altcmdescape

Q: How can I remove a partition? Standard procedures don't work

Hi there

 

Context:

Macbook Air (mid 2011), OS X El Captian version 10.11.4

128GB SSD split into a 70GB partition (OS X el capitan, name is "Macintosh HD") and a 50GB partition (used to be bootcamp, name is now "B"). The 50GB partition needs to go.

 

I have erased the 50GB to an OS X extended (Journaled) partition, but when I click on partition, I still cannot remove it (the infamous "minus greyed out", see image).

I can resize it, but Macintosh HD stays at 70GB, and a third partition is made which in turn can be removed, but the space it liberated is allocated to B again, which doesn't solve anything.

Screen Shot 2016-06-07 at 105720AM.png

Rebooting on recovery mode and using disk utility there hasn't allowed for the partition to be removed either.

As you can see on the image above, I also made an eDrive, from which I still can't remove the 50GB partition.

 

Note: Filevault is turned off.

 

I feel quite silly since I managed to do this before on a previous version of mac OS.. (at the time I had to enlarge the bootcamp partition, but for that I had to remove it first, due to its format)

 

Help me, apple community, you're my only hope!

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Jun 7, 2016 2:08 AM

Close

Q: How can I remove a partition? Standard procedures don't work

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jun 7, 2016 3:47 AM in response to altcmdescape
    Level 5 (5,890 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jun 7, 2016 3:47 AM in response to altcmdescape

    I believe when you create a Boot Camp partition it has to be removed using Boot Camp Assistant.

  • by Leopardus,

    Leopardus Leopardus Jun 7, 2016 5:30 AM in response to altcmdescape
    Level 4 (1,087 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 7, 2016 5:30 AM in response to altcmdescape

    I would use the command line in Terminal to Merge the two partitions. Data on the second partition will be lost, but data will be retained on the first partition if you don't use the 'force' capability.

     

    Did I mention backup?

     

    The command will be in the format :

     

    sudo diskutil mergePartions HFS+ etc. as described below.

     

    To find out what the sequence (on-disk ordering) of your disks are you will first do a:

     

    sudo diskutil list -all and note the naming convention and the order down

     

    Screen Shot 2016-06-07 at 12.34.55.png

    HTH

     

    Leo

  • by dean@26,Solvedanswer

    dean@26 dean@26 Jun 7, 2016 5:30 AM in response to altcmdescape
    Level 1 (106 points)
    Jun 7, 2016 5:30 AM in response to altcmdescape

    Before going the Terminal way, you must backup your Mac since a wrong command line will invite fresh trouble and your entire Macintosh HD can go unrecognised. Other way round will be using a partition manager utility by creating a bootable USB and resizing / creating / deleting partitions. You may look at these applications for partitioning Mac.

     

    1) Stellar Partition Manager - http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-software/partition-mac/partition-mac-drive.php

    2) iPartition - https://coriolis-systems.com/iPartition/

    3) Paragon Partition for Mac - https://www.paragon-software.com/home/hdm-mac/

  • by Leopardus,

    Leopardus Leopardus Jun 7, 2016 5:00 AM in response to dean@26
    Level 4 (1,087 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 7, 2016 5:00 AM in response to dean@26

    dean@26 wrote:

     

    ... you must backup your Mac since a wrong command line will invite fresh trouble and your entire Macintosh HD can go unrecognised.

    As I said in my posting above ......did I mention backup?

     

    But thanks for stressing this point, regardless if the OP uses the command line or other utilities. He could end up having catastrophic consequences, to the level of cat 5 with his system. I just like to see exactly what is being done to the system.

     

    I did make a typo though, where my fingers was again much slower than my haste, thus double thank you for responding to the OP.

     

    The second command could be either:

     

    sudo diskutil list

     

    or sudo diskutil info -all

     

    and not diskutil list -all  (My mistake, as you could see in my haste I combined the two) It would not do anything but display that it can't find a disk with that name on his system.

     

    The second command would just give a lot more information than the first.

     

    Leo

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jun 7, 2016 5:06 AM in response to altcmdescape
    Level 9 (50,245 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 7, 2016 5:06 AM in response to altcmdescape

    You have used procedures which are non standard, and they don't work. So do it correctly with the right tool. Boot Camp. (Be warned, now you messed with it the correct way may no longer work)

  • by altcmdescape,

    altcmdescape altcmdescape Jun 7, 2016 5:43 AM in response to dean@26
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 7, 2016 5:43 AM in response to dean@26

    Thanks! Rebooted on my eDrive, launched the free trial of the paragon software and was able to delete and move the free space to merge with my mac HD(from what I can tell the partition didn't want to fuse with my Mac HD due to the recovery partition in between).

     

    Also, thanks Leopardus Yes, terminal told me the same, so I altered the command and it went fine. I was about to  go with terminal commands, but didn't in the end, as Dean suggested.

     

    To the others mentioning bootcamp assistant, thank you - but if you're going to reply to problems, at least try to be helpful next time, by providing some constructive elements to the discussion. As I said, I had done exactly the same procedure as I have done in the past with previous versions, which then worked fine, hence why I tried that first. And yes, I did try with bootcamp assistant afterward, but since that partition didn't have windows anymore, it couldn't help in any way.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jun 7, 2016 5:53 AM in response to altcmdescape
    Level 5 (5,890 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jun 7, 2016 5:53 AM in response to altcmdescape

    altcmdescape wrote:

     

    To the others mentioning bootcamp assistant, thank you - but if you're going to reply to problems, at least try to be helpful next time, by providing some constructive elements to the discussion. As I said, I had done exactly the same procedure as I have done in the past with previous versions, which then worked fine, hence why I tried that first. And yes, I did try with bootcamp assistant afterward, but since that partition didn't have windows anymore, it couldn't help in any way.

    FWIW, you made no mention you tried to use Boot Camp Assistant in this case. And it seems you just reformatted a Boot Camp partition which is not correct. As to "at least try to be helpful next time", there won't be a next time in my case.