Strange EFI bootcamp issue

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Level 1

8 points

Strange EFI bootcamp issue

I have a bit of a strange issue here (this is going to need quite a bit of explanation, sorry).

For several months I have been booting Remix OS (a now-discontinued Android OS designed to emulate a desktop environment) on my iMac (late 2015) from a USB flash drive. I recently discovered that, despite having a 32GB flash drive, only 4GB are being recognized as storage space for RemixOS. I set out to increase the storage space; according to the walkthrough I used, doing so required installing Android x86 on the drive and creating/selecting a partition to boot from.

Unfortunately I misunderstood the instructions and did the wrong thing; when I tried doing what the instructions said, the installation said there was not enough space available, and rebooted. Now when I boot up the iMac and hold Option, an extra boot drive shows up, with the internal hard drive icon, named EFI Boot. If I select it, a terminal-like screen appears telling me to select the OS to boot into (both appear to be versions of RemixOS); selecting one will prompt a message saying that the boot path does not exist, and then the computer will re-boot into macOS.

I tried to install Android x86 on the USB again, but this time I apparently managed to do the same thing, this time creating a partition off of our external hard drive! Thankfully nothing appears to have been erased, but at this point I started worrying I might actually erase something and so I stopped.

When I go into Disk Utility, however, there doesn't appear to be anything extra or incorrect. So my question is: how do I get rid of these hidden drives without screwing anything else up?

Thanks!

- RizDub

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Mar 13, 2018 8:41 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Mar 19, 2018 11:58 AM in response to RizDub

Delete it as well. After you delete all extraneous folders, run a

diskutil repairDisk disk3

You can also use the same mouth command to mount your internal disk's EFI partition and compare with th external disk and choose to keep the matching items only.

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Answer 2

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 14, 2018 9:16 AM in response to Loner T

/dev/disk0 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 24.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB
disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 23.6 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB
disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 999.3 GB
disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB
disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +1.0 TB disk2

Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2

B06A6077-0AFC-49A8-82B8-D53E0FD0F8C5

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS External Hard Drive 3.0 TB disk3s2

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Answer 3

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 15, 2018 10:25 AM in response to Loner T

It's exactly the same, except with this at the end:

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *31.5 GB disk4

1: DOS_FAT_32 REMIX USB 31.5 GB disk4s1

But the issue is that the hidden drives seem to be connected to the actual computer and the external hard drive, not the USB.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Mar 15, 2018 1:15 PM in response to RizDub

RizDub wrote:

But the issue is that the hidden drives seem to be connected to the actual computer and the external hard drive, not the USB.

Can you describe what you mean by 'hidden' drives? Your USB currently shows a FAT/MBR disk with a single partition. Are there 'volumes' which are proprietary file system based?

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Answer 5

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 15, 2018 4:54 PM in response to Loner T

As I described in the original post, the extra drives (which were created accidentally and probably not even correctly) that show up appear to be connected to the internal hard drive and external hard drive, but they do not show up in Disk Utility. I assume that the USB is irrelevant at this point.

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Answer 6

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 17, 2018 9:29 AM in response to Loner T

I was following these instructions.

I added "INSTALL=1" to the parameter list when starting up Remix OS.

I selected "detect devices" to make sure the USB is included in the list of partitions.

In this case I must have then selected a partition that started with disk0 or disk1 or disk2 (the actual computer's drive), instead of disk4 (which, according to the terminal output, is my USB).

When I tried to start the installation, a message said there was not sufficient space on the drive, and the computer rebooted.

Then the extra internal EFI drive started showing up in bootcamp.

I tried again, this time apparently selecting disk3 (the external hard drive) for the partition.

Again the message appeared saying there was not sufficient space, and the computer rebooted.

Then the extra external EFI drive started showing up in bootcamp.

I don't know why these extra EFI drives aren't showing up in Disk Utility.

Now I just want to know how to remove these extra EFI drives without messing anything else up.

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Answer 7

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2018 10:26 AM in response to Loner T

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 999.3 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB
disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (internal):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme 24.0 GB disk1

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 23.6 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB
disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, virtual):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +1.0 TB disk2

Logical Volume on disk1s2, disk0s2

B06A6077-0AFC-49A8-82B8-D53E0FD0F8C5

Unencrypted Fusion Drive

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS External Hard Drive 3.0 TB disk3s2

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Answer 8

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2018 10:41 AM in response to Loner T

Boot contains a folder called "grub," which contains a single file called grub.cfg.

RemixOS contains two folders, "android" and "mnt." "mnt" only contains three files: initrd.img; kernel; and ramdisk.img. "android" contains "system," which contains "addon," which has eleven other folders, and "lost+found," which is empty.

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Answer 9

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2018 11:19 AM in response to Loner T

Okay... do I just delete the "boot" folder, or is there something else I need to do to avoid messing anything else up?

And what about the other two folders? I run Remix off of a USB, not the external hard drive, so should I delete the RemixOS folder too?

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Answer 10

RizDub Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2018 11:48 AM in response to Loner T

Okay, but the thing is, I checked, and the EFI folder has some Remix OS-related stuff in there too. It might have been changed when I selected the wrong partition in my attempt to increase the storage space on my USB.

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