Bootcamp Questions......

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
i am a new time mac user.... i personaly hate windows, but there are some thing i need from it .....i know this is a dumb question but will you be able to delete boot camp and the windows XP off my macbook (black) after being installed via bootcamp.. i know its a dumb question but i would like so help please i hope this is the right forum section beacuse bootcamp has to do with OS X right? thanks if you respond
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yes, it's just another disk partition, and you can do whatever you want with it.



    Boot into MacOS X, launch Disk Utility, and reformat it at any time.



    (And really... give it a few *HOURS* at least before repeatedly griping that no one is responding. This isn't a real-time chat room, for cripessakes. )
  • Reply 2 of 25
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Danired18

    please! people are viewing it but no posts



    Quote:

    Originally posted by Danired18 [from this thread]

    What the heck this guy posted after me and i dont have any replies yet? MINE IS THE ONE LABELED BOOTCAMP QUESTIONS



    Danired18, some tips/etiquette lessons to make your stay here more helpful for you, and less annoying for everyone else:



    As Kickaha says, this is a forum, not a real-time chat room. You should give your thread at least several hours, if not a whole day, before complaining about no replies. And in the event of no reply, it is usual to just post a message with the text "bump".



    In response to your question as to where the question should be, I would say it should either be here or in the Genius Bar. I suppose since you are not seeking help with a problem per se it is better here.



    Finally, in response to your main question: I'm a bit confused as to what you are actaully asking. Are you saying, "if I install boot camp, partition my hard drive and install Windows, can I then delete boot camp and Windows later on and return my hard drive to being a single partition?".



    If that is indeed what you are asking, then yes, you can delete boot camp, yes you can delete Windows, and I don't know if you can easily return to one partition, or if you will have to backup, re-partition the HD, then copy everything back.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    Its not quite that simple. Since Bootcamp partitions your primary drive, you can't use Disk Utility to wipe it without taking out your Mac side.



    However, if you open Bootcamp again, you can remove the PC partition from the main drive without reformatting everything.
  • Reply 4 of 25
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Er, you can wipe the Windows partition and reformat it as an HFS+ volume just *fine*, even if it's the same physical hard drive as your boot volume.



    My boot volume has three partitions, and I've wiped them regularly.
  • Reply 5 of 25
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I think I tried and it DU wouldn't allow me. I may be wrong though. I tried to change the name of the second partition and couldn't. I'll find out soon enough.
  • Reply 6 of 25
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Er, you can wipe the Windows partition and reformat it as an HFS+ volume just *fine*, even if it's the same physical hard drive as your boot volume.



    My boot volume has three partitions, and I've wiped them regularly.




    You can't remove the partition though ... you wouldn't be able to convert your HD to a SINGLE partition (via Disk Utility) without erasing the entire drive.
  • Reply 7 of 25
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    True* but the Windows partition would be wiped, as he asked, and the resulting partition could be reformatted into HFS+ and used as data.



    I guess I'm just not seeing the problem here. "Can I remove Windows?" "Yes."



    * In Disk Utility, on Intel Macs, with BootCamp, you can, as I understand it, repartition on the fly. That's how BootCamp sets up the Windows partition in the first place, after all. Perhaps you have to do it again in BootCamp, but IIRC the feature was added to the BSD layer tools that Disk Utility uses, so you should get that functionality for free at that level as well. Perhaps it takes dropping into the Terminal, but it *is* there now, if you meet the above criteria.
  • Reply 8 of 25
    noah93noah93 Posts: 168member
    Just open the BootCamp utility and there will be an option to delete the windows partition. This only shows up after you have repartitioned though. You don't need to tou8ch disk util or back anything up.



    Noah
  • Reply 9 of 25
    joeyjoey Posts: 236member
    ... although... as a general rule... it's always a good idea to back up your data when working with partitions. You "should" be fine using BootCamp to restore your system to it's original state... but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    davegeedavegee Posts: 2,765member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Joey

    ... although... as a general rule... it's always a good idea to back up your data when working with partitions. You "should" be fine using BootCamp to restore your system to it's original state...



    Murphy ?!?! Is that you?!?!



  • Reply 11 of 25
    Hey guys, great thread...just wondering something...



    I'm trying to remove bootcamp and the windows partition SAFELY...that is, I DONT want to destroy the data on the MAC OSX side....



    I noticed when running Boot Camp, and choosing the simple option: 'Restore Startup Disk to a Single Volume' that on the next screen it says:



    WARNING: Your windows XP volume and all of it's contents will be permanently erased.



