How do I regain all unallocated disk space to add it to macOS after removing Linux partitions?

Question

I originally came across this post with a possible answer but, I do not understand how to go about the process, especially when 2 drives are both not showing there full size. This originally happened when I had Ubuntu Gnome installed alongside OS X (one drive (SSD)). I have dedicated the SSD to my OSes and the other HDD to my home folders.

When I attempted to delete the Linux partitons (one on each drive) they are now completely gone out of sight. I am unable to regain that space to add it to my system and home partiton on the drives.

Both are 500 GB drives but only 250 GB are used. I have a mid 2012 MacPro

(Incase your wondering how I have 2 drives in this mac I replaced my optical drive with a hard drive caddy)

When trying to read the gtp/pmbr scheme this is what it spits out disk0 is osx disk1 is home.

  zackerys-MacBook-Pro:~ gefiltefish1478$ sudo gpt show disk1
Password:
      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  488050672      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  488460312       2024         
  488462336     260096      3  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F
  488722432  487790592         
  976513024     260096      4  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F
  976773120         15         
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header
zackerys-MacBook-Pro:~ gefiltefish1478$ sudo gpt show disk0
       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   499902768      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   500312408     1269536      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
   501581944   498372488         
   999954432      260096      4  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F
  1000214528         655         
  1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
  1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

This is the output when I run df.

df
Filesystem                       512-blocks      Used Available Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                      499902768 130185800 369204968    27% 1249077 4293718202    0%   /
devfs                                   375       375         0   100%     651          0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s2                      488050672 465813600  22237072    96%   89020 4294878259    0%   /Volumes/HOME
map -hosts                                0         0         0   100%       0          0  100%   /net
map auto_home                             0         0         0   100%       0          0  100%   /home
localhost:/KJdZJAu-3rlfljye4LGYtx 499902768 499902768         0   100%       0          0  100%   /Volumes/MobileBackups
/dev/disk1s1                         403266        15    403251     1%       0          0  100%   /private/var/tmp/MP4XJX8Y

I'm extremely wary about rewriting any GPT without someone else's input. Needing help; I know @klanomath was able to fix this issue hopefully he can have some input on my situation. Possibly someone can make a bash command line to automate the process for other users who may encounter the issue.

Possible future GitHub project if I figure out how to do this on my own.

This question is very difficult to read. Can you please add some punctuation and adjust the formatting? That will help people understand your issue and try to suggest fixes. — fsb, Jan 03 '17 at 17:25
@fsb Yes, my apologies. I have edited it; in desperate need of help. — NEXTCODE4U, Jan 03 '17 at 17:37
Disk0s3 has the wrong partition type: it should be 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC. Everything else looks ok. To regain empty and continuous space to expand your OS X partitions you simply have to delete disk1s3 and disk1s4 as well as disk0s4 (all Linux remnants). — klanomath, Jan 03 '17 at 17:49
@klanomath Ive tried deleting the partitions (in osx and recovery) but i get "MediaKit reports partition (map) too small. If you recently grew your whole-disk, you should run whole-disk repair." On disk0 and "Couldn’t read partition map." on disk1. Is there any other data I could post to help diagnose the issue. — NEXTCODE4U, Jan 03 '17 at 17:56
@klanomath Im thinking it would be possible to boot into gparted and deleting those partitions since I have an ISO on hand. — NEXTCODE4U, Jan 03 '17 at 18:03
@NEXTCODE4U Did you soft link the whole /Users folder to /Volumes/HOME (disk0s2) or single $user folders to /Volumes/HOME/Users/$user (or /Volumes/HOME/$user)? — klanomath, Jan 03 '17 at 18:03
@NEXTCODE4U gparted is IMHO always a very bad idea! You can regain the space and change the Recovery HD's type in Internet Recovery Mode or with a bootable OS X installer thumb drive (depends on your Mac model)! — klanomath, Jan 03 '17 at 18:06
@klanomath Its single; just my user folder. Ive had the home folder like this even before I installed ubuntu so i don't see how it could be part of the issue. BTW thanks for the input more than appreciate it. I'm desperate for my storage!!! — NEXTCODE4U, Jan 03 '17 at 18:12
@NEXTCODE4U there are several methods to "export" a user folder: 1. soft link to /Users/ or changing the $user folder to /Volumes/HOME/ with dscl (or with the Directory Tool) or in the system prefs > User & Groups. Do you still have a /Users folder in the root directory? I'm just asking for safety nets (e.g. if you have a second admin user at /Users/$adminuser2) Depending on that I'll propose a strategy how to resolve your problem. — klanomath, Jan 03 '17 at 18:20
@NEXTCODE4U Also: Please add your Mac model to the question (e.g. MacBook Pro Early 2011 or MacBook late 2009) — klanomath, Jan 03 '17 at 18:27
@klanomath YOU WERE RIGHT! I have a mid 2012 mac pro so it would only let me use the mountain lion recovery (witch wouldn't let me delete the partitions) I simply partitioned a section of my drive and wrote the sierra installer to it. (sorry didn't know i had a copy in my home folder) After deleting all linux partitions and my recovery partition I was able to reclaim my space. I see where I went wrong now, my bad. More than appreciate the input. I wouldn't of been able to figure it out without ya homie -hits my chest twice and throws peace sign- — NEXTCODE4U, Jan 03 '17 at 18:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 03 '17 at 19:00

Your disk contains some blocking Linux swap partitions: disk1s3, disk1s4 and disk0s4 (all partitions with the type 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F). Additionally your probable Recovery HD disk0s3 has the wrong type: it should be 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC.

Depending on your Mac model either use Internet Recovery Mode or a bootable OS X installer thumb drive to "repair" your disks.

Since your user folder resides on a different partition create a safety net admin user first on your boot disk. Log-in as second admin user to be sure that the account works independently from your main admin user.

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode (or the thumb drive)
Open Terminal in the menubar > Utilities
Enter diskutil list to get an overview.
Use the disk identifiers of your SSD and the HDD (e.g disk0 and disk1) enter gpt -r show disk$.

Below I assume disk0 is your system disk and disk1 is your HOME disk.
Unmount both disks with diskutil umountDisk disk0and diskutil umountDisk disk1.

remove the two swap partitions on disk1:

gpt remove -i 3 disk1
diskutil umountDisk disk1
gpt remove -i 4 disk1

remove the Recovery HD and the swap partitions on disk1:

gpt remove -i 3 disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt remove -i 4 disk0
diskutil umountDisk disk0

re-add the Recovery HD with the proper type:

gpt add -i 3 -b 500312408 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

resize both main volumes with:

diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk0s2 100%
diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk1s2 100%

Verify both volumes with diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2 and diskutil verifyVolume disk1s2. If necessary repair the volumes.
Reboot

How do I regain all unallocated disk space to add it to macOS after removing Linux partitions?

1 Answers1