Ondolinde
Level 1 (8 points)
Mac OS X

Q: I have two recovery partitions and they prevent me from using Bootcamp

Dear all:

 

I upgraded to mac os sierra when it came out, however before that, I had been trying it out in the Beta Software Program, in a partition installed with El Capitan. After, I deleted that portion, but I wasn'taware there was an apple_boot  recovery HD partition that remained.

 

However, now I am trying to install BootCamp on my Mac but I found that it has 2 recovery partitions. I´m guessing one for the Beta one and one for the final release. But, as I found out, in other to install BootCamp, I need to make my disk as a single partition.

 

The disk layout is as follow:

 

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            2.0 TB     disk0s2

   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4

 

After searching for a possible solution, I read that I would need to either delete or merge one of them to the Main Partition. However, I cannot figure out which one (either disk0s3 o disk0s4) I need to get rid because when I restart and press the alt/option key, I´m presented with two identical recovery partitions labeled "Recovery-10.12".

 

So, my questions are:

 

  1. Which partition to delete
  2. How to delete it in a (preferably safe) way that would make my hard disk "a single partition" of everything but my main Macintosh HD partition in order to be able to use Bootcamp.

 

Thanks

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 21, 2016 10:14 AM

by Loner T,Solvedanswer
Loner T Loner T
Level 7 (24,862 points)
Safari
A:

Excellent. You may also want to create a Time Machine backup as it is now, before you make any changes, to be extra safe. Once the backup is complete, can you re-install Sierra? It will not touch any of your non-OS files.

Posted on Oct 21, 2016 6:04 PM

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Ondolinde

Q: I have two recovery partitions and they prevent me from using Bootcamp

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  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 12:32 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 12:32 PM in response to Ondolinde

    10.12 is Sierra. You should delete both, and re-install Sierra full-release which should create a new local Recovery HD. Test that it does offer Sierra re-installation (you do not need to actually install it).

     

    Once the internal disk has Sierra and Sierra local recovery, then you can use BC Assistant to install Windows.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 12:45 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 12:45 PM in response to Loner T

    Thanks for your response. I´m unable to delete them. When I go to use Disk Utility, they don´t show up there. Only when I go to Terminal, they both appear. Disk Utility v.16 doesn't support the Debug Terminal Command (defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1) which I've seen in many posts and is supposed to have them show up in Disk Utility, but not with the latest version.

     

    So I don't know how to delete them. The only thing I´ve seen around is to use Terminal to merge them or it seems that there are commands to delete them, but I'm unsure how to properly use them. The only other post I've seen here somewhat related is: Re: Why there are two recovery partitions?, Why there are two recovery partitions? And then one outside this forum: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/211121/bootcamp-failing-with-error-the- startup-disk-cannot-be-partitioned-or-re… However, I just don't want to venture into following their advice because they are not exactly my case.

     

    Moreover, if there is any other way I could fix this without having to re-install Sierra, I would prefer it. Any ideas?

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 12:50 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 12:50 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Boot into Internet Recovery, and click on Utilities -> Terminal. Run the following command.

     

    diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ RC1 disk0s3

    diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ RC2 disk0s4

    diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s4 (do not interchange disk0s2 and disk0s4 otherwise you will lose OSX completely).

     

    Now re-install Sierra and check the output of diskutil list.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 1:05 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 1:05 PM in response to Loner T

    Ok, let me try that. How would I go about re-installing Sierra. Would I do it through the App Store? Do I download it and create a bootable flash drive, I think that's how they are called.

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Download the Sierra Installer from the App Store. It should be in your Applications. You can also download it to a USB and boot from it.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 1:25 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 1:25 PM in response to Loner T

    Thank you, Loner T. I appreciate it. Let me work on all of that and I'll get back to you if I have a question or as soon I can find the time to get it done sometime today.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 4:06 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 4:06 PM in response to Loner T

    Loner T, sorry for this, but I'm not familiar with Terminal. Do I hit enter after each command line or type in all three lines together and then press enter.

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Each line is a single command and you press Enter/Return each. (Do not type such text).

     

    Use Command+C (Copy) to copy the output of the Terminal session, quit Terminal, start Safari, and Command+V (pastes) it as reply on this discussion.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 5:05 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 5:05 PM in response to Loner T

    Loner T, unfortunately we had an electrical storm and I lost power right after it ran the command. After I was able to get back on, I ran "diskutil list" command in Terminal to see how it is now:

     

    /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

     

    #:                                         TYPE NAME                                  SIZE                      IDENTIFIER

     

    0:                     GUID_partition_scheme                                   *2.0 TB                   disk0

     

    1:                                            EFI  EFI                                       209.7MB.              disk0s1

     

    2:                                Apple_HFS Macintosh HD                     2.0 TB.                  disk0s2

     

    3:                                Apple_HFS RC1                                     650.0 MB.             disk0s3

     

    What do I do now? The disk0s4 became disk0s3, I guess.

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 5:10 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 5:10 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Please post the output of

     

    sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 5:17 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 5:17 PM in response to Loner T

    gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=2000398934016; sectorsize=512; blocks=3907029168

    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 3907029167

           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  3904080416      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      3904490056     1269536      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

      3905759592     1269543        

      3907029135          32         Sec GPT table

      3907029167           1         Sec GPT header

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 5:35 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 5:35 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Can you run

     

    diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3

     

    This command will return an error because free space has no disk associated with free space. Do not run this command more than once under any circumstances otherwise you will lose data.

     

    Once the erase is complete, run Disk Utility and extend Macintosh HD to it's full size. Run diskutil list and check that you only have EFI and Macintosh HD, and then re-install Sierra.

  • by Ondolinde,

    Ondolinde Ondolinde Oct 21, 2016 5:40 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 21, 2016 5:40 PM in response to Loner T

    This is what was shown after I ran it once. No error though.

     

     

    Davids-iMac:~ TheShire$ diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3

    Started erase on disk0s3 RC1

    Unmounting disk

    Finished erase on disk0

  • by Loner T,

    Loner T Loner T Oct 21, 2016 5:48 PM in response to Ondolinde
    Level 7 (24,862 points)
    Safari
    Oct 21, 2016 5:48 PM in response to Ondolinde

    Excellent. What does

     

    diskutil list

     

    show. Can you use DU to extend Macintosh HD to its maximum possible value?

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