Unable to Overcome error - "The Startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

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Level 1

8 points

Unable to Overcome error - "The Startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"

Hello!

I am attempting to install Windows on my iMac (late 2013, running 10.11.6) with no success. I have created the ISO on a flash drive, but when I attempt to use the Boot camp Assistant, I am remitted to the following screen:

I did my best to investigate solutions. The cause, per apple's support discussions, is that there is an alternate partition preempting (stopping) the boot camp assistant from partitioning the hard drive. I investigated the partitions on my hard drive after disconnecting all peripheral devices and found this:

This shows the main partition: Macintosh HD, the bootcamp partition: BOOTCAMP; and 2 unknown partitions: "Apple HDD ST100DM003 Media" and the same ***M004. I was able to delete the first Apple HDD ST100DM003 partition, and ran first aid on the fusion drive after the second one would not delete. I also cannot delete the boot camp partition. I continue to get the same message when I attempt to install windows on a partition of the Fusion Drive using Boot Camp Assistant - "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition".

Any suggestions??

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 11, 2016 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 11, 2016 2:47 PM in response to jdalbright

Please post the output of the following OSX Terminal commands.

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

A Fusion drive is expected to have EFI, OSX, Recovery HD on each of the underlying physical disks. If your previous Windows installation attempts have failed, it can leave the disks in a state where BCA will not use/modify them.

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Answer 2

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2016 3:59 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks for the reply Loner T. I am not sure if I've tried to install windows on this computer before, but what you're describing sounds like the issue. What's the best option? I tried internet recovery mode last night restoring the computer from a time machine back up with the Apple Techs said would not recover the BOOTCAMP partition, but unfortunately the artifacted partitions still exist. Here's the output from the commands you listed:

Any help you can offer would be great, thanks!

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2016 10:23 AM in response to jdalbright

Please disconnect your 4TB external disk. It interferes with Windows installation. Do not connect it, till Windows is fully installed.

We need to merge disk1s4-disk1s6 into a single contiguous chunk.

1. Erase disk1s3 and convert it to JHFS+ - diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ PT1 disk1s3

2. Erase disk1s4 and convert it to JHFS+ - diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ PT2 disk1s4

3. Merger all chunks into a contiguous chunk - diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BOOTCAMP disk1s4 disk1s6

Please post the output or any errors you see for these commands, before we go further.

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Answer 4

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2016 10:25 AM in response to Loner T

So far so good!

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2016 11:06 AM in response to jdalbright

We missed disk1s3.

Merger all chunks into a contiguous chunk - diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BOOTCAMP disk1s3 disk1s4

disk1s3 being without Recovery HD bothers me a bit.

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Answer 6

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Loner T

Copy; I managed to gunk up the plan... Attempted to use BCA after successfully deleting all partitions (attempting to follow the prompt from BCA)... Current disk information:

I have a full recovery option through time machine; everything backed up on separate hard drive (external).

Will standby for instructions 😊

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2016 12:41 PM in response to jdalbright

Boot into Internet Recovery and restore your TM backup, and post the output of

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

once the restore is complete. Let us see what it looks like once restored.

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Answer 8

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2016 5:13 PM in response to Loner T

Just finished restore from TM backup. Output as follows:

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Answer 9

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 12, 2016 5:58 PM in response to jdalbright

Did you get any errors during the restore? On a regular Fusion drive, there is a Recovery partition on each physical disk, but you do not have one on disk1. Here is an example from a Mac mini.

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *256.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 128.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 127.7 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 999.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 650.0 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS OSX-FusionHD *1.1 TB disk2

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *48.2 MB disk3

1: Apple_HFS Adobe Flash Player I... 48.2 MB disk3s1

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group DF140929-90E7-48E1-AC3D-C9C75BA88D1D

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

Name: OSX-FusionHD

Status: Online

Size: 1127375384576 B (1.1 TB)

Free Space: 69632 B (69.6 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume C856A74C-EB57-4D1F-8223-0A22215218ED

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 128030257152 B (128.0 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 80D91A14-CCC9-47B1-B071-B9ADFF23924F

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

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 999345127424 B (999.3 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 019D610F-21AC-4B54-AB0A-6D5F90D520A7

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

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume D9DC0F70-38C7-4AE6-BAC4-CFBE0F8D4F68

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1118844862464 B (1.1 TB)

Conversion Progress: -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: OSX-FusionHD

Volume Name: OSX-FusionHD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Before you run BC Assistant, can you boot into Internet Recovery and run Utilities -> Terminal and execute

diskutil repairDisk disk0

Copy (Command+C) the output, exit Terminal, start Safari and Paste (Command+V) as a reply to this discussion.

