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Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
Hey all, I had a test partition on my old 16" 2019 Intel MacBook Pro I was using. Now I want to get rid of it, but I can't do the "-" on it to delete. The error I'm seeing is "You can't remove this volume because the preceding volume can't be resized."

I've never had issues deleting partitions in the past. I'm not sure what's changed with the either new OSes or newer Macs, whatever the culprit is here.

I did do an erase of all the contents I did do a restart of the computer to get it into Recovery Mode to do it, but that's not helping.
I think one thing that could make this easier if I delete the Bootcamp partition as well. It's just such a headache getting Bootcamp and Windows setup I'd like to avoid that. But if there is a benefit in doing a clean wipe that for example makes the hard drive perform better, etc, then I'd do it.

Untitled Partition highlighted.jpg


Untitled Partition list view.jpg


1704978524116.jpeg

Here's the main partition. This would get bigger when I can delete the partition and bring that space into here. I also want to do a clean wipe on this main partition, while leaving the Bootcamp partition alone.
OSXReserved 10gb highlighted.jpg

disk0s5 highlighted.jpg

1704978609538.jpeg
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,703
7,269
I think one thing that could make this easier if I delete the Bootcamp partition as well. It's just such a headache getting Bootcamp and Windows setup I'd like to avoid that. But if there is a benefit in doing a clean wipe that for example makes the hard drive perform better, etc, then I'd do it
You can use a tool like Winclone to back up and restore the Windows partition, but it's not free.
Personally, I'd want that extra space back in the main volume so I'd probably erase the whole thing and start over.
 
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FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,491
3,360
It's gonna require an erase. Once you have it set up back how you want it (with Boot Camp partition), in the future if you want a test environment - create a Volume, not a Partition. MUCH easier to deal with.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,201
13,255
What you need to do:

1. Backup the Mac partition (use either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner, both are FREE to use for 30 days and will work well for this job)

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery (NOT to "the recovery partition):
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.
(hold down this key combo CONTINUOUSLY and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until you are prompted for your wifi password).

3. Once the internet utilities load (it takes a while), open disk utility and go to the "view" menu.
You MUST choose "show all devices" from the "view" menu (or else you can't see the internal drive).

4. Look at "the list on the left". The topmost item should represent the physical SSD inside. Click on it to select it, and then click "erase". Erase it to APFS, GUID partition format. When the erase is done, open the OS installer.

5. Start "clicking through". The Mac will reboot one or more times, and the screen will go dark for up to a minute or more with no other indication of activity. BE PATIENT.

6. When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).
CONNECT YOUR BACKUP DRIVE now.
Start clicking through.

7. When the setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate from a backup drive, "point the way" to the backup and give SA time to digest everything.

8. Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff to migrate. I suggest you choose it all (the default setting), and just let it go.

9. When done, you should see the login screen -- so log in and look around.

If you do this, the unwanted partitions will be gone.
 
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Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
What you need to do:

1. Backup the Mac partition (use either SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner, both are FREE to use for 30 days and will work well for this job)

2. Boot to INTERNET recovery (NOT to "the recovery partition):
Command-OPTION-R
at boot.
(hold down this key combo CONTINUOUSLY and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN until you are prompted for your wifi password).

3. Once the internet utilities load (it takes a while), open disk utility and go to the "view" menu.
You MUST choose "show all devices" from the "view" menu (or else you can't see the internal drive).

4. Look at "the list on the left". The topmost item should represent the physical SSD inside. Click on it to select it, and then click "erase". Erase it to APFS, GUID partition format. When the erase is done, open the OS installer.

5. Start "clicking through". The Mac will reboot one or more times, and the screen will go dark for up to a minute or more with no other indication of activity. BE PATIENT.

6. When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).
CONNECT YOUR BACKUP DRIVE now.
Start clicking through.

7. When the setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate from a backup drive, "point the way" to the backup and give SA time to digest everything.

8. Setup assistant will present you with a list of stuff to migrate. I suggest you choose it all (the default setting), and just let it go.

