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Accidentally deleted my MACOS, only left with bootcamp partition
- Thread starter slothy
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Use another Mac to download macOS installer and create a USB flash installer?
support.apple.com
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support (CA)
You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users who are familiar with entering commands in Terminal.
I have used the Mac support method but it shows this screenUse another Mac to download macOS installer and create a USB flash installer?
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support (CA)
You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users who are familiar with entering commands in Terminal.
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Use Disk Utility to fix the partitions. I think Disk Utility cannot convert free space to a new partition? If that is a problem, then use iPartition to create the new partition.
Hi do you have a backup of your hard disk - time machine perhaps ? Before you go any further you should backup anything you want to save in your Windows Bootcamp partition if you have not done so already.
If you don't have a backup is there any critical data that was on your Mac Partition - Photo's or Documents as the Mac OS reinstall will wipe any data you had. Unfortunately the only way you are likely to recover your files on the Mac OS partition that was deleted is via professional recovery tools.
As @joevt says you can you Disk Utility to fix your hard disk, but you will lose all data on it, so make sure you don't want to use a specialist recovery tools / services first.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After Disk Utility loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mac OS from the main menu.
If you don't have a backup is there any critical data that was on your Mac Partition - Photo's or Documents as the Mac OS reinstall will wipe any data you had. Unfortunately the only way you are likely to recover your files on the Mac OS partition that was deleted is via professional recovery tools.
As @joevt says you can you Disk Utility to fix your hard disk, but you will lose all data on it, so make sure you don't want to use a specialist recovery tools / services first.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After Disk Utility loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mac OS from the main menu.
If the partition was not overwritten, then maybe recreating it would restore the macOS data. In other words, use a tool like gpt-fdisk to fix the partition map to like how it was before the partition was removed. I don't know if that would work for an APFS partition.
If you do have important data on your hard disk and you don't have a backup and you don't want the expense of a professional recovery service (which is your best chance of safely recovering your data) Your best bet may be to create a bootable external Mac OS Drive. As above make sure that you have backup your Windows Partition Data
You need either an external hard drive or a USB flash drive 16gb or greater.
Connect your External Drive ( It will be erased so make sure nothing is important on it)
boot to internet recovery.
Quit the OS installer and open Disk Utility instead.
Select the external drive
Click on the Erase option from the four options available in the main window.
When that's done, quit Disk Utility and re-open the OS installer.
point the installer at the EXTERNAL drive (NOT at the internal drive).
Now, set up the external with a basic account that you can get booted to the finder.
I have not used it but a tool like Hard Disk Manager for Mac from Paragon software says that it can repair deleted partitions. It might be worth a go before you reformat your hard disk.
You need either an external hard drive or a USB flash drive 16gb or greater.
Connect your External Drive ( It will be erased so make sure nothing is important on it)
boot to internet recovery.
Quit the OS installer and open Disk Utility instead.
Select the external drive
Click on the Erase option from the four options available in the main window.
When that's done, quit Disk Utility and re-open the OS installer.
point the installer at the EXTERNAL drive (NOT at the internal drive).
Now, set up the external with a basic account that you can get booted to the finder.
I have not used it but a tool like Hard Disk Manager for Mac from Paragon software says that it can repair deleted partitions. It might be worth a go before you reformat your hard disk.
That's not helpful in any way and is unfairly judgmental. Plenty of Mac users have reasons to use Bootcamp and it's inappropriate to infer that they're not smart.One more reason why the smart Mac user does not use bootcamp...!