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Level 1

5 points

Old Bootcamp partition not formatting or useable

Hey everyone,

I am having a issue I can't seem to resolve.

I have deleted the NTFS or Bootcamp partition through Disk Utilities, without knowing that I couldn't do that, so now I'm stuck with a useless partition. I can not format it, resize it, or use the space.

I've been trying for almost two days now, trying to figure out how to get this work but I can't, it's driving me crazy haha.

Here's my setup; I have a 1 TB external USB harddisk, with a Mac partition, and a (former) NTFS or MS DOS partition on it, I don't know which one of them it is, I presume the latter.

I can't do anything with it, I've tried going in the recovery mode (although it seemed useless because everything is on a external harddrive), I've tried reformatting the Bootcamp partition, making a new partition out of the space I have left on the Mac partition, but nothing worked.

My goal here is, to make the Mac partition smaller, and put a larger (than before) new NTSF/MS DOS partition next to it. The Mac partition isn't full btw.

I also don't run my Macbook from this drive, it's just a external drive I use for Time Machine, and other stuff I need to back up seperately.

I hope someone could help !

This is what I see after "diskutil cs list"

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

+-- Logical Volume Group 193C7021-1DE4-46F6-9672-08221C735CF8

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

Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Status: Online

Size: 893679972352 B (893.7 GB)

Free Space: 269634301952 B (269.6 GB)

+-< Physical Volume 9890496F-89F0-4C3D-BBD0-6E7473548E2F

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 893679972352 B (893.7 GB)

+-> Logical Volume Family CC6FC735-0DB8-4541-8406-798855B633A9

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

+-> Logical Volume 37C9F6EC-412D-4792-B05A-7216BD0F13A0

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 623710121984 B (623.7 GB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Volume Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Content Hint: Apple_HFSX

Jean-P-Macbook:~ macbook$

If that's any help haha. 🙂

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), USB Drive Buffalo Ministation 1TB

Posted on Apr 15, 2015 12:36 PM

43 replies

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 16, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Loner T

Haha, 98G is what off course what the old NTFS partition one was. I would then rather shrink the other image, by about 200, if I understand correctly. I guess I won't be getting those 98G's back haha

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 16, 2015 7:32 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Do you use the external OSX partition to boot from? One option is to erase the 134MB partition and reformat it as Free Space, which will coalesce the 98GB and the 134MB into a single Free Space. It can be formatted as JHFS+. This will create contiguous Free Space part, which can be converted to JHFS+ via Disk Utility. At this point, reduce the CS volume by say 100G, and create a new JHFS+ volume. With two JHFS+ volumes, 100G and 98G, these can then be merged to 198G JHFS+ partition.

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 17, 2015 3:17 AM in response to Loner T

Sounds like a good plan to me ! I don't use it to boot up from, but I think it has a boot part because my Time Machine backups are stored there as well, on that disk.

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 17, 2015 4:35 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Can you run a backup of your files, before any changes are made? If you use it for TM, we need to be extra careful here.

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 17, 2015 7:16 AM in response to Loner T

No, I don't have a extra harddisk to backup all those files.. I might just buy another 1TB or 500 GB harddrive out of frustration haha.

It's the weekend so I'm spinning every night and I'm busy as ****, and I wouldn't know where to borrow a other HDD to back up everything haha..

Who knew, making a NTFS partition out of most of the free leftover space on a external harddrive could be this hard haha..

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 17, 2015 7:25 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

If you are willing to take the risk, we may not need an additional backup. I would like to avoid data loss, if possible. 😉

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 17, 2015 7:31 AM in response to Loner T

I'm gonna see if I can backup my music, and Logic projects to multiple flash usb drives, as I don't really care for the Time Machine backups, I could just make a new backup if it would fail.i will get back to you when I know wether I can back some stuff or not 🙂

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 17, 2015 7:37 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

If you are willing to do that, it may be better to erase the 1TB external disk, and not make it a CS Volume. It will make you life simpler. Does your TM backup to this drive back up your Mac when directly attached or does it backup also over the network?

You can post the output of tmutil destination info from Terminal. Please be aware that it contains personal information, which you can edit, before you post it here.

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 19, 2015 8:40 AM in response to Loner T

My weekend of spinning is over, so I have time again haha.. It doesn't do it over the network, just when connected.

I tried backing up the most important stuff, but it's basicly impossible, all the files are way to big together to back up to any other USB stick I have, and I have no other hard drive to back things up to. I guess I'm pretty stuck now haha.

Tmutil came up with a bunch of options, so I typed in "tmutil destinationinfo", and this is what I got:

Jean-P-Macbook:~ macbook$ tmutil destinationinfo [-X]

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

Name : JEAN P DISK HDD

Kind : Local

Mount Point : /Volumes/JEAN P DISK HDD

ID : 767F4D2B-1D4C-471B-B326-642F60D39412

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, as I can't see any personal info here.

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 19, 2015 8:54 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Do you have Encrypted backups?

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 19, 2015 9:06 AM in response to Loner T

No, not anymore, I decrypted them the other day 🙂

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 19, 2015 9:20 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Does diskutil cs list show a CoreStorage volume on the external disk?

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 19, 2015 9:22 AM in response to Loner T

Yes, I think it does. I copied everything just in case I might be wrong.

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

+-- Logical Volume Group 193C7021-1DE4-46F6-9672-08221C735CF8

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

Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Status: Online

Size: 893679972352 B (893.7 GB)

Free Space: 344424448 B (344.4 MB)

+-< Physical Volume 9890496F-89F0-4C3D-BBD0-6E7473548E2F

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 893679972352 B (893.7 GB)

+-> Logical Volume Family CC6FC735-0DB8-4541-8406-798855B633A9

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

+-> Logical Volume 37C9F6EC-412D-4792-B05A-7216BD0F13A0

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 892999999488 B (893.0 GB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Volume Name: JEAN P DISK HDD

Content Hint: Apple_HFSX

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Apr 19, 2015 10:27 AM in response to DeejayJeanP

Do you want the remaining disk space to be NTFS or merged into the existing CS volume?

DeejayJeanP Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 19, 2015 10:30 AM in response to Loner T

If I merge it first, will I then be able to make a bigger NTFS partition afterwards than if I would just use the remaining diskspace as it is right now ? I reckon I'll just go with making the remaining disk space NTFS, just to be done with this whole ordeal haha. 🙂

Old Bootcamp partition not formatting or useable