Why can't I restore to a single partition

a few months ago I partitioned about 60gb of my internal hd and installed windows 7 on that partition. However I've found I don't much like 7. I want to install xp instead.
when I go to boot camp I get this.
I hit continue and with either option I get this:
now that and the welcome screen for bootcamp are the only two screens I see and nowhere is there an option to restore my disk to a single partition, I'm trying to avoid a total reformat but I don't know what to do.
Help Please

see this
http://www.mymacosx.com/tricks-and-tips/macosx-delete-boot-camp-partition.html

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This message, and threads like yours got asked daily for over two years, now it is only a couple times a week!!
Is it so hard to follow through? you were to have backup already, clones are best, then erase/format and restore.
Then partition.
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You have to use Boot Camp Assistant (99.9% anyway) to create and achieve a proper Windows Master Boot Record partition.

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Trying to get rid of error "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". Recovery HD visible.

Hello,
I've been stuck for some hours now trying different things to install Windows 7 on my Macbook Air, and I think now is the time to call for some custom help.
I'm using OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks.
So some months ago I just wanted to run Linux on my laptop so I installed rEFInd, shrunk the Macintosh HD partition by 25GB and booted on a linux live USB flash I burned using dd.
Then I used gparted to create my linux partitions.
It worked just fine, even though disk utility from OS X seemed quite unhappy about this (it seemed to have incorrect informations about the filesystem on these partitions, seeing them as journaled Mac OS while they were clearly not). At this point already, the Recovery HD from mac showed up in disk utility, which I found weird but didn't bother me.
But recently I needed windows on my Mac. So after a few tries for the triple boot, I managed to create a bootable USB stick with boot camp, which already showed me the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" and hence refused to partition/install himself.
So I thought "OK, that's no big issue, I can just partition with disk utility and then boot on the USB stick and everything will work fine". But when EFI booting on the USB flash drive I got stuck at the beginning of Windows installer with no keyboard or mouse support.
After some hours spent googling, I was unable to find a working fix for that, and as there was no support for my case (where I used bootcamp to create the bootable flash but NOT to partition/reboot) I decided to give bootcamp a try.
So I erased my linux partitions, and cleaned up everything I could on the HD with disk utility. That means I now have two partitions showing in disk utility : Macintosh HD and Recovery HD.
When using disk utility from terminal, the list is :
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            80.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3
But boot camp still isn't happy, and the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" keeps popping after the intro and I can't partition/boot from bootcamp.
So, as I don't understand what is wrong here anymore, any help would be greatly appreciated!
I will be watching the thread a lot because I really would like this resolved (or windows installed one way or another) this weekend; so any questions on my past manipulations or config just ask!
Thank you.

keyboard issues are also something of a common issue.
I wish the best threads were voted to the top of forums, something! Me, I literally burned out here, but after installing 10 Preview, wanted to "see what was going on" after hiatus of a couple years and see if anything had changed (no, not really!)
Also, these new Communities are not putting "more like this" and failing to help too.
I think rewriting Boot Camp Assistant's built in help and pdf would help a lot, and needs to be clearer and go into details. And Yosemite was not it seems tested against Boot Camp, and drivers for new Macs + new OS also lag behind. Again, common and no sign of improvement or change.
One of the tricks to the "can't partition" is rather simple - of course backup is step #1 and is spelled out - SHRINK the main HFS+ partition! then stretch it back to full length. Sometimes a reboot is needed, and sometimes even do a Safe Boot - not sure what but Recovry Mode might be a good option too. That does seem to consolidate free space, move files that are locked and cannot be moved otherwise, and allow BCA to partition, jusst be sure to have enough space left and large enough for a proper Windows install (and fudge factor).

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

Hi!
I am getting the error:
"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Jounraled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."
I read up some on google, but all of them says that they have crated a partition and that is the problem, I only have the standard "Macintosh HD".
I tried to create a partition manually in disk utility but then the error message: "Partition failed with error message: Could not unmount disk."
Can anyone help me? It's driving me crazy.
Thanks.

This message, and threads like yours got asked daily for over two years, now it is only a couple times a week!!
Is it so hard to follow through? you were to have backup already, clones are best, then erase/format and restore.
Then partition.
Some have been able to use Disk Utility booted from OS X DVD or another drive, and repair the drive.
You have to use Boot Camp Assistant (99.9% anyway) to create and achieve a proper Windows Master Boot Record partition.

Bootcamp Yosemite 10.10.1 "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."

I'm trying to install Windows on my Mac via Bootcamp. I start up Boot Camp Assistant, the introduction pops up, I press continue and then I get this error 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."
So I head over to Disk Utility, the only partitions I have are Macintosh HD and EFI. I thought there might be some hidden partition, so I went into debug mode in Disk Util and there's nothing (Also used terminal, I'll put results below*). So that brings me to my current problem; it's already "formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume" and I can't make it "partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows." because this error message prevents me from doing that. Maybe there's an easy fix, but the information provided is so unhelpful/circular it makes me want to laugh and punch something at the same time. I saw that someone fixed this problem by merging their partitions, but as I already have the minimum number of partitions so that wouldn't fix anything (unless EFI is unnecessary, which I'm fairly sure it isn't).
-Running 10.10.1 OSX Yosemite
-Trying to install Windows 8.1
diskutil list
sudo gpt -vv -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            3.0 TB     disk0s2
Thanks for your help in advance ;3, I hope this is an easy fix

