Repartition disk to one container from Restor.app ?

[mjsanders]

I am not sure if this is an issue or a feature request.
I tested Restor with to restore a macbook with 2 partitions (one HFS, one APFS container) and both show up as targets. (disk2S2 and diks2s3).
I can restore to each target fine. (10.13.2 apfs dmg created with AutoDMG, running Restore.app on my Mac 10.13.2)
What I am looking for is to use the Resore.app to default one APFS container (plus 1 EFI), REGARDLESS OF EXISTING PARTITIONS to restore the Mac to 'factory' default.

Can I use the Restore.app to do this? Maybe I overlooked a preference setting.

[russellhancox]

Just to make sure I understand correctly, in this scenario you'd want Restor to offer disk2, disk2s2 and disk2s3 as options and if you had selected disk2 it would have erased disk2s2 and disk2s3, replacing them with a single partition containing the image you had selected?

[mjsanders]

Yes one single partition is the goal.
My scenario is a Mac with Bootcamp. If a Mac is returned to the loaner pool of Mac's, I would like to use Restor.app to reset the Mac to default config with one 'Macintosh HD' volume.

Technically the re-partitioned disk2 is not 1 partition, it should contain the EFI (and for <10.13 also the Recovery HD) partitions, but the AutoDMG created dmg's I use have these partitions included.

I suggest an extra key ( like RepartitionDisk) in the com.google.corp.restor.plist.
If the key RepartitionDisk = 1 , Restor.app will show Disk2 (only) in this example, if RepartitionDisk = 0 Restore.app will show disk2s2 and disk2s3 in the GUI as possible targets.

For TouchBar MacBooks the Repartitioning wil mean that the EFI / embedded OS check may happen, but if your network is open enough for DEP enrollments, this should not be an issue. But still a good reason to make the setting an option.

I have no experience with swift but I do have some experience with bash scripts of diskutil for the logic (HFS/APFS) behind this request, and if I can help, please contact me.

[russellhancox]

OK. I definitely think making it a configuration is a good idea and I think we can handle the case of the EFI partition without too much difficulty.

Required changes

1. Update Restor/Utilities/DiskFilter.m to recognize the setting and show whole disks instead of partitions in that case.
2. Update restor/ImageSessionServer.m, beginImaging: method to recognize when the requested target is a whole disk and call a new repartitionDisk: method (instead of eraseDisk:).
3. Implement repartitionDisk in ImageSessionServer that scans partitions to determine the EFI partition, erase the remaining partitions and re-create as a single large partition of the appropriate format.

[mjsanders]

I am a newbe with Xcode, I tried to check the suggested changes, but that is not something I can do properly.
At the same time I have Restor now working at two sites, and both appreciate the clean simple structure. 99% of the Mac's turn out to be in the default partition state, so the 'isssue' I have reported is less happening than I expected.

[anotherspot]

I would like to request another option.
(Apologies if you think I should post in different area - seams like the options would compliment each other)
I would like to restore the EFI and disk2s2 whilst leaving disk2s3 untouched.
In the school that I manage, we partition disks to separate the user data from the OS and Apps - this way we can reimage without needing to restore user data. (Need to use some scripts post imaging to map this correctly)
I have tested with 10.14 and the system will not allow this.

[anotherspot]

Having moved over to APFS containers the process appears to be working - have successfully deployed to the primary container whilst retaining the data container.