Lost HD space after erasing boot camp partition

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Level 1

8 points

Lost HD space after erasing boot camp partition

I know this has been asked before but it seems there are different solutions depending on the cause of the problem and the hardware.

I am running an imac retina 5K 3,3GHz with 2 TB storage space.

After updating to High Sierra I was unable to boot in my windows partition so I decided to try and delete it and re-partition the harddrive and re-install windows.

However, after erasing the partition ( I believe I did it in disk utilities) my hard drive space on lists as 1,6TB and not 2 TB.

Below is a dump of "diskutil list" in terminal. Recovery HD is 512GB which seems very high and corresponds well with the size of the partition I tried to erase. How do I recover my lost HD space?

Also in disk utilities the 512GB appear greyed out in the pie chart but inaccessible as shown below

Hope you guys can help me out!

Thanks in advance.

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)

Posted on Dec 11, 2017 7:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:45 AM in response to kampster73

kampster73 wrote:

1. Can I make the back up now using time machine to an external storage device of my choice (as I haven't used time machine previously) or should I have made the backup prior to my bootcamp incident?

Yes, you can create a backup now, to an external disk. See Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support as a reference.

kampster73 wrote:

2. How do I go about erasing both underlying disks?

This is done in Internet Recovery. You boot your Mac using Command+Opt+R - About macOS Recovery - Apple Support . I can provide detailed steps, but you will need to use diskutil Terminal commands.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:20 AM in response to kampster73

Notice that your Recovery HD is 513GB, but is supposed to be only 620+ MB. Since you have a Fusion drive, the fastest method is to use a Time Machine backup and rebuild the CS volume after erasing both underlying disks, and then restoring the TM backup.

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Answer 3

kampster73 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:35 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Thanks for the reply.

However as a PC convert I just need to clarify a few things.

1. Can I make the back up now using time machine to an external storage device of my choice (as I haven't used time machine previously) or should I have made the backup prior to my bootcamp incident?

2. How do I go about erasing both underlying disks?

I apologize in advance for being a mac newbie!

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Answer 4

kampster73 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:51 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks again.

So are you saying that I need detailed steps or can I just boot into internet recovery and choose the option to restore from time machine backup?

Or do I need to erase disks manually before restoring from TM backup?

Just need clarification:)

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Dec 11, 2017 10:21 AM in response to kampster73

Can you look at the steps in Re: Disk cannot be partitioned error! and ask questions, before you run them?

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Dec 11, 2017 8:58 AM in response to kampster73

If you back up macOS using TM, without erasing the internal disks, Disk Utility does not erase the disk, but just the macOS partition. This will still leave the Recovery HD as is.

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