How to Delete a Boot Camp Partition from Your Mac

Last Updated: June 6, 2021

Boot Camp is the software that was created to enable Windows to run on your Mac. You may have needed Windows in the past, for work or school, but as technology progresses, it is becoming more and more likely that you can just do everything on the Mac side, rendering Boot Camp obsolete. Deleting the Boot Camp software can free up valuable space on your hard drive, helping your computer run better and faster.

Steps

1
Back up your machine. Before performing any major software change on your Mac, it is prudent to back up everything in case something goes wrong. In this case, the backup procedure will be even more extensive: Save the Windows data you wish to keep manually. (The Windows partition is not backed up automatically by Time Machine.)
2
Log out of all other users. Make sure you are logged in with only your administrator account.

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3
Quit all open apps. If the light is on next to or below an icon in your dock, that means it is still running. Quit everything except for the Finder. If it refuses to respond, you might have to wait a while; if not, you can force quit it.
4
Launch Boot Camp Assistant.
5
Click Continue.
6
Click on "Remove Windows". The mentioned Windows version can differ depending on Windows version you installed. Click Continue.
7
Select Restore. You may have to select a disk if your Mac has more than one. Choose the one containing Windows.
8
Type an Administrator's name and password in the pop up window, then click OK.
9
Wait for it to finish updating the software configuration.
10
Success!

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Community Q&A

Question

What is the chance of losing everything when removing it?

Community Answer

There is always a chance of erasing your data, so you should do a complete backup of your computer before you delete the boot camp partition.

Warnings

Any files that were saved onto the Windows side will be deleted permanently, and the Windows part does not back up to Time Machine. Be sure to save all files before deleting Boot Camp.

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Do not close Boot Camp while it re-partitions your Mac. There is a chance that the partitions can get corrupted if you do so.

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