If you’ve installed Windows via Boot Camp, and now want to delete it and restore the space to your main Mac hard drive, this brief tutorial will guide you through the steps to do just that.
It’s actually quite easy to remove the Windows drive and reclaim all the hard drive space, the only “problem” is that Apple doesn’t make it an obvious process.
NOTE: by deleting your Windows Boot Camp partition, you will of course be deleting all of the data on that partition. Make sure to back up anything on your “Windows drive” before you proceed. Your OS X partition will not be erased and you won’t lose any data from it.
- Launch the Boot Camp Assistant by going to your Applications -> Utilities -> Boot Camp Assistant.
- Click Continue on the initial Boot Camp Assistant Introduction window.
- Select Create or remove a Windows partition and then click Continue
- Click the Restore button to remove the Windows partition and restore the disk to a single-partition OS X volume.
- You’ll be prompted to enter your password – do so and then click OK.
- The Boot Camp Assistant will start partitioning…
- and then you’ll be back to a single OS X volume. That’s it – Windows is gone.
I ran into a problem where the option wasn’t available to remove the Windows partition. I ended up having to reclaim the space manually through the Disk Utility but it worked fairly painlessly – just not as user friendly as the wizard.
Thanks for answering my question that I e-mailed to you yesterday. Sometimes Apple doesn’t make it as “obvious” as it should be.
Great tutorial Ross
I used boot camp to create a windows partition, but later formatted it for linux used it for linux. However, I ran into problems, and I want to delete the partition or reformat it so I can install windows 7 instead. When I follow these steps, it of course tells me that it can’t be restored. How else can I delete or reformat the partition?
@RedFlag That’s what I ran into. If you use the Disk Utility (Found in Applications->Utilities), you can remove and then recreate the partition and it will work just fine.
How can I remove/recreate the partition? The minus symbol next to the list of partitions is greyed out, and if I erase the partition, it still remains…
When i did this steps all went smoothly. The thing is I later wanted to creat a new partition with bootcamp, and the wizard told me to back up and format mi HD. Which i refuse to do. It says that the new partition can’t be done. What’s up with that? I did the same steps as this tutorial , and when I tried to make a new partition it said something about unmovable files.
Any thoughts?
thanks a lot.. very helpful!
Thanks a lot Ross, very simple to follow with desired results.
What a great, simple, and to follow tutorial – Thank you Ross!
Greetings,
I want to reclaim some of the disk space I gave to WIndows originally. At the apple store one of the sales people demonstrated for me a new function…not sure if it was in boot camp or disk utility, but it had a slider that you could move between the two partitions that apparently would not cause Windows data or operating system to be lost but would merely reclaim unused space on the Windows sector to the Mac sector. I got home all excited to avoid having to wipe out the WIndows sector but could not find the place where this newer utility was located. I updated last night to the very latest OS update and still can’t find it. Can you help? Thanks!
I removed the Windows Vista partition no problem. But when I turn the iMac on, or when I restart while in Leopard, I get a Windows message stating that the machine can’t boot and instructing me to insert a bootable disk and then hit any key. How do I remove the last vestige of Vista from my iMac?
Ahh boot camp utility tells me I need 10gb free to create a partition and wont let me go past the first screen (ive only got 5gb free with nothing but the OS and apps on the HD) but I just want to give the old partition back, not make a new one. Any advice? Thanks!
Thanks for the great advice, i got it done in less than 30 seconds;)
I cant find the bootcamp assistant on my computer. Is there somewhere else I can go to find it?
If I follow this process it’s gonna delete all HD or only the windows and the components?
Thank you very much. Your post is really helpful.
Hi, i used bootcamp to create a windows partition, however afterwords I found it was too small, so I followed these steps to delete it and everything was going fine except my computer has said status: partitioning disk for 14 hours.
I did the first step,
QUOTE
Utilities -> Boot Camp Assistant.>
UNQUOTE
But all I get is . What can I do?? I desperately want my 15G back!!!!
I did the first step,
QUOTE
{Launch the Boot Camp Assistant by going to your Applications -> Utilities -> Boot Camp Assistant.}
UNQUOTE
But all I get is {Boot Camp Assistant Beta has expired}. What can I do?? I desperately want my 15G back!!!!
circle L, put your system clock back to 2007 and try again.
may I simply say I love you, Jimmy!
I’m done deleted my window partition!!! in just a snap!
xoxoXOXOXO
I removed the Windows XP partition no problem. But when I turn the iMac on, or when I restart while in Leopard, I get a Windows message stating that the machine can’t boot and instructing me to insert a bootable disk and then hit any key. How do I remove the last vestige of XP from my iMac?
Your help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
Thank you for this walk through.
How do i delete a windows partition, without boot Camp?
is that even possible?
I managed to delete the windows partition but using disk utility but I am still short 5 GB of hard drive space I had allocated, any ideas how I can claim it back
Jimmy, you are the BEST.
I changed the time and my Windows partition was gone in half a minute.
I got 25GB unused disk space back.
Great Instructions! It worked!
kyhana I had the same problem as you! When I try to boot up my Mac after removing the partition that i made in boot camp it gives me a black screen that tells me I need a boot disk or something like that. What can I do?