DanDan Cho

Q: Can't restore the drive to 1 partition

Hi Everyone,

 

I got one MacBook 2008 with OS X Lion 10.7.5 recently. Wish to remove all previous system and install OS X Yosemite with USB drive.

I ran into a weird problem, and after searching for a week still can't figure out a solution.

 

When running the installer, I can't choose the drive to install because the drive are not GPT.

So, I want into Disk Utility. This is how the drive look like when I got the MacBook:

1. Mac part, running OS X Lion.

2. Win7 part, already removed Bootcamp and does't have any system in it.

3. Two gray areas, can't do anything with the options, it's greyed out.

2.png

I want to combined all areas into 1 partition, but getting this message:

"Partition failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk."

Also in Disk Utility I cannot "erase free space", it's greyed out. I can't do anything.

 

I have tried all the methods as below:

1. Single User Mode, enter "fsck -fy" => appears to be OK.

2. Recovery Mode, Disk Utility => same result as above "Partition failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk."

3. Recovery Mode, open terminal, command "diskutil cs list", appears "no corestorage logical volume groups found."

Then command "diskutil list", result as below.

6.png

None of them can solve my problem. What should I do to repair my drive?

Sorry for the poor descriptions, if I miss some informations, just ask

Thank you for the help!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jan 25, 2016 1:45 AM

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Q: Can't restore the drive to 1 partition

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  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Jan 26, 2016 10:06 AM in response to DanDan Cho
    Community Specialists
    Jan 26, 2016 10:06 AM in response to DanDan Cho

    Hi DanDan Cho,

     

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! I'm sorry to hear you are having these issues with your Mac. If you are unable to reformat or erase/repartition the drive from any of the internal sources (Single User, Recovery Mode, etc), you may want to try creating an external Recovery System, then try booting to that system and using the built-in Disk Utility to format the internal drive (assuming that is what you want to do; this will erase all current data on the drive). You may find the information and steps outlined in the following article helpful:

     

    OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant - Apple Support

     

    Regards

  • by DanDan Cho,

    DanDan Cho DanDan Cho Jan 26, 2016 6:11 PM in response to brenden dv
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 6:11 PM in response to brenden dv

    Thank you so much for replying!

     

    I follow the steps from the link, but get the error:

    "The Recovery HD on this computer is damaged or not present. Recovery Disk Assistant requires a functioning Lion Recovery HD to create an external Lion Recovery."

     

    Then I verify the Recovery HD disk form Disk Utility, it appears to be OK.

     

    Is there anything I can do to save my drive?

    Thanks again!

  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Jan 27, 2016 2:35 PM in response to DanDan Cho
    Community Specialists
    Jan 27, 2016 2:35 PM in response to DanDan Cho

    Do you have a bootable volume on any other disk, such as the USB drive you were going to install Yosemite from?