Bootcamp has messed up my iMac system - help needed

[scott7saunders]

Hey,

I am fairly new to Mac and made the swift 2 weeks ago, so far my experience has been very positive and I am asking myself why I didn't make the changer sooner. There are still the odd programs that I miss and one of them is Outlook (the version for Mac is terrible). So the prospect of being able to "dip in and out" of Windows using bootcamp really did appeal to me however, I think that I have have buggered my system by following the prompts.

After starting the bootcamp program and following the options for downloading the software needed and partitioning the hard drive - all was going well. The machine rebooted and showed the windows logo as I assumed it was going to install Windows just like my laptop did. Unfortunately it didn't and just locked. There was no way around this lock as Mac would not boot - it just kept on trying to install Windows nor would the DVD eject. So a full system restore has happened and I am now back running Yosemite and will leave the Windows programs to my laptop...

The problem I face is the 40GB Partition that was created by Bootcamp for installing Windows will not delete or mount. I can't get rid of it..

Now, is there a way from windows OSx to "extend" the current partition to somehow swallow the 40GB partition back thus just having the full use of the hard drive and a single partition.

Can anyone help me please ?

Thanks

 

[johnodd4]

Yes there is actually.

This happens a lot on mac with bootcamp.

Here is how to fix it.

On startup hold the option key when you first power on your mac.

Select mac os x partition from the menu that appears.

Once you are back in mac os x select go at the top of the screen then utilities.

Once in utilities select disk utility.

Once opened Select Hard drive

Then select tab labeled Partition

You will notice it says 2 partitions select the 2nd partition the one created for windows and select the minus at the bottom of the disk utility window and it will remove the 40 gig partition and restore it back to mac os x.

However if you do this method remember one thing and one thing only you will not be able to run bootcamp again unless you completely reformat the entire hard drive and reinstall your o.s there is a glitch in bootcamp that once you create then remove a partition mac os x won't let you create another without a format to prevent the o.s from becoming unstable.


Now for your mail issues you have 2 choices for mac besides outlook.

You can use.

Mac's mail program the only thing you need is the server information for your e-mail account.

you can also sign up for iCloud and use apples own e-mail services you will find iCloud in system preferences located in the apple menu in the left corner of your screen.

However if you are use to using outlook you can use thunderbird email from firefox it works similar to outlook.

Anything else

 

[Lifeisabeach]

You should be able to use Disk Utility to do this. Run that; select your drive (not a partition) on the left; select the "Partition" tab on the right; click on the partition you want to remove (should be the bottom one.... if not, clarify for us or post a screen cap); click the "minus" key at the bottom; then re-size the top one to use the full space.

 

[scott7saunders]

your a legend!

thank you

sorted

 

[Lifeisabeach]

No prob. You may want to look at running Windows in a virtual machine instead of Boot Camp if your needs are very limited. VirtualBox is free and works well enough in such cases.