Ruadh2

Q: Recover Free Space after Deleting Bootcamp  Partition

After installing a new SSD, and recovering the back up from Time Machine, I've deleted my Boot Camp partition on my MBP using Boot Camp Assistant. The Boot Camp partition, though MS-FAT was no longer bootable after recovery, and I thought I'd start again and use Winclone to recover my Windows backup.  The Boot Camp delete result looks fine:

 

XXXs-MacBook-Pro:~ name$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *960.2 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            959.3 GB   disk0s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

But when I look at the storage, I find that I've gone from 113GB on my MacIntosh HD partition (or so my prior Time Machine backup says) to well over 300GB.  The 118.5 GB Boot Camp partition has gone, but the "Other" segment seems to have grown to 284GB. 

 

Free Space .png

 

I see lots of solutions online for recovering free space after Boot Camp removal, but they don't seem to apply to me.  Many are for failed Boot Camp removals using Disk utility.  A number involve CS, but I have no Core Storage.  I've tried booting into recovery and repairing.  I've tried multiple reboots to clear the space. 

 

Any ideas, please?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), Late 2011 with Boot Camp Win10

Posted on Aug 3, 2016 8:15 AM

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Q: Recover Free Space after Deleting Bootcamp  Partition

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 3, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Ruadh2
    Level 7 (23,623 points)
    Safari
    Aug 3, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Ruadh2

    Please post the output of the following OSX Terminal commands...

     

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

     

    Please enter your password when prompted by the "sudo" command.

  • by Ruadh2,

    Ruadh2 Ruadh2 Aug 3, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 3, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for the quick response. 

    diskutil list

    diskutil cs list

    See previous post.

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

     

    xxx-MacBook-Pro:~ name$ sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

     

    WARNING: ...

    Password:

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=960197124096; sectorsize=512; blocks=1875385008

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1875385007

           start        size  index  contents

               0           1         PMBR

               1           1         Pri GPT header

               2          32         Pri GPT table

              34           6        

              40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

          409640  1873705792      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      1874115432     1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      1875384968           7        

      1875384975          32         Sec GPT table

      1875385007           1         Sec GPT header

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 3, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Ruadh2
    Level 7 (23,623 points)
    Safari
    Aug 3, 2016 2:46 PM in response to Ruadh2

    There does not seem to be any missing disk space. The Other calculation is done as explained in OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac? - Apple Support . You should be able to partition and restore your Winclone back up. Remember to add about 4GB to your partition over the size of the Windows partition that you originally backed up, when you restore the Winclone image.

  • by Ruadh2,

    Ruadh2 Ruadh2 Aug 7, 2016 2:15 AM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 7, 2016 2:15 AM in response to Loner T

    Thanks LonerT

     

    Thanks for the quick response.  I've been thinking on this for a couple of days.  I can see why you think there's no missing space, but bear with me...

     

    I still have some odd changes between my old drive and my new drive, which are worrying me.

     

    I've rebooted my MBP from the enclosure that holds my previous internal drive, and have published the storage on both drives for comparison below:

     

    Storage MBP - SSD vs Old.png

     

     

     

    The storage in the 500GB External USB Disk is divided up as follows:

     

    • 400.25GB in Macintosh HD MBP, of which note that 367.16GB is used and of which 190.25GB is "Other".
    • 99GB in Bootcamp of which note, 57.86GB is used, and all of which is "Other".

     

    Now look at my new internal drive, with Bootcamp deleted.

    The storage in the 960GB Solid State SATA Drive is divided up as follows:

     

    • 363.3 is used, of which 284.1GB is "Other". That is, the total used is practically identical to the old disk (excluding Bootcamp, of course), but the "Other" has increased by 93.85GB.
    • Note that other storage has been reduced by: photos - 56.84GB, apps - 2.76GB, audio - 26.58GB, and movies - 30.45GB.  Backups are unchanged. This is a collective 116.63GB storage reduction.

     

    Now, to rephrase my question....

     

    • Where has the extra 94GB of "Other" come from?
      • Is it that 116GB of audio-visual and apps storage has been converted to 94GB of "Other".
      • Is it that 99GB of Bootcamp has been converted to 94GB of "Other"?
      • Or is there something else going on?
  • by Loner T,Solvedanswer

    Loner T Loner T Aug 7, 2016 1:14 PM in response to Ruadh2
    Level 7 (23,623 points)
    Safari
    Aug 7, 2016 1:14 PM in response to Ruadh2

    The categorization of files is done using Spotlight (Mac Basics: Spotlight helps you find what you're looking for - Apple Support) and can be rebuilt (Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support) . In most cases, the longer Spotlight has been running, the more precise the categorization and classification.

     

    In your case, if you look at the 'Movies' or 'Photos' category, you can see a noticeable difference between the external disk and the new internal disk. You currently do not have Bootcamp.

     

    If the categories all add up to the full disk size, then all your disk space is accounted for. You have the ability to block certain parts of your Mac's disk from being indexed, which can lead to an incorrect view.

     

    There are specific scenarios when during the Bootcamp process, users can have disk space in the Free Space category, which is obvious by looking at lower level disk layout. You do not have that specific case.

  • by Ruadh2,

    Ruadh2 Ruadh2 Aug 7, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 7, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks LonerT

     

    When I checked the files on disk in each category, I found that they had not changed.  For instance, the largest photo library on both disks was in excess of 85GB, even though the new internal disk apparently had only 49GB of photos.  Therefore, it seems the anomalies are just as you say, a recategorisation by Spotlight, not a loss of data, compression or some other change that might suggest that there was lost free space.

     

    I'm now content that I've not got unreleased free space, and will continue with transferring my Boot Camp archive with WinClone.  Thanks again for your assistance. 

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Aug 7, 2016 1:39 PM in response to Ruadh2
    Level 7 (23,623 points)
    Safari
    Aug 7, 2016 1:39 PM in response to Ruadh2

    Please post back if you run into any Winclone issues.