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

Question

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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Answer 1

Huuth

Level 1

4 points

Nov 23, 2018 7:55 PM in response to Loner T

And Im guessing I will need to repeat the previous instructions you gave? or is there something else I need to do to not get the startup disk error on my next attempt?

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 241.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 251.0 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +241.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 53.4 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 25.7 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 519.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... +5.1 GB disk2

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Answer 2

reid262

Level 1

4 points

Nov 27, 2018 6:37 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Thank you for your support on here! It appears that you provide assistance to many. I, too, am having the same troubles as others in that I cannot remove my previously partitioned Bootcamp. The space does not appear in BCA nor does it appear anywhere else.

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB
disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB
disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 299.0 GB
disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +299.0 GB
disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 143.5 GB
disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 67.4 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4

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Answer 3

Dec 3, 2018 12:37 PM in response to Loner T

Hey Loner T, could you help me too? 😊

/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 *2.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 1.5 TB disk1s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 502.1 GB disk1s3

4: Windows Recovery 499.1 MB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.6 TB disk2

Physical Stores disk0s2, disk1s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 128.7 GB disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.7 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.8 MB disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk2s4

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Answer 4

wkw8888

Level 1

4 points

Dec 7, 2018 11:11 PM in response to charguytechguy

I can't seem to get my disk back to one partition. I get the "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" error. can you guys help me out? I ran a command in terminal I saw Loner T post. diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

I have little idea what I am doing. It created another partition called bootcamp. so now I have two bootcamp partitions? I still get the "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" error. I could use some step by step help to get out of this little mess. I am trying to set this computer back to factory settings so I can sell it to my roommate. thanks!!

I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro 13" running mojave

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Answer 5

wkw8888

Level 1

4 points

Dec 8, 2018 9:44 AM in response to Loner T

I think it worked!

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 250.8 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +250.8 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume The Eleven 86.9 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.5 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4

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Answer 6

Dec 12, 2018 5:18 PM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Could you help me out as well. I tried to remove bootcamp but then got an error saying "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition".

I then tried this running -

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

And then running BC assistant but it didn't help.

It created this other partition of bootcamp of about 900mb that I can see in disk utility called BOOTCAMP : PCI-Express Internal Physical Volume • MS-DOS (FAT32)

I also ran -

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

Running this caused my original Bootcamp partition to be "restored" or "freed" I guess, essentially all the data was cleared and now that one also reads BOOTCAMP : PCI-Express Internal Physical Volume • MS-DOS (FAT32)

Running diskutil list in terminal gives me -

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Answer 7

Dec 15, 2018 3:23 PM in response to Loner T

I seem to be having the same issue as the many others here. Thank you for helping!

/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 2.3 TB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 665.0 GB disk0s3

4: Windows Recovery 493.9 MB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +2.5 TB disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 2.2 TB disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 42.6 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.0 MB disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 24.6 KB disk2s4

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Answer 8

Dec 17, 2018 9:28 AM in response to Loner T

Kernel panic during restoration through Bootcamp. I'm left with:

/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_APFS Container disk2 2.0 TB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB disk1s2

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.0 TB disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 601.4 GB disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 44.3 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.8 MB disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk2s4

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Answer 9

naterano

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2018 8:11 PM in response to charguytechguy

Any chance you could help me also? I tried the above and ended up creating a BC1 which I could not restore.

diskutil list:

Last login: Fri Dec 21

19:53:59 on ttys000

NRs-MacBook-Pro:~ nr$

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0:

GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container

disk1 293.0 GB disk0s2

3:

Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s6

4:

Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 80.0 GB disk0s4

5: Apple_HFS BC1 118.8 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

(synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0:

APFS Container Scheme - +293.0 GB disk1

Physical Store

disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 213.7 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.9 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 519.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0:

CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... +5.1 GB

disk2

/dev/disk3 (external,

physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0:

FDisk_partition_scheme *31.5 GB disk3

1: Windows_NTFS WIN10BOOT 31.5 GB disk3s1

diskutil cs list:

NRs-MacBook-Pro:~ nr$

Last login: Fri Dec 21

19:54:06 on ttys000

NRs-MacBook-Pro:~ nr$

diskutil cs list

No CoreStorage logical

volume groups found

NRs-MacBook-Pro:~ nr$

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Answer 10

naterano

Level 1

4 points

Dec 22, 2018 8:50 AM in response to Loner T

You're correct. I'd like to reinstall windows.

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 293.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 80.0 GB disk0s4

5: Apple_HFS BC1 118.8 GB disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +293.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 213.7 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.9 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 519.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Reply

Answer 11

naterano

Level 1

4 points

Dec 22, 2018 1:22 PM in response to Loner T

I've completed step 1. It has taken care of some of the extra patricians but I still have a CD1.

I'm unsure if i should do step two because I CD1 patrician, except step 1 expanded it to 206 gigs rather than 120 gigs. Shouldn't I merge it first with my Machintosh HD?

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 293.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS BC1 206.8 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +293.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 213.7 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.9 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 519.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Reply

Answer 12

wkw8888

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2018 3:35 PM in response to charguytechguy

well shoot. I put bootcamp/windows on and then tried to put it back to single partition. the windows partition isn't visible anymore in disk utility but my mac side hasn't reclaimed the old partition space.

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 157.0 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +157.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 93.0 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.6 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Reply

Answer 13

wkw8888

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2018 4:29 PM in response to Loner T

looks like that fixed it. thanks!

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 250.8 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +250.8 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 93.0 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 43.6 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.0 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,636 points

Jan 6, 2019 6:09 AM in response to terriy

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.

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Answer 15

Jan 8, 2019 11:19 PM in response to Loner T

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

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