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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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

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.

532 replies

Jun 30, 2018 8:30 AM in response to muehlsa

Do not connect any external storage during Windows installation, unless BC Assistant explicitly asks for it.


Run


diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC3 disk0s5

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC4 disk0s6

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s7

diskutil list


Post the output before we go further.

Jun 30, 2018 2:20 PM in response to Loner T

That was the output:

Samuels-MacBook-Pro-2:~ sam$ diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BOOTCAMP disk0s3

Started erase on disk0s3 BC1

Unmounting disk

Erasing

Initialized /dev/rdisk0s3 as a 101 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 16384k journal

Mounting disk

Finished erase on disk0s3 BOOTCAMP


After that I tried to erase/restore but I got some new container disks?

'Macintosh HD' still seems not to have the full volume.


The output of 'diskutil list' is now:

/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 392.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_APFS Container disk2 108.1 GB disk0s3


/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +392.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 291.5 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 24.7 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4


/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +108.1 GB disk2

Physical Store disk0s3

1: APFS Volume Preboot 24.7 MB disk2s2

2: APFS Volume Recovery 20.5 KB disk2s3

Jul 10, 2018 3:39 AM in response to ryantiong

Run


diskutil apfs deleteVolume 6FA4A600-D3C1-4CA8-927D-1A827FEFD493

diskutil apfs deleteVolume 2EE19001-AB9D-4CEC-9FBF-825BA282D8AB

diskutil apfs deleteVolume AEAC09D4-C3E0-44A8-9C1A-CC5269FD9706

diskutil apfs deleteContainer C5638454-94C8-4CC1-B8AC-201134505545

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil mergePartitions BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3


If you do not see any errors, then run BCA and click on Remove/Restore.

Jul 10, 2018 7:58 AM in response to Loner T

Ryan$ diskutil apfs deleteVolume 6FA4A600-D3C1-4CA8-927D-1A827FEFD493

Started APFS operation

Deleting APFS Volume from its APFS Container

Unmounting disk1s3

Deleting Volume

Finished APFS operation

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil apfs deleteVolume 2EE19001-AB9D-4CEC-9FBF-825BA282D8AB

Started APFS operation

Deleting APFS Volume from its APFS Container

Unmounting disk1s2

Deleting Volume

Finished APFS operation

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil apfs deleteVolume AEAC09D4-C3E0-44A8-9C1A-CC5269FD9706

Started APFS operation

Deleting APFS Volume from its APFS Container

Unmounting disk1s1

Deleting Volume

Finished APFS operation

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil apfs deleteContainer C5638454-94C8-4CC1-B8AC-201134505545

Started APFS operation on disk1

Deleting APFS Container with all of its APFS Volumes

Unmounting Volumes

Deleting Volumes

Deleting Container

Wiping former APFS disks

Switching content types

Reformatting former APFS disks

Initialized /dev/rdisk0s4 as a 3 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal

Mounting disk

1 new disk created or changed due to APFS operation

Disk from APFS operation: disk0s4

Finished APFS operation on disk1

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

Started erase on disk0s3 BOOTCAMP

Unmounting disk

Erasing

Initialized /dev/rdisk0s3 as a 41 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal

Mounting disk

Finished erase on disk0s3 BC1

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil mergePartitions BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

Usage: diskutil mergePartitions [force] format name

DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode

Merge two or more pre-existing partitions into one. The first disk parameter

is the starting partition; the second disk parameter is the ending partition;

this given range of two or more partitions will be merged into one.

All partitions in the range, except for the first one, must be unmountable.

All data on merged partitions other than the first will be lost; data on the

first partition will be lost as well if the "force" argument is given.

If "force" is not given, and the first partition has a resizable file system

(e.g. JHFS+), it will be grown in a data-preserving manner, even if a different

file system is specified (in fact, your file system and volume name parameters

are both ignored in this case). Also, if "force" is not given, and the first

partition is not resizable, you will be prompted if you want to erase.

However, if "force" is given, the first partition is always formatted. You

should do this if you wish to reformat to a new file system type.

Merged partitions are required to be ordered sequentially on disk.

See `diskutil list` for the actual on-disk ordering; BSD slice identifiers

may in certain circumstances not always be in numerical order but the

top-to-bottom order given by diskutil list is always the on-disk order.

Ownership of the affected disk is required.

Example: diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ NewName disk3s4 disk3s7

This example will merge all partitions *BETWEEN* disk3s4 and disk3s7,

preserving data on disk3s4 but destroying data on disk3s5, disk3s6,

disk3s7 and any invisible free space partitions between those disks;

disk3s4 will be grown to cover the full space if possible.

