Trouble with getting rid of Partition

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Hi All!

When I purchased my 2009 Mac Book Pro I installed Windows Vista with Bootcamp and a 50/50 split. Recently, I needed to upgrade OSX operating systems and wanted to get rid of my Windows operating System. I did a "clean" wipe of my computer (or so I thought) to reinstall my OSX 10.5 Leopard system. After doing so, I went into my disk utilities to "erase" the bootcamp partition, however, the erase didn't seem to get rid of the bootcamp. I then upgraded to OSX 10.8, thinking that it would help me in eliminating the partition. When going to "bootcamp assistant" I now get the message:

"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."

What does this mean? And how can I fix it so I can continue to delete the partition through Bootcamp assistant?

Thanks in advance for your help and for reading this post!
nicole
 
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The basic rule of Bootcamp is that you create and delete Windows partitions using Bootcamp, NOT disk utility.

Did you already delete the OSX partition, or were you unsuccessful in doing that either?

SM
 
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The basic rule of Bootcamp is that you create and delete Windows partitions using Bootcamp, NOT disk utility.

Did you already delete the OSX partition, or were you unsuccessful in doing that either?

SM

No, I wasn't successful in doing that either. How can I do that? I went to the disk utility and tried to do it there by using the "erase" button.
 
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Don't do that, if you want to delete the Windows partition, do so in Bootcamp.
After that, you'll be able to erase the Mac partition just fine.

SM
 
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I tried to open the bootcamp assistant but I immediately get the message I described above. Is there a different place I should open Bootcamp?
 
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No there's not... I wasn't aware that the Bootcamp assistant also didn't allow you to restore the Mac partition to it's full capacity.

Here's what you can do:

1) boot your Mac from your OSX install DVD (or Flash Drive)
2) choose your language and then 'ignore' (cancel) the installation
3) from the Top Menu (Utilities) start Disk Utility (DU)
4) in DU click on your harddisk (not any partition) in the left pane (the first item listed)
5) in the right pane use the 'Partition'-Tab
6) click to highlight on the ex-Windows partition you want to delete
7) click on the small '-' Button at the bottom

That should delete your Windows partition

After that's done successfully

8) Drag the partition separator line until it encompasses the entire drive and then select apply.
9) Quit Disk Utility
10) Reboot your Mac from your harddisk.

Post back with the results.

SM
 

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