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mootsie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 3, 2010
26
0
Plymouth, Minnesota
imac OSX 10.5.6 on 392.86 GB (392,855,289,856 bytes) of HD. 392.86 GB (392,855,289,856 bytes) of Windows Vista on what is left of original drive. My first action was to format the "Spare Disk" HFS+ which was successful but. The anomaly began once I removed the Bootcamp partition. I now have two drives which was once the original drive. The drive which had windows on now appears as "Spare Disk" when I view it through System Profiler but does not show up in the finder menu. It now appears as though the "Spare Disk" us useless and wasted space. My goal was to remove the BC partition and reunite the windows partition with the original. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this properly but simply put, I would like to connect the spare disk with the original disk so I have more usable space. Any suggestions?
 
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Post a screenshot please.

I apologize if you already did but I'm on my iPhone.

B
 
"Format" just erases the data on the partition, and may change the file system. It doesn't remove the Partition. So you still have 1 physical disk with 2 partitions.

In Disk Utility, select the disk and go to the Partitions Tab. THis is where you can change the Layout to get rid of the second Partition.

HOWEVER, because this is you system disk, you may not be allowed to change the partitions here. I've never tried this on the system disk, so I'm not sure if it's allowed.

What you may need to do to get past this:
Use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the system onto an external drive
Boot to the External Drive
Use Disk Utility to repartition the Internal Drive
Use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the system back onto the internal drive
Boot Normally

OR
Make sure you have a current Time Machine Backup
Boot from the system DVD
Repartition the internal drive
restore from Time Machine
 
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robert05au said:
You could also take a look at this site it explains how to remove the BC partition via BC assistant.

http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/01/26/how-to-delete-a-boot-camp-partition/

Hope it helps

:)

There seems to be an extra partition in the OP that would not let BCA work. That's why I requested the screenshot.

B
 
Windows/Fusion

When I attempt to use Bootcamp Assistant I receive this message: "You must update your system software before using this setup assistant" Why would I get this message and how do I update it other than I normally do? I'm new to Macs and not familiar with the vernacular. I know I may be a bit taxing but I can assure you I am computer literate, just not with macs...but, I WANT to learn...I just want to get that spare drive attached again to the main drive....it's a challenge and I like challenges and everything in order
 
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When I attempt to use Bootcamp Assistant I receive this message: "You must update your system software before using this setup assistant" Why would I get this message and how do I update it other than I normally do? I'm new to Macs and not familiar with the vernacular. I know I may be a bit taxing but I can assure you I am computer literate, just not with macs...but, I WANT to learn...I just want to get that spare drive attached again to the main drive....

Which Mac, which version of OS X, and where is that screenshot?

Hard to understand your issues without seeing what you are seeing.

This sounds like an error you might get if you are running OS X 10.4 Tiger.

EDIT: saw iMac 10.5.6 above. Unusual. Can you post the complete error message you are getting?

B
 
Fusion/Windows

Not receiving any general running error...simply put, I had one HD, partitioned with BCA, added Fusion, decided to drop windows, formated windows drive, removed fusion, now I have two HD's where I thought I would have one after removal of windows/BCA...I would simply like to reclaim the lost diskspace of the second disk...it's really that simple and that complicated.
 
Try running disk utility and clicking on the HD itself, then go into the partition tab. Click on the spare partition and click the minus button at the bottom, this should turn that partition into free space, then you can drag the Mac partition down to fill the free space and create one large partition.
 
Thanks for the advice on capturing SC's....did you get the picture? Was this what you wanted?
 

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Here is a shot of the disk utility/spare disk

Please select the line "500.11 GB ....." NOT "Spare Disk". You should then see a tab labeled Partition in the right hand panel. Select that.

EDIT: This is what everyone in this thread has been asking you to do, but the fact that you don't post the right screenshot means you are not understanding and following directions.

In Disk Utility, select the disk and go to the Partitions Tab. THis is where you can change the Layout to get rid of the second Partition.

Try running disk utility and clicking on the HD itself, then go into the partition tab.

B
 
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Sigh. See on the right hand pane where it says "Partition". Click on that. That is the partition tab we have been asking you to click on.

EDIT: See image.

B
 

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I clicked on the partition tab as you suggested and it now says "this partition will left as free space." I cannot drag the master drive to the spare place partition or vice versa...suggestions?
 
I clicked on the partition tab as you suggested and it now says "this partition will left as free space." I cannot drag the master drive to the spare place partition or vice versa...suggestions?

Post a screenshot of what you see when you click on the partition tab and do nothing else. Yet.

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