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1TB drive only showing 1x161GB partition

J

jt6572

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2011
18
0
Perth West Australia
hey all
i have a 1TB external drive i partitioned and used for time machine (which took 161GB) and now i can't get back the rest of the space?

i have tried to look this up and played in disk utility but can't delete or restore the drive to its full capacity. it is still only showing a 161Gb partition.

could someone please help me recover the rest of the space? i don't mind deleting or reformatting. would like to just get the space back!

thank you.
 
1- Shut down the computer
2- Turn on the computer
3- Press and hold Command and R key together and wait for a new screen
4- Choose disk utilities
5- Click continue
6- Click Macintosh HD
7- Click Erase
8- Format should read Mac OS Extreme Journaled and name should be Macintosh HD
9- Click Erase
10- Quit Disk Utilities
11- Restart
12- Press Command R
13- Click Reinstall Mac OS X
14- Click Continue
15- Click Continue
16- Follow Instruction


jt6572 said:
hey all
i have a 1TB external drive i partitioned and used for time machine (which took 161GB) and now i can't get back the rest of the space?

i have tried to look this up and played in disk utility but can't delete or restore the drive to its full capacity. it is still only showing a 161Gb partition.

could someone please help me recover the rest of the space? i don't mind deleting or reformatting. would like to just get the space back!

thank you.
Click to expand...
 
hi hamilton,
thanks for the post.

it looks like this is a complete wipe of my OS? all i need is a 1TB external drive to be reset to give me 1TB of space....
 
Hamilton1963 said:
1- Shut down the computer
2- Turn on the computer
3- Press and hold Command and R key together and wait for a new screen
4- Choose disk utilities
5- Click continue
6- Click Macintosh HD
7- Click Erase
8- Format should read Mac OS Extreme Journaled and name should be Macintosh HD
9- Click Erase
10- Quit Disk Utilities
11- Restart
12- Press Command R
13- Click Reinstall Mac OS X
14- Click Continue
15- Click Continue
16- Follow Instruction
Click to expand...

I doubt re-installing will solve his problem.

You could try the disk utility from Hamilton1963's suggestion.

Does this only happen on your computer or on any computer? Have you tried erasing it with Windows or Linux?
 
Definitely don't reinstall the OS for this - it shouldn't have anything to do with an external drive's partition.

In fact, you don't need to boot into the Recovery HD partition either.

You'll find Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. Run it, then select the external drive - not the partition. Now click on the partition tab. Take a screen shot of that window and post back. That will help us determine what the current partition map is.


(screen shot: cmd-shift-4, then space. Place the camera icon over the disk utility window and single click or hit return)
 
I'm sorry, I just realized that you have an external HDD. Don't follow my suggestion. Again, I'm sorry!

jt6572 said:
hey all
i have a 1TB external drive i partitioned and used for time machine (which took 161GB) and now i can't get back the rest of the space?

i have tried to look this up and played in disk utility but can't delete or restore the drive to its full capacity. it is still only showing a 161Gb partition.

could someone please help me recover the rest of the space? i don't mind deleting or reformatting. would like to just get the space back!

thank you.
Click to expand...
 
jt6572 said:
hi upayme...
i have tried erasing the external drive in disk utilities to no avail...

[url=http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5979/screenshot20110821at126.png]Image[/URL]

just shows as a 160GB drive?
Click to expand...

Hi, that was actually gr8tfly that recommended you take the screenshot.

So right now I am assuming you have the "1TB Maxtor Basics Desk..." selected?

I think you are doing this right, but just to be sure you can follow this guide. http://macs.about.com/od/applications/ss/diskutilformat.htm

----------
Hamilton1963 said:
I'm sorry, I just realized that you have an external HDD. Don't follow my suggestion. Again, I'm sorry!
Click to expand...

Lol, I wasn't going to say anything about it but I thought you were just trying to be mean and have him erase it. :D
 
Before you do anything I think you should call tech support for your drive first, and let them deal with this situation.
 
:)
no probs. luckily i read through the instructions before just starting!

i will check out the link and post back.

thanks again all for all your help.

ps: had taken the screenshot, posted and then saw the recommendation i take a screen shot!
 
LOL! I would never do that.

[/COLOR]

Lol, I wasn't going to say anything about it but I thought you were just trying to be mean and have him erase it. :D[/QUOTE]
 
jt6572 said:
hi upayme...
i have tried erasing the external drive in disk utilities to no avail...
....
just shows as a 160GB drive?
Click to expand...

You should be able to drag the lower right corner of the 161gb partition down to fill the entire area inside the blue frame. Then, click Apply - it should tell you the partition Untitled will be resized and no partition will be erased.

The other option, if you don't need to save the data in the 161GB partition is to repartition the drive with a new single partition. Using Erase didn't work, as it only affects the currently selected partition.

To create a new, single partition, click on the pop-up menu under Partiton Layout. Change "Current" to "1 Partition", make sure the format is Mac OS Extemded (journaled), then click apply. It should say it's erasing all data in the current partition and creating a new single partition.

Hope this helps.

Edit: saw you had already taken the screen shot. You were one step ahead! ;)
 
omg. this is like taking your car to the mechanic and then it doesn't make 'the noise'!!

not sure why, but it simply worked this time.

thanks very much for all of your help. :D:D:D

----------
Hamilton1963 said:
I'm glad you read before you did anything.
Click to expand...

me too! lol, thanks for your help hamilton1963 :)

happy maccing all! :apple:

jeff
 
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