I had a similar issue after doing a fresh install of Yosemite. Bootcamp assistant seems to want a Core Storage scenario before it will continue.
To convert your drive use the following command in Terminal:
diskutil cs convert disk0s2
Bootcamp will then let you proceed as normal. Be warned though!
After the windows install completes you may end up with something like my situation:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/27472857?ac_cid=op123456#27472857

The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition

Am trying to install Windows 7 using Boot Camp. Am receieving the following message in Boot Camp "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition"
In Disk Utilty, I get the following message after clicking Verify Disk and Repair Disk buttons
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Parition map check failed becuse no slices were found
Any solution for above message?

You will need to repartition your drive:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

Bootcamp error, 'the startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.'

I am trying to set up bootcamp for gaming purposes.
I attempted this several months ago and was able to proceed to the point of accessing the Windows disk utility but noticed that I was running out of memory on the partition. I believe I deleted the partition through mac OS, thinking I would simply re-run Bootcamp. Honestly, I have forgotten the details but now am unable to get past an error message on Bootcamp saying, "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition."
Also, when I look at my disk utility settings I see I have two Macintosh HD with exactly the same numbers, i.e. 1.94 TB free of 2.09 TB.
Any assistance with this would be appreciated.
Thank you.

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         1.3 TB     disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:          Apple_CoreStorage                         905.9 GB   disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s5
   6:          Apple_CoreStorage                         801.4 GB   disk0s6
   7:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s7
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *2.1 TB     disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk0s6
                                 3D3FBA3D-8C26-4550-AD7E-CBF1FC688185
                                 Unencrypted
CoreStorage logical volume groups (2 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 31DCB352-9C95-43EC-8F16-FBFFAEF2EC92
|   =========================================================
|   Name:         Macintosh HD
|   Status:       Online
|   Size:         2093598998528 B (2.1 TB)
|   Free Space:   0 B (0 B)
|   |
|   +-< Physical Volume 2D83E3CA-C968-4A83-9900-7FE4325B15F6
|   |   ----------------------------------------------------
|   |   Index:    0
|   |   Disk:     disk0s2
|   |   Status:   Online
|   |   Size:     1292162457600 B (1.3 TB)
|   |
|   +-< Physical Volume 91499DB6-ED61-4BD9-A5FA-A3A469461673
|   |   ----------------------------------------------------
|   |   Index:    1
|   |   Disk:     disk0s6
|   |   Status:   Online
|   |   Size:     801436540928 B (801.4 GB)
|   |
|   +-> Logical Volume Family 1AC34EBA-7E2E-4483-868A-9C1208206E73
|       ----------------------------------------------------------
|       Encryption Status:       Unlocked
|       Encryption Type:         None
|       Conversion Status:       NoConversion
|       Conversion Direction:    -none-
|       Has Encrypted Extents:   No
|       Fully Secure:            No
|       Passphrase Required:     No
|       |
|       +-> Logical Volume 3D3FBA3D-8C26-4550-AD7E-CBF1FC688185
|           ---------------------------------------------------
|           Disk:                  disk1
|           Status:                Online
|           Size (Total):          2092978229248 B (2.1 TB)
|           Conversion Progress:   -none-
|           Revertible:            No
|           LV Name:               Macintosh HD
|           Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
|           Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 02021BDF-4B53-4A05-AE99-111B5ABAA416
    =========================================================
    Name:         BOOTCAMP
    Status:       Online
    Size:         905864802304 B (905.9 GB)
    Free Space:   905512476672 B (905.5 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 15BED824-E4C1-4AAF-8BB3-D4D4FAFA7ABE
        Index:    0
        Disk:     disk0s4
        Status:   Online
        Size:     905864802304 B (905.9 GB)
gpt show: /dev/disk0: mediasize=3000592982016; sectorsize=512; blocks=5860533168
gpt show: /dev/disk0: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Sec GPT at sector 5860533167
       start        size index contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 2523754800      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
2524164440     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
2525433976        1928
2525435904 1769267192      4 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
4294703096      262144      5 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
4294965240 1565305744      6 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
5860270984      262144      7 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
5860533128           7
5860533135          32         Sec GPT table
5860533167           1         Sec GPT header
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 97451/255/63 [1565565872 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 - 4294967294] <Unknown ID>
2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

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How to restore mac to single partition?

Im shure this question has been aked before, however I am unable to find an anser to my specific problem.
I am trying to restore to a single OS X Mountain Lion patition on a iMac mid 2011 after allocating 300 GB to a seperat partition for Ubuntu. That 300 GB has been partitioned into 8 partitions, afer 3 or more installs of Ubuntu. When i try to erase the partitions i get errors like too small, un readable, unrecognized, etc. They are all blank. Is there any way to restore to one partition without wiping the hard drive and reinstalling mountain lion and using time machine for data on Macintosh HD partition? If not could you give me pointers and tips on how to wipe, reinstall, and restore to backup?
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PS the hard drive is 1 tb and 700 GB for OS X has been untouched exept for resize for 300 extra partition.

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http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Why can't I restore to a single partition

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