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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

532 replies

Apr 29, 2018 2:15 PM in response to charguytechguy

Hi,

can anyone let me know how should I proceed?

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 407.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 92.6 GB disk0s3

4: Windows Recovery 498.1 MB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +407.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Home 359.2 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 22.6 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.8 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

May 22, 2018 2:17 AM in response to Loner T

Could you help me please I have been trying to recover my partition back to normal but I can't T.T

I want to recover the partitions to only one partition for my macbook

Les-MacBook-Pro:~ levantuanlong$ 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 150.0 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS BC1 100.7 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +150.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Sans titre 71.7 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.1 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

May 31, 2018 2:44 PM in response to venezuelakro

Disconnect the external 3TB disk for safety. Run the following commands

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk1s4

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk1s5

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC3 disk1s7

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ BCMP disk1s4 disk1s7

diskutil list

After we validate the output, we can go to the next step.

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

May 31, 2018 3:18 PM in response to venezuelakro

Despite the error for disk1s7, it merged the partitions. Run

diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk1s4

and run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore. You should get the 260+GB back into your CS LVG/LV.

May 31, 2018 3:25 PM in response to Loner T

AMAZING! You are absolutely a hero! I can now cancel my Genius Bar Appointment, you saved me a trip!

Just wondering, how did you learn all this stuff? Like if I wanted to be knowledgeable, are there university courses that set the track for this?

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

Jun 1, 2018 4:58 AM in response to venezuelakro

venezuelakro wrote:

Incorrect size for volume "Macintosh HD"

Adjusting volume "Macintosh HD"

Growing Logical Volume

Resizing Core Storage Logical Volume structures

Resized Core Storage Logical Volume to 2,114,568,323,072 bytes

Growing file system

The partition map appears to be OK

Finished partition map repair on disk0

repairDisk did correct the size issue as well. Can you post the output of

diskutil cs list

Jun 1, 2018 8:57 PM in response to Loner T

Here is the output:

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

+-- Logical Volume Group 0F34B518-B384-480A-8603-F77D4074DFBF

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

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Online

Size: 1860855447552 B (1.9 TB)

Free Space: 303104 B (303.1 KB)

+-< Physical Volume EA3333AA-351D-4308-8DA2-321217DD62F5

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

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 120883990528 B (120.9 GB)

+-< Physical Volume BBAFFB0F-79A2-4066-B10B-B620FCDC9C75

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

| Index: 1

| Disk: disk1s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 1739971457024 B (1.7 TB)

+-> Logical Volume Family E23859DD-F40F-485B-878A-4D0C31084FEB

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

Encryption Type: None

+-> Logical Volume FB7B9C03-3203-43DA-A86A-6D8CF4CB7017

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

Disk: disk2

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1855000412160 B (1.9 TB)

Revertible: No

LV Name: Macintosh HD

Volume Name: Macintosh HD

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

LVG Type: Fusion, Sparse

Jun 2, 2018 7:55 AM in response to Loner T

There is. This is odd as the last time I tried to use Bootcamp the progress bar got stuck on the partitioning portion and never moved... I had to force quit. I guess the computer must of made the partition anyway?

So I just ran Bootcamp again to get rid of the partition successfully.

I ran Bootcamp once more to begin the process of installing Windows and was successful!

I am now in the Windows eviorment and everything is working fine!

Thank you again for all of your help. You are amazing for everything you have done!

atulzope

Level 1

4 points

Jun 4, 2018 11:27 AM in response to Loner T

I have same problem.I had my boot camp running and it prompted that due some error BC has stopped and it was deleting the created disks...after a long time i closed the BC unfinished .

Now in DU i see a partition named 'BOOTCAMP' of 100.7 GB and 'OSXRESERVED' of 8GB of which only BOOTCAMP is accessible.

When i go in BC it shows a error as

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

I got in DU and gone in partitions in which only for OSXRESERVED a minus sign in there but not for BOOTCAMP

Please help me in this problem

atulzope

Level 1

4 points

Jun 4, 2018 9:05 PM 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: Apple_APFS Container disk1 142.0 GB
disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 100.8 GB
disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +142.0 GB
disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 58.1 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 20.8 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.8 MB
disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 3.2 GB disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (disk image):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US... +4.7 GB disk2

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 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.

Jun 10, 2018 1:09 AM in response to Loner T

hi loner t

thanks for your helps here

I have the same problem :The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" error.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS C 149.5 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot 650.0 MB disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS D 49.7 GB disk0s4

5: Apple_HFS E 299.8 GB disk0s5

can u help me please

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 points

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.

Jun 18, 2018 4:00 PM 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: Apple_APFS Container disk1 172.0 GB disk0s2

3: Microsoft Basic Data OSXRESERVED 8.0 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 70.5 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +172.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 99.2 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 61.0 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.6 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4

Loner T

Level 9

59,526 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.

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