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Answer 10

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 13, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Loner T

Loner T-

In Internet Recovery Mode, ran repairDisk on disk0. Following is the output:

-bash-3.2# diskUtil repairDisk disk0

Repairing the partition map might erase disk0s1, proceed? (y/N) y

Started partition map repair on disk0

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition's size

Checking the EFI system partition's file system

Checking the EFI system partition's folder content

Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces

Checking booter partitions

Checking booter partition disk0s3

Repairing file system

Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume

Checking extents overflow file

Checking catalog file

Checking multi-linked files

Checking catalog hierarchy

Checking extended attributes file

Checking volume bitmap

Checking volume information

Trimming unused blocks

The volume Boot OS X appears to be OK

File system check exit code is 0

Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required

Reviewing boot support loaders

Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions

Verifying storage system

Checking volume

disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers

disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers

disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels

disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels

Logical Volume Group B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 spans 2 devices

disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume

Logical Volume Group has a 1609 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy

Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint

Load and verify Segment Headers

Load and verify Checkpoint Payload

Load and verify Transaction Segment

Incorporate 26 newer non-checkpoint transactions

Load and verify Virtual Address Table

Load and verify Segment Usage Table

Load and verify Metadata Superblock

Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees

Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume

Load and verify CBC88389-287C-4922-A878-87DA429F6985

Load and verify 7302EC98-A25A-4DF1-AA46-7FE51F610044

Load and verify Freespace Summary

Load and verify Block Accounting

Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses

Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid

Load and verify Segment Cleaning

The volume B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 appears to be OK

Storage system check exit code is 0

Repairing storage system

The volume disk0s2+disk1s2 cannot be repaired when it is in use

Checking volume

disk0s2: Scan for Volume Headers

disk1s2: Scan for Volume Headers

disk0s2: Scan for Disk Labels

disk1s2: Scan for Disk Labels

Logical Volume Group B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 spans 2 devices

disk0s2+disk1s2: Scan for Metadata Volume

Logical Volume Group has a 1609 MB Metadata Volume with double redundancy

Start scanning metadata for a valid checkpoint

Load and verify Segment Headers

Load and verify Checkpoint Payload

Load and verify Transaction Segment

Incorporate 26 newer non-checkpoint transactions

Load and verify Virtual Address Table

Load and verify Segment Usage Table

Load and verify Metadata Superblock

Load and verify Logical Volumes B-Trees

Logical Volume Group contains 1 Logical Volume

Load and verify CBC88389-287C-4922-A878-87DA429F6985

Load and verify 7302EC98-A25A-4DF1-AA46-7FE51F610044

Load and verify Freespace Summary

Load and verify Block Accounting

Load and verify Live Virtual Addresses

Newest transaction commit checkpoint is valid

Load and verify Segment Cleaning

The volume B90ABFA2-5157-4641-A43D-AC19A0765761 appears to be OK

Storage system check exit code is 0

Updating Windows boot.ini files as required

The partition map appears to be OK

Finished partition map repair on disk0

-bash-3.2#

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 13, 2016 6:35 AM in response to jdalbright

This looks clean. Have you run a SMC/NVRAM Reset with all external storage disconnected? If yes, run BCA, use a USB2 flash drive of 8-16GB and check how far you get. Do not put your ISO on the USB, put it in your Desktop/Documents folder. The USB will be erased and formatted.

If you need a valid ISO, please see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home .

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Answer 12

jdalbright Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 13, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Loner T

I Have not run a SMC/NVRAM Reset At all yet. I will check this out. I have a valid .ISO of Windows 10 on a flash drive (64gb) ready to go sitting Around waiting for BCA to get past the initial screen (which still throws the same partitioning error).

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 13, 2016 7:26 AM in response to jdalbright

You do not want to use two USB disks, one for Installer, and one for the source of the ISO. There should only one USB which be erased/formatted. You should move the ISO to Desktop/Documents folders.

If you have a TM backup, it may be time to rebuild your Fusion drive. As a test, go into Disk Utility and try to create a FAT32 partition of the size you want Windows to be.

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