Boot Camp will not allow removing Windows 8 partition

bootcamppartition

I've used Boot Camp to install Windows 8 on my Air some time ago and I was trying to remove the windows partition to restore some space. Except Boot Camp gives me a warning saying "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

This is what my disk setup looks like.

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            80.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk0s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                40.3 GB    disk0s5

I'm pretty sure the Microsoft Reserved (disk0s4) partition is giving me the problem right now. I can't mount it or do repair on it from disk utility.

I've called Apple support to get help but they spent 10 minute explaining 10 different ways I can pay them to receive help.

Best Answer

Start up from an install disk or recovery partition, use Disk Utility or Terminal to kill the Windows partitions, instead of trying through Boot Camp. Then resize your main HD to reclaim the existing space.

If you are comfortable with it, might be best to stick with Terminal, specifically using diskutil and paying attention to the eraseVolume and resizeVolume commands. Stick with resizeVolume Macintosh\ HD R to automatically increase the volume size to the available limits of free space. See diskutil on the Mac OS X Manual Page for reference.

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