Can't format former Boot Camp partition

Question

Level 1

1 points

Can't format former Boot Camp partition

So I stupidly erased my Boot Camp partition using Disk Utility rather than in the Boot Camp Assistant. And now I the partition is stuck as free space and i can't change it. When i select the free space in Disk Util, I can change it to Mac OS Extended and ExFAT as usual, but when I press apply, the progress bar appears for a brief second and disappears. Then it acts as if I never pressed apply; when I close the window, it says that I have unsaved changes. The free space does not appear as a drive in the left sidebar.

I have tried reinstalling OS X, I've tried returning to a time machine backup, I've verified and repaired the disk, but nothing has worked.

I'm left with 67GB of space unusable on my macbook now.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Oct 11, 2014 9:36 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 25, 2015 6:07 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

I'm in a big mess here with bootcamp and partitioning. I encountered a problem similar to the one here with boot camp and partitioning.

I was able to successfully erase the bootcamp partition, delete my original partition, and reinstalled my hard drive with the Internet into 10.9 and updated to 10.10.

Everything was going well until I tried to restore my backup with Time Machine from an external HDD. Then a problem occured with the backup and I was not able to go in my OS. Now my startups direct me to OS X Utilities and I was not able to select my HDD to erase, re-install, or restore with the GUI disk utility. I tried some diskutil command, but it resulted in the error 69888 couldn't unmount disk.

This is what I get from diskutil cs list and diskutil list

-bash-3.2# diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group FCA1F062-EBAD-43CF-ADC4-1FC68100963D

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 499418030080 B (499.4 GB)

Free Space: 499082477568 B (499.1 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 82DC6A22-25A2-4C02-A0B0-27158F3157B9

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

Index: 0

Disk: disk0s2

Status: Online

Size: 499418030080 B (499.4 GB)

-bash-3.2# diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 499.4 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.3 GB disk1

1: Apple_partition_map 30.7 KB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS OS X Base System 1.3 GB disk1s2

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *5.2 MB disk2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk3

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk4

/dev/disk5

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk5

/dev/disk6

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk6

/dev/disk7

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk7

/dev/disk8

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *6.3 MB disk8

/dev/disk9

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *2.1 MB disk9

/dev/disk10

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *1.0 MB disk10

/dev/disk11

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk11

/dev/disk12

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *524.3 KB disk12

/dev/disk13

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *1.0 MB disk13

/dev/disk14

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: untitled *6.3 MB disk14

-bash-3.2#

If it's not too much trouble, can you kindly help advise on this?

Thanks!

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Answer 2

Apr 25, 2015 7:48 PM in response to Eagle Lee

I know you didn't ask me, but have you tried booting up from a install disk, or from your Time Machine back up, and then deleting your hard drive, if yo can then see it, and then retry restoring your Time Machine backup ?

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Apr 25, 2015 9:36 PM in response to Eagle Lee

Eagle Lee wrote:

Everything was going well until I tried to restore my backup with Time Machine from an external HDD. Then a problem occured with the backup and I was not able to go in my OS. Now my startups direct me to OS X Utilities and I was not able to select my HDD to erase, re-install, or restore with the GUI disk utility. I tried some diskutil command, but it resulted in the error 69888 couldn't unmount disk.

1. What was the issue with the restore?

2. What specific diskutil commands were tried?

3. Your current CS volume has no OS (because it does not show a Logical Volume).

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Answer 4

Apr 26, 2015 3:58 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Hi DeeJayJean P,

Thanks for taking the time in reading this and responding.

I haven't tried booting from a hard disk but I have booted from internet restoring and it doesn't let me delete the hard drive. I'm not sure I can create a boot device with my Time Machine backup hard drive and not deleting the original backup.

Is there a way to boot from the Time Machine Backup stored on the hard drive?

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Answer 5

Apr 26, 2015 4:22 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Thanks for the response.

1. The Time Machine started running for a bit (50% of the progress bar) and a messaged popped up that said a problem occured and told me to restart and try again. (I forgot to take a picture of the error message, will remember to do so next time I get a problem)

2. I tried the erase disk and the unmount the disks it said I couldn't unmount. But it still didn't let me erase any disks. I aso tried this dd script I found online with someone who had a similar problem with me. (http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59422/how-to-partition-an-ssd-that-fail s-with-error-69888-couldnt-unmount-disk)

     Command: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=446 count=1

Response: dd: /dev/disk0: Resource busy

3. I think the restoring somehow deleted the OS. Is there a way to delete the whole disk so I can re-install the OS X again?

