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

Hi, all. I'm trying to remove Windows from my Mac to free up more space. However, when I try to remove it the conventional way (by using Boot Camp), I get an error that says "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition." It goes on to say "The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows." I already tried erasing the disk and unmounting it in Disk Utility. Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jul 15, 2017 6:33 AM

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Posted on Jul 13, 2018 7:22 PM

philip99song wrote:

Hi LonerT,

I saw that you asked for people to put in the command.

#: 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 BOOTCAMP 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 40.6 GB disk0s4

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.

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Jul 13, 2018 7:22 PM in response to philip99song

philip99song wrote:

Hi LonerT,

I saw that you asked for people to put in the command.

#: 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 BOOTCAMP 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 40.6 GB disk0s4

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.

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May 18, 2019 8:41 PM in response to Proteinz

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.

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May 19, 2019 6:38 PM in response to Proteinz

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.

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Jan 17, 2018 6:38 AM in response to Gefromalgester

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Feb 23, 2018 4:46 PM in response to Raptor139

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 17, 2018 7:40 PM in response to Pam_I_Am

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 22, 2018 6:29 AM in response to ylkrubiks

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Jun 5, 2018 1:44 AM in response to atulzope

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 5, 2018 5:12 AM in response to gingohare

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.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 15, 2018 11:49 AM in response to Justanotherfish

Originally,...

Justanotherfish wrote:

3: Microsoft Reserved 134.2 MB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 249.8 GB disk0s4

5: Windows Recovery 471.9 MB disk0s5

Now...

Justanotherfish wrote:

I ran it, now it is listing...

3: Apple_HFS BC1 134.2 MB disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS BC2 249.7 GB disk0s4

Please run

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.

Reply

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59,536 points

Aug 23, 2018 5:15 AM in response to windgf

Since you have APFS and High Sierra (or later), the Recovery HD is now part of the APFS container, so it should not exist outside.

You want to erase/merge/format disk0s3 and disk0s4. 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.

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Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 30, 2018 3:56 AM in response to vivs1118

vivs1118 wrote:

I just ran 'diskutil list' and got the following results

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 202.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BC1 48.7 GB disk0s3

You still have this partition. Please run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore to free up this 48GB disk space, then you can retry BCA again.

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59,536 points

Sep 13, 2018 9:37 PM in response to smoothitaway

smoothitaway wrote:

Thank you so much for the quick reply!!! Here is the result now:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 927.4 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB
disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS BC1 72.2 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +927.0 GB
disk1

Now, run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

and run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore.

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Sep 30, 2018 4:54 PM in response to cambodiandecember

The second Apple_Boot is a macOS bug. We need to erase disk0s4 and disk0s5.

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s5

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s4 disk0s5

diskutil list

If you only see disk0s4, then

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

and run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore.

Reply

Level 9

59,536 points

Nov 7, 2018 4:59 PM in response to randallfromspanish fork

randallfromspanish fork wrote:

When I run diskutil list I have:

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB
disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB
disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 354.0 GB
disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 145.5 GB
disk0s3

4: Windows Recovery 489.7 MB
disk0s4

In your specific case, try

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 run BCA and click on Restore/Remove.

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

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