s3. Please be aware that order is very important. Please ensure you have a full backup of OSX.
4. Recovery HD is used for recovering OSX, if necessary, when there are issues with your OSX partition. The explanation here is a bit incomplete but you can look at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848 .
Here is the help (man page) for diskutil mergerPartitions. Please see the highlighted Example section.
diskutil mergePartitions
Usage: diskutil mergePartitions [force] format name
DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Merge two or more pre-existing partitions into one. The first disk parameter
is the starting partition; the second disk parameter is the ending partition;
this given range of two or more partitions will be merged into one.
All partitions in the range, except for the first one, must be unmountable.
All data on merged partitions other than the first will be lost; data on the
first partition will be lost as well if the "force" argument is given.
If "force" is not given, and the first partition has a resizable file system
(e.g. JHFS+), it will be grown in a data-preserving manner, even if a different
file system is specified (in fact, your file system and volume name parameters
are both ignored in this case). If "force" is not given, and the first
partition is not resizable, you will be prompted if you want to erase.
If "force" is given, the first partition is always formatted. You should
do this if you wish to reformat to a new file system type.
Merged partitions are required to be ordered sequentially on disk.
See diskutil list for the actual on-disk ordering; BSD slice identifiers
may in certain circumstances not always be in numerical order but the
top-to-bottom order given by diskutil list is always the on-disk order.
Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Example: diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ NewName disk3s4 disk3s7
This example will merge all partitions *BETWEEN* disk3s4 and disk3s7,
preserving data on disk3s4 but destroying data on disk3s5, disk3s6,
disk3s7 and any invisible free space partitions between those disks;
disk3s4 will be grown to cover the full space if possible.