9. When done, you should see the login screen -- so log in and look around.

If you do this, the unwanted partitions will be gone.
Thanks for this. The one thing is that I don't really need to keep any of the data that's on the main MacOS partitions. I'm fine with a clean wipe there. What I wanted to try and do was combine the two original MacOS partitions and do a clean wipe on that. I'd like to preserve the Bootcamp partition to avoid having to deal with the headache of installing Windows from scratch again on the Mac. But, I'm thinking the easiest route to go is just wipe everything, kill all partitions and start over.
 

Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
You can use a tool like Winclone to back up and restore the Windows partition, but it's not free.
Personally, I'd want that extra space back in the main volume so I'd probably erase the whole thing and start over.
yeah that's what I'm thinking too. I don't want to spend the $50 for Winclone just to avoid having to reinstall Windows from scratch. There's no real data of note on my Bootcamp partition, it's just for PC gaming mainly, which I don't do too often to begin with.
 

Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
It's gonna require an erase. Once you have it set up back how you want it (with Boot Camp partition), in the future if you want a test environment - create a Volume, not a Partition. MUCH easier to deal with.
Ok got it. So for bootcamp, do the partition. And for Test volumes, don't do a partition, do a Volume. And just to confirm, that's what went wrong here right? I did a partition for my Testing area and not a volume?
 

Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
Alright, I tried one thing that was suggested which was to make sure the partitions weren't encrypted and then see if they can be combined but that didn't work. Went ahead and just wiped the whole hard drive today and am currently reinstalling macOS Sonoma.

Once that's installed, I'll create a ~200gb partition and install Bootcamp. Does anyone got a good set of instructions to follow to do that again? It's been a while. I'm planning to go with Windows 10, which I hope is still free to get (you just gotta deal with no background or whatever limitation they give).

20240121_155356.jpg 20240121_155403.jpg 20240121_155726.jpg 20240121_155744.jpg
20240121_160151.jpg
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,703
7,269
Once that's installed, I'll create a ~200gb partition and install Bootcamp. Does anyone got a good set of instructions to follow to do that again? It's been a while. I'm planning to go with Windows 10, which I hope is still free to get (you just gotta deal with no background or whatever limitation they give).
As with the post above: follow Apple's instructions and use the Boot Camp Utility to make the partition.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,201
13,255
I've never used bootcamp (I have very little software that requires windows).

Have you considered a "virtual machine" solution, such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion ??
 
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Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
I've never used bootcamp (I have very little software that requires windows).

Have you considered a "virtual machine" solution, such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion ??

My interest in Bootcamp is really for PC gaming so my assumption is that going with a native usage would be better than a virtualization.

I also will say that the interest in everything as a whole is more of a novelty. I'm casual with gaming and mainly play on consoles. I'm going through the rigamarole out of an interest, but nothing's major.

UPDATE

Not sure how big a deal this is but via Windows, I was able to carry out a software update on the Graphics card. I'm not sure if this an upgrade on the actual graphics card itself or just how windows interacts with the graphics card. But I do know that with certain hardware, you can only update its software via a Windows PC, not a Mac.

20240121_214304.jpg
 
Last edited:

Rizvi1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 29, 2006
823
12
Maryland
As with the post above: follow Apple's instructions and use the Boot Camp Utility to make the partition.
Thanks both for the advice. This install I did was really smooth. I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but last time I think I had to make a windows image USB and use that for the install? All I did this time was download the latest Windows 10 ISO and had a straightforward install with Boot Camp's assist.

A couple things that confused me along the way were (1) Secure Boot not being enabled and (2) what version of Windows to do:

Secure Boot Screenshot.png

Windows 10 download 32-bit and 64-bit choices.png


But I just clicked on the Secure Boot question and went with the 64 bit version.
Boot camp Windows ISO Selection Screenshot ( .png



Also where the yellow exclamation is, it looks like that's the culprit on why the partitions couldn't be changed could be here?


I'd take this to mean that just the windows related partition couldn't be adjusted but looks like it means all partitions get affected. At least based on my experience in this thread.
 

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