Issue with available space

[Ireal123]

Hi guys,

I've got a macbook pro (late 2012) with a 250sss on it.

Somehow in disk utility a only see one partition for 190 gb.

The rest of ny 60gb sonehow got mixxed in the recovery HD partiton.


My question is the following: how can I use the 60gb? I don't know how I can remove them from the recovery partition

 

[Superspeed500]

Have you tried to run disk utility from an external medium to see what the disk setup looks like from there? You can't resize the system partition while the system is running.

 

[Ireal123]

Have you tried to run disk utility from an external medium to see what the disk setup looks like from there? You can't resize the system partition while the system is running.

Hi,

No, I didn't. How should I proceed in doing that?

Thanks

 

[MRxROBOT]

The best way to do this is to create a bootable USB drive. You will need a copy of OS X. If you don’t have it, you’ll need to download it from the App Store.

 

[Ireal123]

The best way to do this is to create a bootable USB drive. You will need a copy of OS X. If you don’t have it, you’ll need to download it from the App Store.

Sure! Thanks!

 

[MRxROBOT]

Once you have El Capitan downloaded. You will need to follow these instructions.

• Rename your desired flash drive "MyVolume"
• Launch the Terminal application, found in /Applications/Utilities/ and enter the following command
  

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

• You’ll then see the following screen text in the Terminal:
  

  Erasing Disk: 0%… 10%… 20%… 30%…100%…
  Copying installer files to disk…
  Copy complete.
  Making disk bootable…
  Copying boot files…
  Copy complete.
  Done.

That's it you're done. Restart your computer, hold option key to boot from the USB Drive. Select your newly created install disk and boot into Disk Utility. From there you should be able to see all partitions and reclaim your space.

These are the relative commands for other versions of OS X.

If your install media is Yosemite

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

If your install media is Mavericks

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

 

[Weaselboy]

My question is the following: how can I use the 60gb? I don't know how I can remove them from the recovery partition

Run these two commands in Terminal one after the other then paste the output from each command back here so we can see the layout of your disk and partitions, then we should be able to get you fixed up.

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

 

[Ireal123]

Run these two commands in Terminal one after the other then paste the output from each command back here so we can see the layout of your disk and partitions, then we should be able to get you fixed up.

diskutil list

diskutil cs list

Hi Weaselboy,

Thanks for trying to help!

For the fist one
diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 189.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 60.5 GB disk0s3

2nd one
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found

 

[Weaselboy]

Okay... here is what you do.

First thing is make sure you have a good backup in case this goes badly.

Then boot to the OS normally and enter the command below in Terminal to resize the recovery partition.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M

Then reboot and hold command-r at startup to boot to the recovery partition. Then in the Utilities menu of the recovery screen launch Terminal. Enter the command below to resize the main volume.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 100%

Once that is done quit Terminal then launch Disk Utility and run a repair disk on the drive to check for any errors. Then restart normally and you should be all set.

 

[Ireal123]

Okay... here is what you do.

First thing is make sure you have a good backup in case this goes badly.

Then boot to the OS normally and enter the command below in Terminal to resize the recovery partition.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M

Then reboot and hold command-r at startup to boot to the recovery partition. Then in the Utilities menu of the recovery screen launch Terminal. Enter the command below to resize the main volume.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 100%

Once that is done quit Terminal then launch Disk Utility and run a repair disk on the drive to check for any errors. Then restart normally and you should be all set.

Tried the command and got the following error.

Volume format does not support resizing

 

[Weaselboy]

Tried the command and got the following error.

Volume format does not support resizing

Hmmm... i'm out of ideas then beyond booting to a USB key and erasing everything and starting over.

How did this happen to begin with? Bootcamp maybe?

 

[Ireal123]

Hmmm... i'm out of ideas then beyond booting to a USB key and erasing everything and starting over.

How did this happen to begin with? Bootcamp maybe?

Yeap. Tried to remove an old bootcam partition and to add that storage to the main one. I failed miserably

 

[Weaselboy]

Yeap. Tried to remove an old bootcam partition and to add that storage to the main one. I failed miserably

Ack.... I think what happened here is Bootcamp changed the format to MBR from the Mac default GUID and that is why we cannot resize.

I have another idea that may work. Boot normally then run this in Terminal to enable debug mode for Disk Utility. Then start Disk Utility and see if you can remove the recovery partition completely, then resize the main volume to take over the free space.

defaults write com.apple.diskutility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Then download and run the Yosemite installer over top of (don't erase anything) your existing install and that should create a recovery volume of 650MB.

 

[Ireal123]

Ack.... I think what happened here is Bootcamp changed the format to MBR from the Mac default GUID and that is why we cannot resize.

I have another idea that may work. Boot normally then run this in Terminal to enable debug mode for Disk Utility. Then start Disk Utility and see if you can remove the recovery partition completely, then resize the main volume to take over the free space.

defaults write com.apple.diskutility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1

Then download and run the Yosemite installer over top of (don't erase anything) your existing install and that should create a recovery volume of 650MB.

Used that command but i don't see recovery HD in disk utility :\

 

[Weaselboy]

Used that command but i don't see recovery HD in disk utility :\

Try the command again, then reboot, then check Disk Util. Mavericks and up has this odd feature where it caches that plist settings file in memory and overwrites any changes unless you reboot.

Make sure Disk Util is not running when you run the command also.

 

[Ireal123]

Try the command again, then reboot, then check Disk Util. Mavericks and up has this odd feature where it caches that plist settings file in memory and overwrites any changes unless you reboot.

Make sure Disk Util is not running when you run the command also.

Just did that. Nop. Still doesn't work

 

[Weaselboy]

Just did that. Nop. Still doesn't work

Hmmm... after running the command can you see this Debug menu in Disk Utility?

 

[Ireal123]

No

And my disk utility looks quite different
OS Version: El Capitan 10.11.4

 

[Weaselboy]

No

And my disk utility looks quite different
OS Version: El Capitan 10.11.4

That explains it... we are in the Yosemite forum, so I assumed you were on Yosemite. I don't believe El Capitan has that debug menu.

 

[Ireal123]

:\ Oh well, worth a shot

 

[Ireal123]

Does anyone else have any idea?

 

[DeltaMac]

It looks like you did not use your Boot Camp Assistant to merge the boot camp partition back to the main partition, which is really the best (only) method to safely do that.

If you have a current backup -
boot to your El Capitan installer, then run Disk Utility. Erase the drive (not the Macintosh HD partition). That should take you back to a single partition.
Reinstall El Capitan.
Restore from your backup.

 

[MRxROBOT]

Tried the command and got the following error.

Volume format does not support resizing

Did you get that error after

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M

or

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 100%

 

[Ireal123]

After the first one -
diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M

 

[MRxROBOT]

I think I know what the problem is. Lets see what happens when you enter this command into Terminal first. Again make sure you have a good backup in case this goes badly.

Boot to the OS normally and enter the command below in Terminal to mount the recovery partition first.

diskutil mount /dev/disk0s3

Now continue with Weaselboy’s instructions from the first command.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s3 650M

Then reboot and hold command-r at startup to boot to the recovery partition. Then in the Utilities menu of the recovery screen launch Terminal. Enter the command below to resize the main volume.

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 100%

Once that is done quit Terminal then launch Disk Utility and run a repair disk on the drive to check for any errors. Then restart normally and you should be all set.