MacOS – How to fix missing partition on OS X El Cap

bootcampmacospartitionwindows

After trying to install Windows 10 via Boot Camp, my Mac automatically rebooted (supposedly to the newly created Windows partition). However, it just booted back my OS X 10.11.2.

When I went to Boot Camp Assistant, it's as if the installation never happened. The partition was taken, but OS X can't read the missing partition:

Here's the output of sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  488555536      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  488965176    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  490234712          7         
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header

How do I recover this missing partition/disk space?

Best Answer

The GUID partition table looks good. Nothing is really missing. The partition with the index number 2 is a CoreStorage Logical Volume Group. The partition with the index number 3 is your Recovery HD. The Boot Camp Assistant probably failed to resize the LVG (~ 250 GB) but succeeded resizing the Logical Volume (Macintosh HD ~ 192 GB). As a result about 58 GB in the CoreStorage LVG are not allocated to Logical Volumes.

To expand Macintosh HD boot to your Recovery HD (hold cmdR while booting). Open Disk Utility and verify the integrity of the superior CoreStorage LVG and the inferior LV (Macintosh HD). Then open Terminal in the menubar Utilities -> Terminal

Enter diskutil cs list.
Enter diskutil cs resizeVolume lvUUID size. lvUUID is the UUID of the Logical Volume; usually it's the last listed in the output of diskutil cs list. Use 250g as size. If you get an error (not enough space...) use a slightly smaller size like 249500m.
Enter exit, quit Terminal and reboot to your main volume.

Related Solutions

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

MacOS – How to restore the missing partition and install Windows 7 64-bit

Update 9

Good news, your "Recovery HD" volume has the correct identifier of disk0s3. So there is nothing to fix.

I would not assume the "Boot Camp Support Software", you can download using the Boot Camp Assistant application, is the same as the Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621" required for Windows 7. Although, for my (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) iMac, I happen to know they are the same.

If you properly constructed your USB installer, you should be able to use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 7. Both my iMacs require installing using a DVD, so you are on you own here.

If you choose not to use the Boot Camp Assistant, the insert the USB installer and restart the computer. Hold down the alt/option key and select the icon labeled Windows. From the installer, you can reformat the BOOTCAMP partition NTFS. If the computer boots back to OS X, select the Windows partition from the Startup Disk panel in System Preferences. Click on "Restart..." to continue the installation of Windows. Once you have completed the Windows installation, but sure to install the "Boot Camp Support Software" stored the the USB drive. I believe the setup.exe application can be found in the BootCamp folder on the USB drive.

Update 8

You repaired the file system on your "Macintosh HD" volume. This repair does not fix any files that may have been damaged while the HFS file system was corrupted. In cases like this, it may become necessary to backup your personal files (which may also be damaged), erase the entire disk and reload OS X.

For future reference, it is generally not a good idea to try to verify or repair a file system on the same volume that you have booted from. The computer basically is trying to verify or repair a file system that who knows how many programs are also read from and write to. The preferred method to verify or repair is to boot from a different volume. From your post, I see your probably already learned this.

The Apple site regarding firmware is About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers.

Do do not think you explained how you created the USB Windows installer. You were able to boot from a USB port so you must have done something right. I was questioning if you also included the Boot Camp Support Software on the same USB drive. This software for Windows 7 can be found at Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp. These files need to placed on the drive per step 11 in the section titled "Perform a new install of Windows 7".

I do not know why you should not try using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 7. The application does preform many of the a tedious steps involved in installing for you.

If you choose not to use the Boot Camp Assistant, then the next step would be to create a FAT formatted partition to hold Windows 7. This can be done using the Disk Assistant application as already explained in Update 7.

Unfortunately, it would appear the command I wanted you to enter did not complete. The last image you posted shows the "Recovery HD" volume has the identifier of disk0s4. The correct value should have been disk0s3. Could you post the output from the command below, so I can verify this is not just false output from the command you entered.

sudo  gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0

Update 6 and 7

From the result of your Update 5, I can see you have successfully removed Windows from your Mac. The output you posted from the gpt command shows there is about 100 GB of free space on your internal drive. I can not find a way to make the El Capitan (OS X 10.11) Disk Utility application recover this space. This was not a problem with the previous versions of OS X. Fortunately, the command line version still seems to work. Enter the following command in a Terminal application window. Before entering the command, I would make sure the Disk Utility application is not currently running.

sudo  diskutil  resizevolume  /dev/disk0s2  R

If successful, the missing 100 GB should be added back to your "Macintosh HD" volume. If not, let me know and I will post an alternative solution.

