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accidentally deleted OSX when installing windows :(

D

dirtyblond

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2010
14
0
socal
Hi everyone!

I accidentally deleted my husband's mac osx partition when I was installing windows 7 via bootcamp on his macbook pro. When I was installing windows it showed all these partitions (disk 0 partition, disk 1 BOOTCAMP, etc) so I deleted all of them, thinking I would save space. When I restarted the macbook pressed "option," only the windows drive appeared. I had no idea I could delete the primary OS when I was in windows.

I now have fully functioning windows 7 but no osx. I've read other forums but they're not really clear and since I'm not too tech savvy could somebody break it down for me in a straight forward way? Could someone please help :rolleyes:
 
forgot to mention

dirtyblond said:
Hi everyone!

I accidentally deleted my husband's mac osx partition when I was installing windows 7 via bootcamp on his macbook pro. When I was installing windows it showed all these partitions (disk 0 partition, disk 1 BOOTCAMP, etc) so I deleted all of them, thinking I would save space. When I restarted the macbook pressed "option," only the windows drive appeared. I had no idea I could delete the primary OS when I was in windows.

I now have fully functioning windows 7 but no osx. I've read other forums but they're not really clear and since I'm not too tech savvy could somebody break it down for me in a straight forward way? Could someone please help :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I not sure if this is important but his macbook is 13" and it is 2.26 ghz with 4 gb of RAM
 
If you've deleted all the partitions, then unfortunately that's it. You're gonna have to find your OSX installation CD and reinstall it all over again!
When installing ANY OS, it will always show your current partitions regardless of what they are. Easy mistake to make, the big step is telling your husband the bad news :(
 
I see

thebeautyisfake said:
If you've deleted all the partitions, then unfortunately that's it. You're gonna have to find your OSX installation CD and reinstall it all over again!
Click to expand...

But how do I do that? I have the reinstall DVDs and the upgrade DVD to Snow Leopard. I just don't know how to install? Do I just pop in the DVD of OSX and follow on from there?

My husbands coming Friday, so if I get this done before then I won't need to tell him anything, hehe ;)
 
you can install the operating system ( the mac bit ) like it was when it came from the apple store, by putting in a CD that came with the mac. however unless he has a time machine back up it wont put back his files and information.

To reinstall the OS then put in the cd. turn it off then on and while turning it on press the ALT key. follow the instructions on screen. if you have a time machine back up then it theres a section when it will allow you to add the data.
 
i see

euanmackie said:
you can install the operating system ( the mac bit ) like it was when it came from the apple store, by putting in a CD that came with the mac. however unless he has a time machine back up it wont put back his files and information.

To reinstall the OS then put in the cd. turn it off then on and while turning it on press the ALT key. follow the instructions on screen. if you have a time machine back up then it theres a section when it will allow you to add the data.
Click to expand...

Oh he has his files stored on his thumb drive, so his files aren't an issue. But will this process delete the Windows 7 partition? It took soo long installing :confused:
 
You have completely erased the mac OSX partition. There is NO way to make it like it was. All data was erased. You can reinstall OSX, but if you partitioned the drive as 1 drive, you have to reformat for mac, thereby erasing windows, and reinstall osx. The computer will be back to factory defaults as if you just bought it. If you did not back up any of the data, it's gone for good.
 
Put in the OSX install disks and you can just boot to them, and follow from there. I hope you took a backup before you started bootcamp.
 
oh my....

lostless said:
You have completely erased the mac OSX partition. There is NO way to make it like it was. All data was erased. You can reinstall OSX, but if you partitioned the drive as 1 drive, you have to reformat for mac, thereby erasing windows, and reinstall osx. The computer will be back to factory defaults as if you just bought it. If you did not back up any of the data, it's gone for good.
Click to expand...

wow!! just a single click causes all this trouble. Whats funny is that when I was deleting the partitions, it asked me if I was sure about deleting the partitions because it would delete all the info stored on those partitions... you guys are soo awesome!!! thank you
 
a back up on a "thumb drive" is really not a backup. Its more of a copy, or a convenience. You could have done a number of things, best to before installing the mac osx is to go to the menu bar on the top of the screen you see when booting of the CDs, and selecting "disk utility" then checking to see if you wiped the data or removed the partition space. If its the latter then im afraid it will be a total start again, if however there is still a journal hdd space then you will just have to install the mac part again,
 
dirtyblond said:
My husbands coming Friday, so if I get this done before then I won't need to tell him anything, hehe ;)
Click to expand...

Hopefully you have a backup of the data that was on there so you won't need to explain where all his files, preferences, applications etc went.

