Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, David, Thresher

 
derTorbs
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:58 pm

iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 12:21 pm

Howdy,

I have a fairly nice iMac 27" circa 2014 with a 1 TB fusion drive.  While doing a standard Boot Camp install (via USB drive, I had already partitioned the drive 512 GB Mac, 512 GB Windows), it froze up during install.  It eventually restarted, but when it did, it told me I couldn't install Windows on that partition anymore.  I figured I would just nuke it and try running Boot Camp again, however, Boot Camp gave me the error: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

Naturally I figured I would restart in recovery mode, nuke the partition from orbit, and then extend the OS partition back to the full size, and attempt Boot Camp install after that.  Unfortunately, I am unable to interact with that partition at all.  I can't extend it, I can't delete it, nothing.

I remember having this issue before, a few years back, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to fix this.  One thing I am more than willing to try is to just nuke the drive and reinstall.  However, I am concerned that I will still be in the same situation if I nuke my Mac HD partition, as I don't see how nuking one partition would allow me access to nuke the failed Windows partition.  Any assistance would be great.

Thanks,
-derTorbs
Intel Core i7 930 | Asus P6TD Delux X58 | Corsair 12 GB RAM | Raidmax 650W | Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti | Dell Ultrasharp U2711 & U2312 | Corsair K90 | R.A.T. 7| Corsair Vengeance 1500|
 
derFunkenstein
Gerbil God
Posts: 25427
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:13 pm
Location: Comin' to you directly from the Mothership

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 12:29 pm

You can try using Disk Utility to delete the Windows partition. It should let you extend the macOS partition and you could try again.

If you really want to blow it away, the only way to nuke the whole drive is via Disk Utility when not booting from it. To make a USB macOS installer, you can use Diskmaker X

I haven't really used Fusion Drives, but they're Core Storage groups. There's steps here about manually creating the group manually, though you'd need to delete the group first. In all cases you'd lose everything on the drive that isn't backed up, and you'll probably need a USB installer, as above.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Twittering away the day at @TVsBen
 
derTorbs
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:58 pm

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 12:35 pm

I tried booting to the recovery partition and nuking the failed windows partition, but it wouldn't let me interact with it.  All buttons were grey.  I will try the USB boot and give it a go.
Intel Core i7 930 | Asus P6TD Delux X58 | Corsair 12 GB RAM | Raidmax 650W | Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti | Dell Ultrasharp U2711 & U2312 | Corsair K90 | R.A.T. 7| Corsair Vengeance 1500|
 
derTorbs
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:58 pm

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 2:22 pm

I created a Sierra boot USB with DiskmakerX, booted to it, but had limited access to the BootCamp partition.  The only thing I was able to do was to erase it and repartition that as a Mac OS Journaled Extended partition.  I thought that this would make it available to merge back into my main HD.  However, I am now unable to interact with it yet again.  I now just have 2 Mac HD now.  Not entirely sure where to go from here. 
Intel Core i7 930 | Asus P6TD Delux X58 | Corsair 12 GB RAM | Raidmax 650W | Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti | Dell Ultrasharp U2711 & U2312 | Corsair K90 | R.A.T. 7| Corsair Vengeance 1500|
 
DancinJack
Maximum Gerbil
Posts: 4494
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:21 pm
Location: Kansas

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 2:29 pm

I can't really provide anything on why it happened unfortunately, but it sounds like maybe a full-fat reformat and reinstall then go from there is in the cards at this point.
i7 6700K - Z170 - 16GiB DDR4 - GTX 1080 - 512GB SSD - 256GB SSD - 500GB SSD - 3TB HDD- 27" IPS G-sync - Win10 Pro x64 - Ubuntu/Mint x64 :: 2015 13" rMBP Sierra :: Canon EOS 80D/Sony RX100
 
derTorbs
Gerbil
Topic Author
Posts: 60
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:58 pm

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 2:32 pm

I think you are right, and I would love to do a full format/reinstall.  However, I can't seem to interact with either of the partitions (MacHDD or MacHDD2).

Even if I boot from the USB, I can't seem to delete or extend either of the partitions.
Intel Core i7 930 | Asus P6TD Delux X58 | Corsair 12 GB RAM | Raidmax 650W | Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 Ti | Dell Ultrasharp U2711 & U2312 | Corsair K90 | R.A.T. 7| Corsair Vengeance 1500|
 
DancinJack
Maximum Gerbil
Posts: 4494
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:21 pm
Location: Kansas

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 2:57 pm

Stick it in another computer and just wipe it?

edit: forgot we're talking iMac here. Not sure how easily accessible the drive is.
i7 6700K - Z170 - 16GiB DDR4 - GTX 1080 - 512GB SSD - 256GB SSD - 500GB SSD - 3TB HDD- 27" IPS G-sync - Win10 Pro x64 - Ubuntu/Mint x64 :: 2015 13" rMBP Sierra :: Canon EOS 80D/Sony RX100
 
derFunkenstein
Gerbil God
Posts: 25427
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2003 9:13 pm
Location: Comin' to you directly from the Mothership

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:11 pm

This StackExchange thread appears to have all the commands needed to delete the Logical Volume Group. Once you have two completely unpartitioned disks, open Disk Utility in the installer and it should offer to "repair" the Fusion Drive (by creating a new LVG)

diskutil cs deleteLVG [UUID]

The pre-requisite might be that you have to delete the partitions in the group first.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Twittering away the day at @TVsBen
 
End User
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2977
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:47 pm
Location: Upper Canada

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:25 pm

derFunkenstein wrote:
This StackExchange thread appears to have all the commands needed to delete the Logical Volume Group. Once you have two completely unpartitioned disks, open Disk Utility in the installer and it should offer to "repair" the Fusion Drive (by creating a new LVG)

diskutil cs deleteLVG [UUID]

The pre-requisite might be that you have to delete the partitions in the group first.

I had to rebuild a Fusion drive this week. Unfortunately not even Disk Utility was able to deal with the issue. I found the info on the following page very helpful:

https://www.lifewire.com/setting-up-fus ... ac-2260165
 
End User
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2977
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:47 pm
Location: Upper Canada

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:27 pm

If you do get back to running Widows on your iMac via Boot Camp, I recommend using Winclone to backup your Windows partition:

https://twocanoes.com/products/mac/winclone
 
Buub
Maximum Gerbil
Posts: 4969
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2002 11:59 pm
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Fri Jan 20, 2017 4:47 pm

For what it's worth, once you get this fixed, I would highly recommend running Windows in a VM (I prefer VMware Fusion, but others like other alternatives, like VirtualBox), rather than doing Bootcamp. This gives you the best of both worlds -- you can run Windows WHILE running macOS. And you can also do handy things like take snapshots and roll them back.
 
Onlyzen
Gerbil In Training
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:45 am
Location: United States
Contact:

Re: iMac issues with failed Boot Camp install

Sat Nov 11, 2017 2:01 am

open Disk Utility in the installer and it should offer to "repair" the Fusion Drive.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On