I assume you now what to do a BIOS/MBR install of Windows 7 without the aid of the Boot Camp Assistant. I assume you made sure your firmware is up to date and that the USB Windows installer contains the correct files.

The reason you received an error message, during your latest attempt to install Windows, is because your MBR table is configured as a Protective Master Boot Record (PMBR) table. A PMBR table is defined as having a single partition of type EE that spans the entire disk except for the MBR itself. The command fdisk shows your disk contains 1465149168 sectors (blocks). The MBR resides in first sector starting at index 0. The EE partition resides in the remaining 1465149167 sectors. The purpose of a PMBR table is to prevent legacy software from accidentally modifying your MBR partition table. The occurrence of a PMBR also indicates to modern software that you have a GPT.

The cylinder (cyl), head (hd) and sector (sec) columns in the MBR table are no longer used to represent the geometry of the disk (drive). Most of the time, the values stored are just made up and therefore ignored. The EFI specification does give default values for the type EE partition, but I believe Apple and Microsoft ignore these values.

To install Windows in BIOS/MBR mode, you need a FAT or NTFS formatted partition stored in the fourth partition in the MBR table. Since OS X can not format a partition as NTFS, you will have to settle for a FAT format. The easiest way to create such a partition is with the Disk Utility. Below is an example using a 100 GB disk image. You will need to apply the same steps using your internal drive.

Highlight the drive.
Click on the button labeled Partition. A window similar to what is shown below should appear.
Make the appropriate adjustments to create a "MS-DOS (FAT)" partition. This is where you are going to install Windows. Below is a proposed new 20 GB partition.

Make sure you still have your original "Macintosh HD" partition, as shown below, then click the "Apply" button.
Your results should be similar to the image shown below.

The creation of this new partition should populate your MBR table. When installing Windows, you will be able to reformat this "BOOTCAMP" partition as NTFS.

Note: To add partitions to the MBR requires reducing the size of the protective type EE partition to end at the same sector (block) as the EFI partition in the GPT. Any additional MBR partitions will also be mirrored in the GPT. One consequence, of reducing the size of the EE partition, is some lost of a PMBR. Legacy software now has the opportunity to incorrectly partition your drive. The Windows operating system falls into the category of this legacy software. Therefore, it is important you do not change the drive partitioning using any software provided by Microsoft. However, it is OK to format partitions.

One final note. Resizing a volume that is currently set as the computer's startup disk may invalidate that setting. Since this is your startup volume, you can eliminate this possibility by following the steps below.

Open System Preferences.
Open the Startup Disk panel.
If necessary, click on the lock to make changes.
Click on the icon labeled "Macintosh HD" to highlight it.
Quit System Preferences.

Below is an image of my highlight El Capitan startup disk highlighted.

By the way, as some point during a Windows installation, your computer may boot back to OS X. If if does, return to this Startup Disk panel and highlight the Windows disk, then select "Restart...". Your Windows installation will continue.

Update 5:

Here is the link to "Create a bootable installer for OS X".

To Download the OS X installer from the Mac App Store, do the following. Open the "App Store" application and enter "el capitan" in the search box. The resulting window should appear similar to the image shown below.

Click on the "DOWNLOAD" button below the title "OS X El Capitan". Follow the instructions to start the download.

Note: You can enlarge an image by clicking on it. Or, you can open the image in a new window.

You will need a 8 GB or larger USB flash drive. Before entering the command

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

you should initialize your flash drive. The steps are given below.

Insert the flash drive into a USB port.
Open the "Disk Utility" application.
Highlight the icon representing the flash drive media.
Select the icon labeled "Erase".
Configure for a single visible partition be setting "Name:", "Format:" and "Scheme:" as shown below.
Click on the "Erase" button.
When finished, quit the "Disk Utility" application.

Update 4:

You probably can eliminate the icon labeled "EFI Boot", shown in your Update 2, by following the instructions, in the section titled "Chasing Ghosts", given at this link.

Update 3:

According to Apple web site Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery, MacBook Pros have be able to use OS X Internet Recovery since 2010. Granted, a firmware upgrade may be needed, but I do not think this applies to your MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) model.