If you do have a backup, you can migrate all his old files and info from the backup as part of the Snow Leopard install.
 
i see

euanmackie said:
a back up on a "thumb drive" is really not a backup. Its more of a copy, or a convenience. You could have done a number of things, best to before installing the mac osx is to go to the menu bar on the top of the screen you see when booting of the CDs, and selecting "disk utility" then checking to see if you wiped the data or removed the partition space. If its the latter then im afraid it will be a total start again, if however there is still a journal hdd space then you will just have to install the mac part again,
Click to expand...

well he does have the time capsule thingy but i'm not sure if hes backed up to that, theres no wires connecting it to his mac at ALL. but I'm not sure?? how could I check to see if he does have a backup on time capsule?
 
yeah without doubt he will be backing up to that wirelessly, i would put the mac CDs into the machine, turn it on. press the ALT key, select the CDs start the installation process on the correct partition if you can, if not re partion using disk utility, it should talk you through all of this, then when it comes to asking you about a previous mac. select from time machine, then go from there, it should be able to be put back to how it was before. then just install windows slowly. if u have to!
 
OK, with Time Capsule there's something a little different that you can do.

Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, and you'll have an option in the menu bar to connect to a wireless network. Connect up, then choose to restore from Time Machine from the Utilities menu. That should revert everything to just as it used to be.

Note that I'm talking from memory so the names of the options might not be exactly as I've specified here.
 
Nermal said:
OK, with Time Capsule there's something a little different that you can do.

Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, and you'll have an option in the menu bar to connect to a wireless network. Connect up, then choose to restore from Time Machine from the Utilities menu. That should revert everything to just as it used to be.

Note that I'm talking from memory so the names of the options might not be exactly as I've specified here.
Click to expand...

No need to mess about with the utilities. it will just pop up along the process on a slide with the finder icon ( the one with a face and a line through it )
 
dirtyblond said:
well he does have the time capsule thingy but i'm not sure if hes backed up to that, theres no wires connecting it to his mac at ALL. but I'm not sure?? how could I check to see if he does have a backup on time capsule?
Click to expand...
If the Time Capsule is plugged in and working then you do have a current backup.

Put the Snow Leopard disk in the drive, power off the machine, turn it back on while holding the C key and it will boot from the install disk. Go through the install process and among the first few screens you'll get an option to migrate your old data. Make the appropriate choice (migrate from Time Capsule) and you should be good to go. You will have to go through the Windows install process again.
 
wow, thanks

euanmackie said:
yeah without doubt he will be backing up to that wirelessly, i would put the mac CDs into the machine, turn it on. press the ALT key, select the CDs start the installation process on the correct partition if you can, if not re partion using disk utility, it should talk you through all of this, then when it comes to asking you about a previous mac. select from time machine, then go from there, it should be able to be put back to how it was before. then just install windows slowly. if u have to!
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks. Unfortunately, I must install windows because of the software my work uses. Until I get my new Vaio, I'm stuck with using windows on my husbands mac, which seems very odd...i wish i had my own mac :)
 
you guys are soo smart

Hmac said:
If the Time Capsule is plugged in and working then you do have a current backup.

Put the Snow Leopard disk in the drive, power off the machine, turn it back on while holding the C key and it will boot from the install disk. Go through the install process and among the first few screens you'll get an option to migrate your old data. Make the appropriate choice (migrate from Time Capsule) and you should be good to go. You will have to go through the Windows install process again.
Click to expand...

time capsule is only plugged into the wall but not his mac, in fact, i've never seen it connected to his mac. i always thought it was a router but i remember him mentioning that its a "network harddrive" or something like that
 
dirtyblond said:
time capsule is only plugged into the wall but not his mac, in fact, i've never seen it connected to his mac. i always thought it was a router but i remember him mentioning that its a "network harddrive" or something like that
Click to expand...
The Time Capsule backs up wirelessly.
 
wow...new zealand!!

Nermal said:
OK, with Time Capsule there's something a little different that you can do.

Boot from the Snow Leopard DVD, and you'll have an option in the menu bar to connect to a wireless network. Connect up, then choose to restore from Time Machine from the Utilities menu. That should revert everything to just as it used to be.

Note that I'm talking from memory so the names of the options might not be exactly as I've specified here.
Click to expand...

the internet is simply amazing!!!!
 
dirtyblond said:
Wow, thanks. Unfortunately, I must install windows because of the software my work uses. Until I get my new Vaio, I'm stuck with using windows on my husbands mac, which seems very odd...i wish i had my own mac :)
Click to expand...

Try Fusion or Parallels for your Windows. Parallels 5 runs Windows 7 just fine and is the fastest reviewed right now. Fusion 3 has had some issues since is came out.

If you want something free, go with Virtual Box.

Then you aren't messing around with partitions at all.

Unless you have games, or some device that won't work in a virtual machine, there aren't a lot of reasons to use bootcamp versus virtual, in my opinion.
 
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