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Boot Camp on 2nd Bay internal drive, needing to parition...

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gepetto33

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2010
6
0
Hello Experts of "go-arounds",

Please excuse me if this has been answered before; i simply could not track down the same scenario....

I have installed Boot Camp Windows 7 successfully installed on my SECOND internal drive, i.e. not my Mac OS System drive. Upon using the boot camp assistant, i realized i couldn't make any extra partitions, which i proceeded to install anyway thinking i could fix the problem later.

The problem being - I bought a 500GB internal hard drive, and i only need maybe 60 or so gigs for the Windows Boot Camp parition. I'd be fine with it but for the fact i can't save anything to it when booted in Mac OS (most likely because of the MS-DOS formatting). From what i have gathered from inquiries on similar subjects, this is what i was going to try -

1. Create a disc image of the Boot Camp parition drive and call it "BOOTCAMP", saved to my 1st bay, Mac OS system drive.

2. Once that has been saved and confirmed, re-parition the (SECOND internal) drive to have 2 paritions for media (2x200gb Mac OS Extended journaled?) and 1 for Bootcamp (1x 65gb MS-DOS).

3. Open Disk Utility under "Restore" and go from the "BOOTCAMP" disc image and restore to the 65gb MS-DOS parition, enabling the erase content tab, as it has no content.

Should this work flawlessly to where the Windows OS i installed is still in tact?? Will it work to where startup disk (in system prefs) and option-key restart will still acknowledge this as my Windows BootCamp startup disk?

I'm sure this entices the response to "just go ahead and try it dude", but it's alot of time to have mis-spent if not only doesn't work, but i have to re-install windows all over again. My question would be as to if anyone has done this with success, with the method i descibed or another? Your input would be much appreciated.
 
Hmm.....

I was able to resize the partition just fine, but i'm unsure how you were expecting Disk Utility to make additional partitions without formatting the Boot Camp drive.....?

Also am still looking for those who have actually accomplished this scenario, beyond the theoretical ideas; feel free to chime in.....
 
gepetto33 said:
Hmm.....

I was able to resize the partition just fine, but i'm unsure how you were expecting Disk Utility to make additional partitions without formatting the Boot Camp drive.....?

Also am still looking for those who have actually accomplished this scenario, beyond the theoretical ideas; feel free to chime in.....
Click to expand...

If I understand you correctly, you now have resized your Boot Camp partition and have empty space on the drive. So you should just be able to create any additional partitions you want in Disk Utility.

Posting some screen shots of where you are could help...

B
 
gepetto33 said:
This is the screenshots for both the main drive (hitachi 500gb) highlighted and one for the Boot Camp volume. It says there's 22.41gb used and 1.64gb available, which i would assume it's acting as it's own partition. Nowhere do i see how the main drive (hitachi) can be partitioned separately from this volume...........
Click to expand...

OK. Can you now post what Windows thinks of your BOOTCAMP partition when it is booted to it?

The reported capacity and (used+available) are inconsistent, so something may be amiss. Either Windows didn't resize the partition, or it did it in such a way that Mac OS isn't interpreting it correctly.

Does the Windows 7 Disk Management snap-in also show a 500GB partition with only 1.64 GB free?

B
 
Indeed - when i went back into W7 Computer Management it still shows the Boot Camp Partition at 236.8gb, and 228.76gb free space. Initially, i tried to resize using the "Shrink" function in this utility, and was not able to shrink it's size beyond 236.8gb (that's way more than i need for Windows).

WinClone, in Snow Leopard is what i used to change that partition down to 24gb, as it didnt give me a choice in what size i wanted it to be. Either way, OSX doesn't recognize the re-size (shrink) within W7 Disk Management and vice-versa. What to do now......
 
gepetto33 said:
What to do now......
Click to expand...

You do have a backup, or two, right?

OS X sees a large partition, but reports usage and free space consistent with Winclone, while Windows doesn't see what Winclone thinks it did but still reports the partition's capacity as being smaller than OS X sees it.

I can't see any mention of if you are using 32 or 64 bit W7. If it's 32 I'd seriously consider making the new partition scheme of this HDD MBR if you don't intend to boot OS X off of it. It it's 64 it should have dealt better with the Mac's GPT/MBR system.

Next stop for me would be to boot off of the OS X install CD and try to verify and repair the drive. it looks like the partition table is messed up. But again. Only do so if you have a backup you are confident in!

EDIT:
If you want to decrease the size of your Windows partition, make sure that you set the preferences in Winclone to save the image as a uncompressed dmg. Create a clone of the Windows partition with Winclone, shrink the filesystem on the image by selecting Tools->Shrink Windows (NTFS) Filesystem..., remove the Windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant, create a smaller partition with Boot Camp Assistant, and then restore the image with Winclone.
Click to expand...

I don't think you went about this the way the Winclone developers were sugesting! Shrink should have been used on the image, not the real partition! You may still be able to recover this way though. Create an image with Winclone of the partition as it stands, delete all partitions on the disc and create an new FAT32 (MS-DOS) partition on it the size you want the new one to be, then restore the image to the new partition.

B
 
I didn't go about anything any particular way because i had only vague advice on what to do. What you're telling me to do now is the exact thing i originally suggested, using Winclone to save the image instead of Disk Utility! You do realize this, right? Re-read the original post if you need to.

My question still stands

gepetto33 said:
Should this work flawlessly to where the Windows OS i installed is still in tact?? Will it work to where startup disk (in system prefs) and option-key restart will still acknowledge this as my Windows BootCamp startup disk?
Click to expand...
 
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gepetto33 said:
SOLVED. Ipartition.
Click to expand...

As per the guide I referred you to in the first place. Plenty of ways to skin this cat which is why there's a guide!

Glad you managed to set it right.

B
 
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