Update 2:

On my Mac, I can not use the gpt command to edit the GPT on a disk, while booted from a partition on the same disk. I assume you will have the same problem, if you boot to a recovery partition on your Macs internal disk. One solution would be to boot from a USB flash drive and then enter the diskutil and gpt commands.

One way to create this USB flash drive would be to download and execute the OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0. Unfortunately, this software only works with Lion through Yosemite. El Capitan can still boot to Recovery Mode from a USB flash drive, but the software download, needed to create this flash drive, exceeds 6 GB. Basically, you download and transfer to a USB flash drive all the software needed to boot to Recovery Mode and install the current version of El Capitan. Of course, all you need is to boot to Recovery Mode. You do not need to reinstall El Capitan.

Also, from System Preferences, select Start Up Disk. Highlight your OS X boot partition (Macintosh HD) and restart the computer. This should fix your boot problem.

Before executing the steps in Update 1, do the following. Boot to your internal recovery partition. From the menu bar, select "OS X Utilities" and then "About OS X Utilities". Copy down the version number and post it for me to read.

Next, open a Terminal application window. Enter the following command and post the results.

mount  |  grep  disk0

This will tell me which recovery partition you are booting from. Would not want you to delete the wrong one.

Update 1:

I assume the second recovery partition is not needed. If you want to check, you can try booting from both first. If successful, then it is probably safe to remove the second one. To boot from a recovery partition, restart the computer and hold down the alt/option key. Select an icon to choose the partition to boot from.

To remove the unneeded partitions, you need to boot from internet recovery. The instructions are given at the site OS X: About OS X Recovery. Once you are in internet recovery, open a Terminal application window and enter the following commands.

diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk0
gpt  remove  -i  4  /dev/disk0
diskutil  unmountDisk  /dev/disk0
gpt remove  -i  5  /dev/disk0

This should return the computer to a state where the Boot Camp Assistant can be used to install Windows. If you fail, we can discuss other means to install Windows.

Answers to Questions

Answer to question 1:

The hidden EFI partition was created when OS X was installed. The Mac does not use this partition to boot OS X. It is used by OS X when you upgrade the firmware or format a different partition. Do not remove this partition. The partition is used if you install Linux or install Windows using the EFI/GPT boot method. This method is suppose to work if installing Windows 10. It is not suppose to work if installing Windows 7. Windows 7 is suppose to be installed using the legacy BIOS/MBR method.

Answer to question 2:

The Apple_Boot partitions are hidden recovery partitions. There should only be one on your computer per OS X installation. The recovery partition should always be next partition after the OS X partition. Neither belong to Boot Camp. My guess would be you removed an older OS X partition and did not remove the hidden recovery partition. You boot to a recovery partition by holding down the alt/option key at startup. Icons will appear allowing you to select a recovery partition to boot to. Recovery partitions have may uses such as reinstalling or repairing your current OS X installation. Since you have a newer Mac, you can also boot to recovery mode directly over the internet.

Answer to question 3.

When installing Windows 7, you have to choose either partition 2, 3, or 4. If you have a recovery partition and are using the Boot Camp Assistant, you are limited to only the 4th partition. While it is possible to manually install to a partition greater than 4, the amount of grief involved makes it not worth bothering to try.

There are two partition tables stored on the drive. One is the legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table and the second is the GUID Partition Table (GPT) where GUID stands for Globally Unique Identifier. OS X uses the GPT and Windows 7 uses the MBR partition table. You have posted the partitions on your drive as seen by only looking at the GPT.

If you have a FAT or NTFS formatted partition, then the legacy MBR partition table needs to be updated to reflect this. I suspect this did not happen or the values are wrong. The message "it's a GPT partition style" was generated because the Windows 7 installer sees your drive as having a GPT format.

Usually, the Disk Utility and/or the Boot Camp Assistance will make the proper changes to the MBR partition table when a FAT formatted partition is created. Note, the GPT can hold 120 entries while the MBR partition table can only hold 4 entries. Once the proper entries are made to the MBR partition table, Windows and its installer will see the drive as only having a MBR partition scheme.

From my experience, the Boot Camp Assistant will not work properly while the 5th partition exists on your drive.

Beyond answering your questions, you need to enter the following commands at a Terminal application window. Edit your question to post the results. If prompted, enter your login password. None of these commands will change your computer. The commands will print out most of the contents of the both partition tables.

sudo  gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0
sudo  fdisk  /dev/disk0