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Can't reinstall osx, messed up partitions.

During an installation of windows through bootcamp, I had to quit it due to an error. This resulted in a 200gb partition of my HDD to disappeared from disk utility. I eventually found it through the terminal but when I tried to merge it into my primary partition it disappeared with no trace even when using diskutil in the terminal. After reinstalling and attempting to fix the missing data with the terminal; I am at a point where I am stuck at the cmd+r boot menu unable to install osx due to the installer giving the message of "This disk cannot be used to start up your computer", as well as having 200gb of my hard drive missing.


Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.

iMac, iOS 11.1

Posted on Nov 13, 2017 3:30 PM

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3 replies

Nov 13, 2017 3:37 PM in response to CMM199

The following will only work if your iMac is from Late-2011 or later. Let me know if yours is earlier than that.

Clean Install of El Capitan or Later on a Clean Disk


  1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command-Option-Rkeys until a globe appears.
  2. The Utility Menu will appear in from 5-20 minutes. Be patient.
  3. Select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button.
  4. When Disk Utility loads select the drive (usually, the out-dented entry) from the side list.
  5. Click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
  6. Set the partition scheme to GUID.
  7. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  8. Click on the Apply button, then click on the Done button when it activates.
  9. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
  10. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.


This should install the version of OS X that was pre-installed when the computer was new.

Nov 13, 2017 4:09 PM in response to CMM199

Oh, My!! You have messed up quite a bit. Yes, out-dented refers in your case to the entry named Fusion Drive. With any luck, this will give you a Fusion Drive that is erased to which you will reinstall OS X. Remember for afterward that a Fusion Drive should not be partitioned except if you create a Windows partition using Boot Camp Assistant.

Can't reinstall osx, messed up partitions.

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