trouble deleting partitions with Disk Utility

[NickH88]

I created a few partitions awhile back. One was a BootCamp partition with Windows. I thought I deleted this one after getting minimal usage out of it, but it's still here. I redid my BootCamp recently, so I have no need for the older one. I also have a "shared" partition that I created with the intent of using it as a volume that would be accessible on both OS X and Windows, but it didn't work out as planned, and I'd like to delete it as well.

I've tried to delete these volumes, but I'm having difficulty doing so. As soon as I click to delete the original BootCamp one, it comes right back in the Disk Utility. It's also telling me that I can't delete most of my partitions because adjacent ones are non-resizable.



I'm very confused. What can I do to rid the disk of the 2 unwanted partitions and add the 429 GB back onto my main (Macintosh HD) partition?

Thanks.

 

[komatsu]

For something like this, you're going to need to it via Terminal commands.

How do I delete a BootCamp partition using Terminal's diskutil?

For some reason, the BootCamp Assistant app won't let me delete my BootCamp partition. How can I do so using Terminal and the diskutil terminal app?

apple.stackexchange.com

(NB: Make sure you have a full backup of all important data first)

 

[Taz Mangus]

Did you try using Bootcamp assistant to remove the windows partition?

 

[NickH88]

Did you try using Bootcamp assistant to remove the windows partition?

I'm concerned that if I try to do that, it will delete my current BootCamp partition instead of the old one. It doesn't seem to give me an option for which one.

 

[Fishrrman]

When you've got a bunch of old partitions (some that you're using and some that you're not)
and
You want to get rid of them and seriously reconfigure your drive
then
About the only way to do it is:

1. Backup each partition you want to keep to a backup (I would recommend cloned backups created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper)
You'll probably need something like "WinClone" to create a backup of the existing Windows installation
2. BOOT FROM the cloned system backup
3. ERASE the ENTIRE internal drive to a single partition
4. RE-partition it as required
5 RESTORE from your backups.

That WILL fix things... 100% guaranteed when nothing else works.

 

[NickH88]

When you've got a bunch of old partitions (some that you're using and some that you're not)
and
You want to get rid of them and seriously reconfigure your drive
then
About the only way to do it is:

1. Backup each partition you want to keep to a backup (I would recommend cloned backups created with either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper)
You'll probably need something like "WinClone" to create a backup of the existing Windows installation
2. BOOT FROM the cloned system backup
3. ERASE the ENTIRE internal drive to a single partition
4. RE-partition it as required
5 RESTORE from your backups.

That WILL fix things... 100% guaranteed when nothing else works.

Thanks. Sorry I've waited 2 weeks, but I'm finally getting around to doing this. I made the backup with CarbonCopyCloner; however, from what I've read, its backups are not bootable, and I believe I even got a notification from CCC itself informing me of this. Is there a way around this, or must I use another program?

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you TRIED booting from the backups you made?

If none of them will boot, you could create a bootable USB flashdrive, boot from that, wipe the internal drive, re-partition it, and RE-clone the data back to the respective partitions.

If you can't create a bootable flashdrive, you can go on ebay and BUY ONE with the OS of your choice pre-installed -- just "boot and go". They usually sell for around $20.

 

[NickH88]

Have you TRIED booting from the backups you made?

If none of them will boot, you could create a bootable USB flashdrive, boot from that, wipe the internal drive, re-partition it, and RE-clone the data back to the respective partitions.

If you can't create a bootable flashdrive, you can go on ebay and BUY ONE with the OS of your choice pre-installed -- just "boot and go". They usually sell for around $20.

My USB device with the backup doesn't show up at all when I restart and hold down the Option key - I only see my Mac and my Windows. However, the cloned backup (Macintosh HD.sparsebundle) is on the root of a USB drive with several other files and folders. Could that be an issue?

I'll look into creating a bootable flashdrive regardless.

EDIT: Using SuperDuper!, I managed to create a bootable backup on a blank USB drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

"However, the cloned backup (Macintosh HD.sparsebundle) is on the root of a USB drive with several other files and folders. "

That IS NOT what "a cloned backup" looks like.
Sounds like a tm backup.

If you have a SuperDuper backup that will boot the Mac, USE THAT.

Assuming you have everything (on the internal drive) you want to keep backed up, the next step is to boot from the bootable backup and ERASE the internal drive ... COMPLETELY.

Then... start over.

Repartition.

And then restore from the backups.