    THAT IS GREAT, but then it says right below it: "Macintosh HD" will be partitioned as: MAC OSX 55GB



    The word that worries me in that last line is PARTITIONED...in 'windows talk' at least this means ALL DATA WILL BE DESTROYED and the HD will be made like it was a new one....



    Baaaaaad.



    Please...if someone could let me know if that's what it means, I'd appreciate it...I don't want to hose the data on the systems MAC partiton by "restoring" it like this....will the data on the original drive be safe (most likely I mean, I understand the need for backups, etc...) Thanks!





    - cleverest

    "not feeling very clever at the moment"
  • Reply 12 of 25
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Cleverest, you do, of course, have a complete backup of everything on your OS X partition? Because only idiots don't back up, and you can't be an idiot with a name like "Cleverest", and you even mentioned backups in your post.



    I've not done it myself, but I am very much under the impression that the "restore to single partition" procedure will not harm any of the data on the OS X partition, as long as nothing goes wrong. But sometimes procedures do go wrong (due to obscure bugs that haven't been caught), and sometimes hard drives simply fail without warning. It's what backups are for.



    So: backup, then take the "Restore Startup Disk to a Single Volume" option.



    A useful backup utility is Carbon Copy Cloner



    Oh yes, and: Welcome to AI!
  • Reply 13 of 25
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    It won't erase your OS X information, only your windows info if all goes well. But remember, you are messing around with the fundamental format of your drive. If anything goes wrong, you may loose everything. I highly recommend making a backup.
  • Reply 14 of 25
    Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate the quickness of response....gives me some peace of mind about choosing that option...and I would like to backup the data, but she has a single 60gb drive in this Macbook and it's all full except for the windows 12gb partition I'm getting rid of.....not sure how I can accomplish a backup without additional hardware....the only additional drives I have are external firewire drives with PC content on them....I think they are FAT32...but they may be NTFS.....so I guess it's not gonna happen.... \





    cleverest

    "not feeling so clever"
  • Reply 15 of 25
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cleverest View Post


    Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate the quickness of response....gives me some peace of mind about choosing that option...and I would like to backup the data, but she has a single 60gb drive in this Macbook and it's all full except for the windows 12gb partition I'm getting rid of.....not sure how I can accomplish a backup without additional hardware....the only additional drives I have are external firewire drives with PC content on them....I think they are FAT32...but they may be NTFS.....so I guess it's not gonna happen.... \





    cleverest

    "not feeling so clever"



    Yes, you need additional hardware for backups! Duplicating stuff on an HDD to the same HDD isn't a backup.



    If your current external drives are FAT32, OS X can write to those. Here's what you should do:



    1.) Mount an external drive on your OS X machine

    2.) Launch "disk utility" (found in the Utilities folder: activate the Finder, choose "Utilities" from the "go" menu).

    3.) Choose "new image" from the toolbar:







    4.) A "Save As" window drops down:







    5.) Choose "custom" from the "size" drop down menu.



    6.) In the box that appears, choose 60 GB.



    7.) Leave "Encryption" as "none".



    8.) In the "format" drop-down menu, choose "sparseimage" (this is an image file whose size grows as files are added to it - it will start off at a few MB).



    9.) Enter a name for the image in the "Save As" text box, and click on the external hard drive in the list on the left, so that the image will be saved to the external drive.



    10.) Click "Create".



    11.) Once the image is created, quit Disk Utility.



    12.) In the Finder, navigate to the new image file, and double-click it. A plain white HDD icon should appear on your desktop:







    13.) Click it once and press return, to rename it. Call it something like "MacintoshHDBackup"



    14.) Quit all open applications, launch Carbon Copy Cloner, choose "Macintosh HD" as the source, and "MacintoshHDBackup" as the destination, and backup.



    If your drives aren't FAT32 or aren't big enough, buy another external drive, format it as HFS+, and use it to backup onto (I'd still recommend using an image file to back up to though, as then you can keep other files you may wish to store on the drive separate from any backup you make.)



    I cannot recommend strongly enough that you backup before doing the "restore startup volume" thing.
  • Reply 16 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post


    Yes, you need additional hardware for backups! Duplicating stuff on an HDD to the same HDD isn't a backup.



    If your current external drives are FAT32, OS X can write to those. Here's what you should do:



    1.) Mount an external drive on your OS X machine

    2.) Launch "disk utility" (found in the Utilities folder: activate the Finder, choose "Utilities" from the "go" menu).

    3.) Choose "new image" from the toolbar:







    4.) A "Save As" window drops down:







    5.) Choose "custom" from the "size" drop down menu.



