Bootcamp "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" error.

Before you run the following command, ensure that disk0s4 is Windows Recovery

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s4

This command converts this partition to Free Space, which will allow BC Assistant to allow Remove/Restore.

If you notice, your Windows Recovery is disk1s4 now, after the reboot. Do not reboot any further.

Run

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk1s4

Once complete, run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore.

See Remove Windows from your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support for any additional clarifications, if necessary.

MBP 2017, macOS HS 10.13.6 (17G5019).

Similar problem where I manually removed the BC partition for Windows (mistake) from the disk utility. Now I can’t reinstall Windows nor reclaim the partitioned space

Run (only once)

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1 0g

and post the output.

Please reboot, so you disk slices can be correctly ordered. Post the output of

diskutil list

before we go further.

You have a 3Tb Fusion drive. There are no Windows partitions. Is your Mac a 2012 Model? If yes, see If you see the alert 'Installation cannot proceed with Boot Camp configured' - Apple Support.

Thanks Loner, I updated my OS (now running Mojave v10.14.5), and shut the computer down. After starting it up again, I was able to run Boot Camp Assistant which now recognizes the windows partition, but it gives an error message upon trying to restore.

"Your disk could not be restored to a single partition."

After running terminal>diskutil list, it shows a different result from yesterday:

/dev/disk0 (internal):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         121.3 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         121.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         2.5 TB     disk1s2

   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                501.3 GB   disk1s3

   4:           Windows Recovery                         505.4 MB   disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +2.6 TB     disk2

                                 Physical Stores disk0s2, disk1s2

   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            1.3 TB     disk2s1

   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 43.2 MB    disk2s2

   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                509.7 MB   disk2s3

   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk2s4

Any ideas what the best next steps could be? Thanks again, I appreciate it.

Loner T wrote:

Proteinz wrote:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         2.5 TB     disk0s2

   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                501.3 GB   disk0s3

   4:           Windows Recovery                         505.4 MB   disk0s4

If you see the highlighted line when you run the diskutil list command, you are ready to eraseVolume disk0s4.

Proteinz wrote:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         2.5 TB     disk0s2

   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                501.3 GB   disk0s3

   4:           Windows Recovery                         505.4 MB   disk0s4

If you see the highlighted line when you run the diskutil list command, you are ready to eraseVolume disk0s4.

This is a bit more convoluted then OP. Can you start a new discussion, and post this output and the following additional command?

diskutil apfs list

The reason you are getting the partitions you have when you try to install Windows is due to an external storage unit being connected. Disconnect all external storage, run

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

and try to install Windows.

• 2015 and later Macs do not need external storage.
• 2012-2014 Macs need a USB2 flash drive and a Windows DVD or an equivalent ISO.
• 2011 and older Macs need to use the built-in Optical drive. If they do not have a built-in Optical drive, then external Optical drive is supported on such models.
• Bootcamp drivers can be downloaded to a USB2 flash drive unless you use Macs which came with Grey restore DVDs, which also contain corresponding BC drivers. Most of these support Windows XP only.

You have a couple of issues.

• disk0s3 should be Apple Boot, not Apple HFS
• disk1s3 and disk1s6 are duplicates that you do not need, but there is not clean way to identify which one is valid
• disk1s4 and disk1s5 are the remnants of a failed attempt at BC/Windows installations and should be merged

I suggest you post a new discussion with these details in Boot Camp and we can address these. Please back up macOS for your safety, in case we need to backup and restore it.

hi !! i was wondering if anyone could help me with this. i'm running 12-inch 2017 macbook and this is what the list command turns up. when i press continue it tells me the startup disk can't be partitioned etc etc-- advice ??

/dev/disk0 (internal):

  #:           TYPE NAME          SIZE   IDENTIFIER

  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            251.0 GB disk0

  1:            EFI EFI          314.6 MB disk0s1

  2:        Apple_APFS Container disk1    202.0 GB disk0s2

  3:   Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED      8.0 GB  disk0s3

  4:         Apple_HFS BC1          40.6 GB  disk0s4

Assuming this is what you are asking about...

• Step 1

In your specific case, given the current state, try

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

• Step 2

If you see only disk0s3 as the last entry under disk0, then run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and retry removing the partition using BC Assistant only.

Hi,

I had a similar problem and unfortunately I ended up using Disk utility to remove the Boot Camp partition.

The distil list command shows the following now:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         251.0 GB   disk0

   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1

   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.7 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.7 GB   disk1

                                 Physical Store disk0s2

   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            195.7 GB   disk1s1

   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 61.8 MB    disk1s2

   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3

   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

Do I need to do anything or leave it like that? I am worried that I might have damaged the boot portion and am not restarting my MBP because it might not boot up.

Thanks

The disk looks fine. If you did not use BC Assistant to remove Windows, it may still show up as a a boot option when you use Alt/Option, because disk utility does not clean up all Windows-related information.

So I can restart without fear?

Yes.

Is there something I can do clean up the leftovers from BootCamp?

Can you start a new discussion Boot Camp - Apple Community to avoid confusion with this discussion?

Thanks! Requested output follows:

13661/1 $ diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3
Started erase on disk0s3
Unmounting disk
Finished erase on disk0


19981/2 $ diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1 0g
Started APFS operation
Aligning grow delta to 48,95,38,80,576 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 4,99,96,31,70,816 bytes
Determined the maximum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 4,99,96,21,42,720 bytes
Resizing APFS Container designated by APFS Container Reference disk1
The specific APFS Physical Store being resized is disk0s2
Verifying storage system
Using live mode
Performing fsck_apfs -n -x -l /dev/disk0s2
Checking volume
Checking the container superblock
Checking the EFI jumpstart record
Checking the space manager
Checking the object map
Checking the APFS volume superblock
Checking the object map
error: device /private/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T/fsck_apfs.19616.1 failed to open with error: Permission denied
The volume /dev/disk0s2 could not be verified completely
Storage system check exit code is 66
Error: -69716: Storage system verify or repair failed

I’m attaching Disk Utility screen shots: