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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Oct 15, 2018 9:40 AM in response to kos277

Can you post a text version of

diskutil apfs list

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Nov 18, 2018 5:17 PM in response to Petez9

Run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore.

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Jan 16, 2018 1:40 AM in response to chinhhut

I assume you manually partitioned the disk using Disk Utility and installed Windows using EFI boot. If yes, given the current layout, the Free Space from disk0s4-disk0s5 can only go to "Data". If that works for you then,

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s5

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s3 R

diskutil list

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Mar 14, 2018 5:17 AM in response to goncalo255

Run

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

If you only see disk0s3, then run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

and now retry BCA and click on Remove/Restore.

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Jun 10, 2018 6:18 AM in response to jojo-khader

Run (only once)

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 now run BC Assistant and click on Restore/Remove.

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Level 9

59,536 points

Jun 18, 2018 4:39 PM in response to thecubeco

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 18, 2018 6:03 AM in response to tennissamurai

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 28, 2018 5:01 AM in response to Amadezeus

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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59,536 points

Oct 2, 2018 10:22 PM in response to sumaia111

The following commands rebuild GPT2 and GPT3.

Run

diskutil unmount disk0

gpt remove -i 3 /dev/disk0

gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk0

gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 410157016 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

diskutil unmount disk0

gpt add -i 3 -b 410566656 -s 79142912 -t hfs /dev/disk0

gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

diskutil list

Please post the output of the entire Terminal session, before we go further.

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Dec 3, 2018 3:45 PM in response to BoostedGTS

Be aware that a reboot can renumber disks, so must verify that these are on the 2TB disk, not on the 121Gb disk.

In your specific case given the current state, try

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk1s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk1s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk1s3 disk1s4

diskutil list

If you only see disk1s3, then

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk1s3

and run BCA and click on Restore/Remove.

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Dec 22, 2018 12:40 PM in response to naterano

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.

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Feb 4, 2019 10:34 AM in response to anntd

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.

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Feb 4, 2018 3:32 PM in response to Thiago_schin

Can you reboot and check if you still show two Recovery HDs? Also, post the output of

diskutil list

sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

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Feb 6, 2018 8:42 AM in response to GraceMacbook

You do not have a Corestorage partition, hence diskutil cs list has no output. Can you run

diskutil repairDisk disk0

and post the output? Answer 'y' if you are asked about EFI (disk0s1).

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Feb 8, 2018 8:04 AM in response to rahulbrand

Run Disk Utility First Aid and retry.

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

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