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

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.

In Terminal run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4

and retry removing the partition using BC Assistant only. Do not use Disk Utility.

There are two distinct parts in this discussion.

• Ascertaining the existing partitions and formatting/merging them.
• Reformatting the merged partition so BCA can remove it. (This is the step you now need execute).

• 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 under disk0, then run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and retry removing the partition using BC Assistant only.

• Step 1

In your specific case, given the current state, try

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC3 disk0s5

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s5

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 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.

• Step 1

In your specific case, given the current state, try

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC3 disk0s3

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s5

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 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 -

Tried that, when I ran BC Assistant, it said your disk couldn't be restored into a single one. Please check disk utility. And then closed. Now if I look at Disk Utility I only see one volume, and if I run BC it just talks about installing windows.

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:

charguytechguy wrote:

I already tried erasing the disk and unmounting it in Disk Utility. Any help would be appreciated.

This is not valid. Please post the output of the following macOS Terminal commands

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

I am having the same issue - running macOS High Sierra. I want to remove Windows 10. I was getting the same error message from Boot Camp Assistant, so I ran diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4 from Terminal. I now show - Macintosh HD, BOOTCAMP, BOOTCAMP in diskutility. Macintosh HD 400GB APFS Volume APFS (Encrypted), BOOTCAMP 99.59 GB PCI Internal Physical Volume Windows NT File System (NTFS), BOOTCAMP 471.9 MB PCI Internal Physical Volume MS-DOS (FAT32). When I went back to Boot Camp Assistant however after running the diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4 from Terminal, I am seeing the same error message as before.

Prior to running - in diskutility, I had Macintosh HD 400GB APFS Volume APFS (Encrypted), BOOTCAMP 99.59 GB PCI Internal Physical Volume Windows NT File System (NTFS), and a disk0s4 that was greyed out.

Kotaryp155 wrote:

I now show - Macintosh HD, BOOTCAMP, BOOTCAMP in diskutility. Macintosh HD 400GB APFS Volume APFS (Encrypted), BOOTCAMP 99.59 GB PCI Internal Physical Volume Windows NT File System (NTFS), BOOTCAMP 471.9 MB PCI Internal Physical Volume MS-DOS (FAT32). When I went back to Boot Camp Assistant however after running the diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s4 from Terminal, I am seeing the same error message as before.

Prior to running - in diskutility, I had Macintosh HD 400GB APFS Volume APFS (Encrypted), BOOTCAMP 99.59 GB PCI Internal Physical Volume Windows NT File System (NTFS), and a disk0s4 that was greyed out.

These two volumes need to merged before you can use BCA to Remove/restore. Please post the output of diskutil list and I can provide the commands to correctly merge them.

/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 400.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 99.6 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 471.9 MB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +400.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 235.0 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.3 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 520.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

I ran that and now the "startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" error is gone, however when I click Continue from the BC Assistant I am automatically brought to "Install Windows" window that is prompting me to choose the Windows ISO file. I wasn't presented with an option to "Restore Disk to a Single Volume" like I've seen in other threads to complete the removal.