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Can't partition MacBook Pro

M

.macbookpro.

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 31, 2012
181
2
london
So this is the story.(using mountain lion, specs in signature)
I installed windows 8 through bootcamp, however the drivers for the sound and the display weren't working. So I deleted the windows partition, using disk utility and left it as free space. I know I should have done it through boot camp assistant, but I didn't and I read that if you re-format it as ms-dos bootcamp thinks its a windows partition and you can delete it from there.
Then the interesting part. I open disk utility, select the 40gb partition which is free space, try to format it as ms-dos, but it gets stuck on preparing to partition disk. I have left it for hours, still hasn't done anything. Then I try to format it as Mac OS journaled, doesn't work, same thing. I reset the PRAM, doesn't work. Now, when I boot up it goes to the windows recovery partition, even though I have the windows partition as free space.
I don't mind having to format my whole disk, but I can't figure out if it will install a recovery partition, and how I go about doing that.
Thanks for the future help
 
What the hell is a ms-dos partition.:rolleyes:

Kidding aside, you should try to resize your partition where OS X resides, that might do the trick.

BootCamp Assistant is not really needed for installing Windows, it is also not needed to "uninstall, all BootCamp Assistant does is using processes from for instance disk utility to do it's job.
It's an app for dummies, I installed windows without touching BootCamp Assistant.
 
justperry said:
What the hell is a ms-dos partition.:rolleyes:

Kidding aside, you should try to resize your partition where OS X resides, that might do the trick.

BootCamp Assistant is not really needed for installing Windows, it is also not needed to "uninstall, all BootCamp Assistant does is using processes from for instance disk utility to do it's job.
It's an app for dummies, I installed windows without touching BootCamp Assistant.
Click to expand...

I can only make it smaller, not any bigger
Untitled.jpg
 
.macbookpro. said:
I don't know what that partition is. I think its the recovery hd, but i thought it was bigger
Click to expand...

Sorry, it is only 100+ MB, forgot to look at it, it's likely the EFI partition, you don't seem to have a recovery HD, don't see it in the screenshot.

I don't see the problem here, you have one part ion, that's what you wanted or do you need a new windows partition.
 
justperry said:
Sorry, it is only 100+ MB, forgot to look at it, it's likely the EFI partition, you don't seem to have a recovery HD, don't see it in the screenshot.

I don't see the problem here, you have one part ion, that's what you wanted or do you need a new windows partition.
Click to expand...

the free space at the bottom, I am unable to format
 
.macbookpro. said:
the free space at the bottom, I am unable to format
Click to expand...

There is no free space partition, you have two partitions, one EFI and your Macintosh HD with OS X.

But, if you want to create an extra partition for installing windows onto you need to hit the + button under the Partition settings, that should do the trick.
 
justperry said:
There is no free space partition, you have two partitions, one EFI and your Macintosh HD with OS X.

But, if you want to create an extra partition for installing windows onto you need to hit the + button under the Partition settings, that should do the trick.
Click to expand...

there is a box underneath disk0s4.
It used to be my windows partition, I want to delete it and have 40gb more in macintosh hd
Untitled.jpg
 
Last edited:
.macbookpro. said:
there is a box underneath disk0s4.
It used to be my windows partition, I want to delete it and have 40gb more in macintosh hd
View attachment 409853
Click to expand...

There might be a way but it is most likely dangerous for your data so my guess is to completely start over again.

Your best option is to backup everything and reformat the whole disk, then import everything again.
Easiest way is to clone the Macintosh HD with Carbon Copy Cloner, partition, then startup from cloned disk and use CCC again to restore the drive.

Edit: since you don't have a Recovery HD this is all you can do, if you had it could have been done by using Disk Utility from the Recovery HD.
 
justperry said:
There might be a way but it is most likely dangerous for your data so my guess is to completely start over again.

Your best option is to backup everything and reformat the whole disk, then import everything again.
Easiest way is to clone the Macintosh HD with Carbon Copy Cloner, partition, then startup from cloned disk and use CCC again to restore the drive.

Edit: since you don't have a Recovery HD this is all you can do, if you had it could have been done by using Disk Utility from the Recovery HD.
Click to expand...

I do have a recovery hd, I have booted into it many times.
I think you cannot see it to stop people deleting it
 
.macbookpro. said:
I do have a recovery hd, I have booted into it many times.
I think you cannot see it to stop people deleting it
Click to expand...

If that is the case yours should show up in Disk Utility, it clearly shows invisible disks like disk0s4, so it should show up.
See my screenshot, mine is clearly visible.
Don't mix up internet recovery and Recovery, they are different.
 

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justperry said:
If that is the case yours should show up in Disk Utility, it clearly shows invisible disks like disk0s4, so it should show up.
See my screenshot, mine is clearly visible.
Don't mix up internet recovery and Recovery, they are different.
Click to expand...

Is this the one where you hold down command-r?
 
justperry said:
Yes it is!
You can also see it's about 650 MB, that is the normal size for recovery HD.

Command-R is Recovery
Command-Option-R is internet Recovery
Click to expand...

then I do have it. I did this only today, to get into disk utility
Doing diskutil list, it says its a microsoft recovery.
There is no mention of a 40gb drive, which is how much free space i have.
 
Last edited:
.macbookpro. said:
then I do have it. I did this only today, to get into disk utility
Click to expand...

I am really confused now, how can it be that your EFI partition is showing up but not your Recovery HD????
Both are invisible disks.
Do you have the debug Menu enabled in Disk Utility, I have and there is an option to show ALL disks, but it still does not make sense.

But, whatever, if it starts up in recovery there is no debating whether or not you have it, you do.

If you enable the debug menu in DU you might be able to partition it, if the menu is enabled you can then show all partitions, when you select it on the left you might be able to format that volume.

Edit:To enable debug menu open terminal and paste this command in it and hit enter.

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
 
I solved it. For anyone interested, I erased the microsoft recovery partition, using the erase tab, then on the partition tab i minused the disk0s4, then i just had free space left. Then i could drag the macintosh Hd partition and made it take up all of the space
Thanks for the help!
 
.macbookpro. said:
I solved it. For anyone interested, I erased the microsoft recovery partition, using the erase tab, then on the partition tab i minused the disk0s4, then i just had free space left. Then i could drag the macintosh Hd partition and made it take up all of the space
Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Did you erase the EFI partition?
Isn't that needed by the OS?
Hope a restart won't get you into trouble.

Good it is solved though.
 
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