Reclaim disk space from old Windows partition?

Question

How do I reclaim the disk space used by my former Windows partition?

Clear free space in Disk Utility

So I recently removed Windows 7 from my iMac, but Bootcamp didn't let me do it. I used Disk Utility instead. The old Windows 7 partition now shows up as free space. I want to reinstall Windows 7 again on my iMac, how do I set it up? Can I use the free space again? I want to give the Windows partition a bigger size than what the free space currently holds.

I'm having the exact same issue, but mine is 70 GB of data on 250 GB flash drive. I too am running OS X 10.10, Yosemite.

The accepted answer to the question above says restore the computer, but I don't want to lose my data or buy a Time Machine drive. What should I do?

Answer 1

• I installed the Windows 10 Preview.
• I then booted up into OS X.
• I turned off FileVault, and removed my Windows partition via Boot Camp Assistant.

Finally, check disk utility and you'll see the free space went to your Mac partition.

Answer 2

If you are using High Sierra and APFS. Try this.

Below command to find the list of Drives.

diskutil list

run this to retrieve the the free space.

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

Now your unused free space will be added to your existing hard disk as a single partition.

Answer 3

The only correct way is indeed to use Bootcamp Assistant to free up the Windows partition space...