Format Mac without losing Windows partition












0















I have a Macbook pro with bootcamp running windows and mac. My Mac OS has become so cluttered that I want to format it. How do I format the mac without losing the windows partition?










share|improve this question


















  • 1





    Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

    – Mike Diglio
    Oct 26 '15 at 2:01











  • @MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

    – Gordon Davisson
    Oct 26 '15 at 5:51
















0















I have a Macbook pro with bootcamp running windows and mac. My Mac OS has become so cluttered that I want to format it. How do I format the mac without losing the windows partition?










share|improve this question


















  • 1





    Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

    – Mike Diglio
    Oct 26 '15 at 2:01











  • @MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

    – Gordon Davisson
    Oct 26 '15 at 5:51














0












0








0








I have a Macbook pro with bootcamp running windows and mac. My Mac OS has become so cluttered that I want to format it. How do I format the mac without losing the windows partition?










share|improve this question














I have a Macbook pro with bootcamp running windows and mac. My Mac OS has become so cluttered that I want to format it. How do I format the mac without losing the windows partition?







windows-7 mac boot-camp






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked Oct 26 '15 at 1:56









JakeJake

111




111








  • 1





    Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

    – Mike Diglio
    Oct 26 '15 at 2:01











  • @MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

    – Gordon Davisson
    Oct 26 '15 at 5:51














  • 1





    Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

    – Mike Diglio
    Oct 26 '15 at 2:01











  • @MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

    – Gordon Davisson
    Oct 26 '15 at 5:51








1




1





Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

– Mike Diglio
Oct 26 '15 at 2:01





Since boot-camp is on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup and erase your Mac HD partition of OS X and re-install it using recovery - Not going to post this as an answer due to never doing this before - I do know that you can make a full backup of your windows side (using WinClone), wipe partition and reinstall everything

– Mike Diglio
Oct 26 '15 at 2:01













@MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

– Gordon Davisson
Oct 26 '15 at 5:51





@MikeDiglio: I haven't done this particular combo either, but I'm pretty certain it'd work. I'd go ahead and post it, but I'll add another suggestion: make a backup of everything you care about first. Mistakes happen when formatting disks, and if you accidentally blow away the Windows partition as well...

– Gordon Davisson
Oct 26 '15 at 5:51










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















0














With Boot Camp being on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup, and erase your Macintosh HD Partition, whilst keeping your Bootcamp partition fully in-tact.



Before doing this however, please ensure you have a full backup of the entire Hard Drive and it's partitions, just in-case there are any issues or data loss. You can create a time-machine of your Mac OS and also use Cloning Software (Such as WinClone) to make a copy of your Bootcamp partition. You can also create a Bootcamp backup inside your partition using the Windows Backup utility.



Once everything is backup, erase your Mac OS partition, and re-install. Once installed, you should be all set and able to freely boot between them again.






share|improve this answer























    Your Answer








    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "3"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: true,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: 10,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f991805%2fformat-mac-without-losing-windows-partition%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    0














    With Boot Camp being on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup, and erase your Macintosh HD Partition, whilst keeping your Bootcamp partition fully in-tact.



    Before doing this however, please ensure you have a full backup of the entire Hard Drive and it's partitions, just in-case there are any issues or data loss. You can create a time-machine of your Mac OS and also use Cloning Software (Such as WinClone) to make a copy of your Bootcamp partition. You can also create a Bootcamp backup inside your partition using the Windows Backup utility.



    Once everything is backup, erase your Mac OS partition, and re-install. Once installed, you should be all set and able to freely boot between them again.






    share|improve this answer




























      0














      With Boot Camp being on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup, and erase your Macintosh HD Partition, whilst keeping your Bootcamp partition fully in-tact.



      Before doing this however, please ensure you have a full backup of the entire Hard Drive and it's partitions, just in-case there are any issues or data loss. You can create a time-machine of your Mac OS and also use Cloning Software (Such as WinClone) to make a copy of your Bootcamp partition. You can also create a Bootcamp backup inside your partition using the Windows Backup utility.



      Once everything is backup, erase your Mac OS partition, and re-install. Once installed, you should be all set and able to freely boot between them again.






      share|improve this answer


























        0












        0








        0







        With Boot Camp being on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup, and erase your Macintosh HD Partition, whilst keeping your Bootcamp partition fully in-tact.



        Before doing this however, please ensure you have a full backup of the entire Hard Drive and it's partitions, just in-case there are any issues or data loss. You can create a time-machine of your Mac OS and also use Cloning Software (Such as WinClone) to make a copy of your Bootcamp partition. You can also create a Bootcamp backup inside your partition using the Windows Backup utility.



        Once everything is backup, erase your Mac OS partition, and re-install. Once installed, you should be all set and able to freely boot between them again.






        share|improve this answer













        With Boot Camp being on it's own partition of your Hard Drive, you should be able to boot into Recovery, CMD + R at startup, and erase your Macintosh HD Partition, whilst keeping your Bootcamp partition fully in-tact.



        Before doing this however, please ensure you have a full backup of the entire Hard Drive and it's partitions, just in-case there are any issues or data loss. You can create a time-machine of your Mac OS and also use Cloning Software (Such as WinClone) to make a copy of your Bootcamp partition. You can also create a Bootcamp backup inside your partition using the Windows Backup utility.



        Once everything is backup, erase your Mac OS partition, and re-install. Once installed, you should be all set and able to freely boot between them again.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Oct 26 '15 at 14:18









        Mike DiglioMike Diglio

        99557




        99557






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Super User!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fsuperuser.com%2fquestions%2f991805%2fformat-mac-without-losing-windows-partition%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            If I really need a card on my start hand, how many mulligans make sense? [duplicate]

            Alcedinidae

            Can an atomic nucleus contain both particles and antiparticles? [duplicate]