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Answer 6

Apr 26, 2015 4:38 AM in response to Eagle Lee

You're welcome 🙂

Try booting from a OS X install disk/CD/DVD. You press "C" (if I recall correctly) when starting up, and then open up Disk Utilities to see what you can do from there.

Ahh okay, I thought Time Machine backups were naturally able to boot up from.

Maybe there is a way, because I remember my Time Machine disk showing up when I booted while pressing Alt. I just don't know how tho, as I thought they would just be able to do that naturally.

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Apr 26, 2015 5:46 AM in response to Eagle Lee

Try

diskutil cs delete FCA1F062-EBAD-43CF-ADC4-1FC68100963D

As I pointed out, you do not have a LV, TM restore did erase the internal disk, and create the LV Group, but could not complete the LV creation when the restore failed.

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Answer 8

Apr 26, 2015 6:30 AM in response to Loner T

HI Lonwe T,

Thank you so much! That helped me delete the drive and I'm able to select it again!

One last question if it's not too much trouble, how do I delete all those untitled partitions (disk2 - disk14)? Disk Utility from Os X utility can't see them so I'm guessing I will have to use terminal to delete it right?

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Apr 26, 2015 6:36 AM in response to Eagle Lee

You do not and cannot delete these disks. These are part of the Network boot when you run Internet Recovery. They will automatically be removed once you boot from an functional OS on the internal HD.

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Answer 10

Apr 26, 2015 6:50 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Thank you so much for the response!

II'll try to re-install the Os X and retore my drive.

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Apr 26, 2015 7:51 AM in response to Eagle Lee

If you run into any errors, please capture screens, if possible and post them.

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Answer 12

Jul 30, 2015 6:31 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks man for this solution. I have the same problem. But when i reach when it says "All logical volume will be removed. Ownership of the affected disk is required." I dont know what else to do. Please any help.

Thanks.

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Jul 30, 2015 6:48 AM in response to ralphejims

Please start a new discussion and post the output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

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Answer 14

Jul 30, 2015 11:01 AM in response to Loner T

Please sorry for the delay. I lost network. I am back. Here is what my list shows. Know that my Imac is a fusion drive of almost 1.3T byte

-bash-3.2# diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (2 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 256053B4-C324-4591-96F1-0CBAE63CF3F5

| =========================================================

| Name: Macintosh HD

| Status: Online

| Size: 829508689920 B (829.5 GB)

| Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

| |

| +-< Physical Volume 5683D123-D1CB-481E-99B0-804DEE629748

| | ----------------------------------------------------

| | Index: 0

| | Disk: disk0s2

| | Status: Online

| | Size: 120988852224 B (121.0 GB)

| |

| +-< Physical Volume 2F5460A4-9821-4C38-8E8E-B05C4C2B8152

| | ----------------------------------------------------

| | Index: 1

| | Disk: disk1s2

| | Status: Online

| | Size: 708519837696 B (708.5 GB)

| |

| +-> Logical Volume Family 3C341137-A30B-4A99-A8BC-FA80198047CF

| ----------------------------------------------------------

| Encryption Status: Unlocked

| Encryption Type: None

| Conversion Status: NoConversion

| Conversion Direction: -none-

| Has Encrypted Extents: No

| Fully Secure: No

| Passphrase Required: No

| |

| +-> Logical Volume 7725D2C4-8800-431F-8515-643C2EF5A111

| ---------------------------------------------------

| Disk: disk3

| Status: Online

| Size (Total): 821001322496 B (821.0 GB)

| Conversion Progress: -none-

| Revertible: No

| LV Name: Macintosh HD

| Volume Name: Macintosh HD

| Content Hint: Apple_HFS

|

+-- Logical Volume Group FF72BC95-BB44-4D39-A18B-6A8A340C2422

=========================================================

Name: SAMSUNG

Status: Online

Size: 999860912128 B (999.9 GB)

Free Space: 4096 B (4.1 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 9363C514-E066-4D81-81ED-7AE7BE622E28

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk14s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 999860912128 B (999.9 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family DD5A18B6-41CF-455F-9340-1995130B58F7

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

Encryption Status: Locked

Encryption Type: AES-XTS

Conversion Status: Complete

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: Yes

Fully Secure: Yes

Passphrase Required: Yes

|

+-> Logical Volume F4FB7891-388E-40BA-846B-76A8D2CF17B7

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

Disk: -none-

Status: Locked

Size (Total): 999525363712 B (999.5 GB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: Yes (unlock and decryption required)

LV Name: SAMSUNG

Content Hint: Apple_HFSX

-bash-3.2#

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Answer 15

Jul 30, 2015 11:04 AM in response to ralphejims

1T byte hard drive with fusion drive. The physical volume that is blank is the one with 121Gb space. disk0s2

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