    6.) In the box that appears, choose 60 GB.



    7.) Leave "Encryption" as "none".



    8.) In the "format" drop-down menu, choose "sparseimage" (this is an image file whose size grows as files are added to it - it will start off at a few MB).



    9.) Enter a name for the image in the "Save As" text box, and click on the external hard drive in the list on the left, so that the image will be saved to the external drive.



    10.) Click "Create".



    11.) Once the image is created, quit Disk Utility.



    12.) In the Finder, navigate to the new image file, and double-click it. A plain white HDD icon should appear on your desktop:







    13.) Click it once and press return, to rename it. Call it something like "MacintoshHDBackup"



    14.) Quit all open applications, launch Carbon Copy Cloner, choose "Macintosh HD" as the source, and "MacintoshHDBackup" as the destination, and backup.



    If your drives aren't FAT32 or aren't big enough, buy another external drive, format it as HFS+, and use it to backup onto (I'd still recommend using an image file to back up to though, as then you can keep other files you may wish to store on the drive separate from any backup you make.)



    I cannot recommend strongly enough that you backup before doing the "restore startup volume" thing.



    WOW...thanks for the awesome STEP-BY-STEP...I will make a backup first using this!



    - cleverest

    "feeling a bit more like myself now"
  • Reply 17 of 25
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Wait! Apparently, the largest file size possible on FAT32 is 4 GiB, so it might be a no-go anyway. But I was quite sure that I've created a sparseimage on a FAT32 volume and then made it bigger than 4 GiB. I suppose you can only try it and see what happens...
  • Reply 18 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post


    Wait! Apparently, the largest file size possible on FAT32 is 4 GiB, so it might be a no-go anyway. But I was quite sure that I've created a sparseimage on a FAT32 volume and then made it bigger that 4 GiB. I suppose you can only try it and see what happens...





    Hmmm good call......I guess it's worth a shot regardless
  • Reply 19 of 25
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post


    Yes, you need additional hardware for backups! Duplicating stuff on an HDD to the same HDD isn't a backup.



    If your current external drives are FAT32, OS X can write to those. Here's what you should do:



    1.) Mount an external drive on your OS X machine

    2.) Launch "disk utility" (found in the Utilities folder: activate the Finder, choose "Utilities" from the "go" menu).

    3.) Choose "new image" from the toolbar:







    4.) A "Save As" window drops down:







    5.) Choose "custom" from the "size" drop down menu.



    6.) In the box that appears, choose 60 GB.



    7.) Leave "Encryption" as "none".



    8.) In the "format" drop-down menu, choose "sparseimage" (this is an image file whose size grows as files are added to it - it will start off at a few MB).



    9.) Enter a name for the image in the "Save As" text box, and click on the external hard drive in the list on the left, so that the image will be saved to the external drive.



    10.) Click "Create".



    11.) Once the image is created, quit Disk Utility.



    12.) In the Finder, navigate to the new image file, and double-click it. A plain white HDD icon should appear on your desktop:







    13.) Click it once and press return, to rename it. Call it something like "MacintoshHDBackup"



    14.) Quit all open applications, launch Carbon Copy Cloner, choose "Macintosh HD" as the source, and "MacintoshHDBackup" as the destination, and backup.



    If your drives aren't FAT32 or aren't big enough, buy another external drive, format it as HFS+, and use it to backup onto (I'd still recommend using an image file to back up to though, as then you can keep other files you may wish to store on the drive separate from any backup you make.)



    I cannot recommend strongly enough that you backup before doing the "restore startup volume" thing.



    How did you do that? Get the pix into your post, I mean? I just learned how to upload a pic to Flickr and download it into a post. I thought I was hot sh-t inserting one measly pic. Your post just blew me away. I really would like to know how you did it. If you don't want to explain in this thread, send me a 'private message'. Take your time. I'm in no hurry. If it's too much trouble, don't bother. That's okay, too.



    I've been a Mac user for five years, but I feel like a newbie when I see what all you guys do and what you know about what's under the hood. In another thread, I asked what manuals you all used and most of the answers were that you didn't use manuals. It was all by the seat of the pants so to speak. I'm impressed.
  • Reply 20 of 25
    kareliakarelia Posts: 525member
    Here's a little easier way, and cuts out Disk Utility all together, as well as saving space.



    Using a Disk Utility image will create a 60GB image, with, lets say, 48GB used after all is said and done. But CCCloner can make it's own images, simply by opening the preferences and choosing:



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