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

I'm using a late 2014 imac 5k with a fusion drive with Mojave OS. I'm unable to delete my windows partition. My goal is to delete the windows partition and make the mac partition larger. I run into this error when I got boot camp assistant.


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


The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows"



Please help. I'm unable to delete the windows partition due to this message.


LonerT I summon your wisdom for I am lost.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014), macOS Mojave (10.14.1)

Posted on Nov 6, 2018 1:14 AM

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13 replies

Nov 6, 2018 1:48 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_APFS Container disk2 704.4 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS 18.5 GB disk0s3

4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 276.1 GB
disk0s4

5: Windows Recovery 907.0 MB
disk0s5


/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB
disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB
disk1s2


/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +825.5 GB
disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume MAC HD 780.6 GB
disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.1 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 513.2 MB
disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk2s4

Nov 6, 2018 3:51 AM in response to anaoshak

Run


diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC1 disk0s4

diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s5

diskutil mergePartitions jhfs+ disk0s3 disk0s5

diskutil list


If you only see disk0s3 (and disk0s4 and disk0s5 are not listed), then


diskutil eraseVolume fat32 BOOTCAMP disk0s3


and run BC Assistant and click on Remove/Restore. If you see any errors, please stop and post the output of the Terminal session.

Nov 7, 2018 7:23 AM in response to Loner T

When I run "diskutil eraseVolume jhfs+ BC2 disk0s5"


I get "Unable to find disk for disk0s5"

I stopped after that step.


Here's my

diskutil list after getting "Unable to find disk for disk0s5"




/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_APFS Container disk2 704.4 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS 18.5 GB disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS BC1 276.0 GB
disk0s4


/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB
disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB
disk1s2


/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +825.5 GB
disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume MAC HD 617.2 GB
disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.1 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 513.2 MB
disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk2s4


/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3

1: EFI 209.7 MB
disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS Arash 999.9 GB
disk3s2


Nov 7, 2018 7:24 AM in response to anaoshak

Correction.... I just unplugged my external drive. So it's...


diskutil list

/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_APFS Container disk2 704.4 GB
disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS 18.5 GB disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS BC1 276.0 GB
disk0s4


/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB
disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB
disk1s2


/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +825.5 GB
disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume MAC HD 617.2 GB
disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.1 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 513.2 MB
disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk2s4


Nov 7, 2018 3:53 PM in response to Loner T

I stopped after the first command. When I run the first command I get....


"

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.

"

Nov 7, 2018 5:52 PM in response to Loner T

Alright. I think it's done. This is the outcome, does it look normal?


/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_APFS Container disk2 1000.0 GB
disk0s2


/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB
disk1

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB
disk1s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.1 GB
disk1s2


/dev/disk2 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1.1 TB disk2

Physical Stores disk1s2, disk0s2

1: APFS Volume MAC HD 618.9 GB
disk2s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 45.1 MB disk2s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 513.2 MB
disk2s3

4: APFS Volume VM 3.2 GB disk2s4


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

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