Messed up my partitions and now I cannot install OSX

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Level 1

30 points

Messed up my partitions and now I cannot install OSX

Hello guys,

Description: I'm reaching out to you because I have a pretty serious issue with the partition/boot drive.

History: I had Yosemite running in dual boot with Windows 10 (made using boot camp). I used Windows for a couple of months as I had some school/work apps that didn't had support for Mac OS. After I finished I decided to remove Windows as I had allocated about 1TB in that partition. Trying to remove windows with the Assistant didn't help me as it couldn't detect windows so I decided to go in disk utility and erase all the partitions and reinstall a clean Mac OS.

*Side note: I had problems updating from Yosemite to El Capitan and the fix was to clean install Yosemite/El Capitan

Issue: Because Disk Utility from within OS didn't helped me I decided to restart the mac and use command + R to access it from the boot screen. The story is long here as I managed to reinstall Yosemite but it still didn't saw the full 3TB of storage; It had the 1TB allocated for windows missing. I tried again a couple of erases and now I'm here:

When I try to reinstall Mac OS Yosemite I notice that I cannot select any drive:

Tried to boot using restart+option into Recovery HD but I do not have that drive. I have only the Windows drive (it prompts me with blue screen because files are missing) and another drive EDFY or something like that - I'm at work now and cannot verify but if i choose this drive it send me in the same screen as command + R.

Here are some pictures took with the iPhone from my partitions:

I think it messed it up good but is there any way I can restore to factory settings (command + S doesn't bring up the terminal upon boot)?

I do not have a optical drive (CD/DVD) and I must rely on USB sticks made from Windows machine as I do not have a secondary mac device.

Mission: What I want to do is clean all the partitions, have only one (or maybe two if you think it is important) partition with clean Yosemite install then I'll update to El Capitan.

*Side note: Please keep in mind that I'm not very proficient at Mac OS and would gladly accept step-by-step tutorials.

Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time!

LE: Here is a link with all the photos taken: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=D57F8A9137540F89!61689&authkey=!AOQN5_tsQo BRXzg&ithint=folder%2cjpg

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), null

Posted on Nov 17, 2015 1:50 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 18, 2015 11:43 AM in response to Duculetu

Given the successive errors one after another, the easiest way is to download Yosemite or El Capitan, any, and then create a boot USB flash of at least 8 GB, use DiskMaker

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/diskmaker-x

Read carefully what is written there. Boot from the flash thus created and, when in the graphical interface, run first Disk Utility, format the disk, and make a clean install of the system. When done, proceed to running Boot Camp and install Windows.

Theoretically, upgrading to El Capitan from Yosemite, or any previous OS X, while there is a Windows partition should not destroy Windows.

If not satisfied with this answer, visit macforum.ro, you are wlecome.

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Answer 2

Duculetu Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 18, 2015 11:56 PM in response to Cattus Thraex

First of all thank you for you support but I managed to fix it a couple of hours before your reply.

To be honest it took me ~3 days of research and numerous 3rd party apps (like transmac) to sort this out.

This is what I've done:

- Made a USB flash stick with Windows 8.1 UEFI

- Booted into the USB flash stick using option button

- Started running the install procedure and before copying windows there is a pop-up windows that let's you format de HDD and select where to install Windows.

- From that screen I deleted all the partition on the HDD and was left with 2 partitions of unallocated space (one fo 2TB and the other of 1TB)

- Cancelled the install and returned to the boot screen where using command + R was sent to Disk Utility.

- Disk Utility saw only one partition of 3TB but I erased it using Journaled and I was asked if I want to set the HDD as Fusion (and I clicked Yes)

- After that i went back to the main tools screen and chosen to install Mac OS.

- From there it was a swift run as everything is back to normal now.

Q: Is there a way to verify that the HDD is set to Fusion?

Thank you!

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