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

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.

Run

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

If you only see disk0s3, then

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and now run BC Assistant and try to Remove/Restore.

Loner T

I'm getting the same error message and want to make sure I'm deleting the correct item items. Can you look this over and give me some guidance?

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 390.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 101.6 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +390.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 279.6 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 24.4 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 520.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 3.2 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS Charles_Lundy 340.0 GB disk2s2

3: Apple_HFS TimeMachine 659.7 GB disk2s3

Chuck

Loner,

You have seemed to have helped so many folks, I cannot figure out how to know what to enter into terminal to resolve this specific issue. I have attached a copy of my terminal return to see if you can help me out. Thank you so much for your help, this has been a massive headache!

My SSD (256GB) has been divided into 3 partitions: "Macintosh HD" is for running High Sierra, "Data" is used just for normal storage, "Bootcamp" is used for running Windows 10 on Bootcamp.

I just want to remove the Bootcamp (Windows 10) partition and merge it into "Macintosh HD".

Thank you.

Hey, hate to ask you for help but I've got pretty much the same error... I tried something you posted earlier and it didn't seem to work 😟 Think you could lend a hand?

Apple should really pay guys like you to help people... you're super stars xD

EDIT: bit of a backstory on the problem.... Winblows (I hate Windows 10) Tried to update against my will as it always seems to do these days... This time the update even though I didn't interrupt it has corrupted the boot so I need to get rid of it.

Please help me. I tried to install windows in my mac using bootcamp but i cancelled in between .now when again i tried it shows the startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

This should work in your case as well.

Run (only once)

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

If you only see disk0s3, then

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and now run BC Assistant and click on Restore/Remove.

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing the same problem. I am trying to remove windows via bootcamp from my new Macbook Pro, but this error message appears when trying to do so: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."

The terminal command gives me the following output:

Any help is highly appreciated!

This should work in your case as well.

Run (only once)

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

If you only see disk0s3, then

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and now run BC Assistant and click on Restore/Remove.

Hi Loner I think I need some help. I ran the commands you mentioned before but I couldnt get the option to restore only to instal windows again. So I ran them again only to see after you can only run once... so now the same message appears before that the disk cannot be partioned. Is there any hope haha? Thanks a lot for the help

Hi Loner,

You helped me out recently but I've gone and messed things up again trying to reinstall a Windows partition via Bootcamp. Every time I try to use Bootcamp to delete the partition I get the 'The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition' error.

When I use Diskutil List this is what I see;

Could you please help me delete the Bootcamp partition?

Thank you in advance for your help!

I missed some information at the bottom of the original screenshot. This is the full info I get from Diskutil List:

Once again, if you could help me remove the Bootcamp partition I would be very grateful! Thank you so much.

Loner T,

I want to first say that I am in awe on how helpful you are with everyone on this thread! Its so cool to see how helpful people are in the Apple community.

I think I have a similar issue here but I want to make sure... I had a Bootcamp partition but then something happened on the Windows side that stopped working, so I ended up removing it entirely. When I went to reinstall Bootcamp/Windows again, an error came up when installing Windows, and I never got it fully installed. Somewhere along the line, Bootcamp partitioned my Fusion Drive on my 27inch 2017 iMac, and I am no longer able to make the computer recognize 1 hard drive. I took a couple screenshots so hopefully its clear on what I am experiencing. Also, when I go back to Bootcamp Assistant, it no longer gives me the error "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition", it goes straight to the "Install Windows" / select ISO screen of the process.

I also ran the diskutil list + diskutil cs list in terminal and pasted the results below.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Last login: Wed May 30 17:53:13 on console

Admins-iMac:~ kris$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 120.9 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 1.7 TB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

4: EFI NO NAME 104.9 MB disk1s4

5: EFI NO NAME 104.9 MB disk1s5

6: Apple_HFS BOOTCAMP 258.9 GB disk1s6

7: Apple_Boot 650.0 MB disk1s7

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +1.8 TB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

F688A158-319F-446D-B17E-0B4D2B6CABB5

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk3

1: Apple_partition_map 262.1 KB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS 3TB 3.0 TB disk3s3

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group 0F34B518-B384-480A-8603-F77D4074DFBF

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

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 1852856283136 B (1.9 TB)

Free Space: 69632 B (69.6 KB)

|

+-< Physical Volume EA3333AA-351D-4308-8DA2-321217DD62F5

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120883990528 B (120.9 GB)

|

+-< Physical Volume BBAFFB0F-79A2-4066-B10B-B620FCDC9C75

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

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 1731972292608 B (1.7 TB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 853B6CFE-A0B3-48D1-BE87-65E132D23014

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

Encryption Type: None

|

+-> Logical Volume F688A158-319F-446D-B17E-0B4D2B6CABB5

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1847001481216 B (1.8 TB)

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Volume Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

LVG Type: Fusion, Sparse