Ryans-MacBook-Air:~ Ryan$ diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

Jul 23, 2018 9:49 PM in response to Loner T

Loner T ,


i'm having the same problem, can you help me too


/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 282.0 GB
disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s6

4: Apple_HFS BC2 100.9 GB
disk0s4

5: Apple_HFS BC1 108.7 GB
disk0s3


/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +282.0 GB
disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 222.0 GB
disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 21.4 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: CCSA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5
+4.4 GB disk2


Aug 16, 2018 8:20 PM in response to almahrooqiali

almahrooqiali wrote:



+-> Logical Volume Family 0BB1A210-737F-448B-8774-6BFB93316FC1

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

Encryption Type: AES-XTS

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Conversion Status: Complete

High Level Queries: Fully Secure

| Passphrase Required

| Accepts New Users

| Has Visible Users

| Has Volume Key

|

+-> Logical Volume 16626A96-21C5-4CE1-B560-B2C8BCD0A032

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 206795964416 B (206.8 GB)

Revertible: No

LV Name: BOOTCAMP

Volume Name: BOOTCAMP

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Step 1 - Unlock and decrypt the drive. The following command will prompt you for the encryption password. It may be the same as your FileVault password.


diskutil cs decryptVolume 16626A96-21C5-4CE1-B560-B2C8BCD0A032 -stdinpassphrase

Aug 16, 2018 9:31 PM in response to Loner T

Step1 is done :


The Core Storage Logical Volume UUID is 16626A96-21C5-4CE1-B560-B2C8BCD0A032

Started CoreStorage operation on disk2 BOOTCAMP

Scheduling decryption of Core Storage Logical Volume

Core Storage LV UUID: 16626A96-21C5-4CE1-B560-B2C8BCD0A032

Finished CoreStorage operation on disk2 BOOTCAMP

What about the other steps ???

+-- Logical Volume Group 97C28674-D1CE-4419-A59F-7797720675D8

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

Name: BOOTCAMP

Status: Online

Size: 207023501312 B (207.0 GB)

Free Space:
8597504 B (8.6 MB)

|

+-< Physical Volume 1EC1F898-1A9C-4E9A-B0C5-5A3CB66A4951

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

|
Index: 0

|
Disk: disk0s3

|
Status:
Online

|
Size: 207156887552 B (207.2 GB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 0BB1A210-737F-448B-8774-6BFB93316FC1

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

Encryption Type: AES-XTS

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Conversion Status: Converting

Reversion State: Decrypting

High Level Queries: Not Fully Secure

| Has Visible Users

| Has Volume Key

|

+-> Logical Volume 16626A96-21C5-4CE1-B560-B2C8BCD0A032

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 206795964416 B (206.8 GB)

Conversion Progress:
Paused

Revertible: No

LV Name: BOOTCAMP

Volume Name: BOOTCAMP

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Aug 21, 2018 4:35 AM in response to archetfrommumbai

archetfrommumbai wrote:


But still, I am not able to run the windows installer. Here is the reply from terminal :


Archets-MacBook-Pro:~ Archet$ 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_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 250.1 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS 650.0 MB
disk0s3


/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +249.8 GB
disk1

Logical Volume on disk0s2

9EFF1096-58B1-4282-BFFE-84FFF5AFB8F2

Unlocked Encrypted



Why do you think you have a partition issue? This output does not indicate an issue similar to the ones in this discussion. Please start a new discussion and describe the issue in detail.

Oct 2, 2018 6:05 AM in response to sumaia111

sumaia111 wrote:


I'm not sure what tools you means but I tried to run these commands in Terminal and it didn’t work

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s4

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk0s3 disk0s4

diskutil list

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3

These commands are not a universal solution for everyone. The output of your specific Mac decides the next step. For example, you do not have disk0s4, so you cannot use these commands.

Oct 2, 2018 7:02 AM in response to Loner T

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB
disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk0s1

2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF 210.0 GB
disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 40.7 GB disk0s3


/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +210.0 GB
disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 198.7 GB
disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 44.0 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 512.4 MB
disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 5.4 GB disk1s4


User uploaded file

It shows that I have 40GB on bootcamp it means the windows has been delete it right?

How I can move the space to Macintosh? the error message still appear when I open BootCamp

Oct 2, 2018 9:48 PM in response to Loner T

-bash-3.2# gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=251000193024; sectorsize=512; blocks=490234752

gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 490234751

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 410157016 2 GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF

410566656 79142912 3 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

489709568 525151

490234719 32 Sec GPT table

490234751 1 Sec GPT header

-bash-3.2#

Oct 2, 2018 9:52 PM in response to sumaia111

-bash-3.2# gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=251000193024; sectorsize=512; blocks=490234752

gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1

gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 490234751

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 410157016 2 GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF

410566656 79142912 3 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

489709568 525151

490234719 32 Sec GPT table

490234751 1 Sec GPT header

-bash-3.2#

Oct 20, 2018 2:28 PM in response to oopsyda1sy

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.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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

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