Disk Utility-Deleting Linux Partitions

[msthespy7]

Hey guys, so today, I tried deleting some linux partitions on my MBP to free up some space. Sounds easy enough right? Well, the - sign which lets you delete a partition couldn't be pressed. So in Disk Utility, I erased the linux partition and from the dropdown menu, selected Mac os journaled instead of MS DOS FAT because i figured it would let me remove it. Well, instead it decided to get rid of the other three linux partitions, and combine them into the one i just DELETED and give it 250 gb or so of memory. While it gave my mac parytition 132 gb or so, and in the picture below, it also said it had 132 free, indicating that my mac is empty, yet, my mac files seem to be fine. However, I havnt restarted my computer yet, and I'm afraid if I do it will delete my files. Any suggestions?

Image to be added

 

[simsaladimbamba]

How to attach an image to your MR post.​

What if you only have one partition, while the second partition is greyed out and you drag the white partition to the bottom?

 

[msthespy7]

How to attach an image to your MR post.​

What if you only have one partition, while the second partition is greyed out and you drag the white partition to the bottom?

Not sure what you mean, image below of my view in disk utility.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Not sure what you mean, image below of my view in disk utility.

Image

Ah, your Mac OS X partition is at the end of the HDD.
If you want to combine the Mac OS X partition with the big "DISK0S1" partition, you need to use an external HDD, properly formatted*, to clone your current Mac OS X partition to, boot from that external HDD, open Disk Utility, format the internal HDD properly*, and then clone the now external Mac OS X partition back.
You can use CarbonCopyCloner for cloning.

*

How to format a new HDD/SSD to install Mac OS X or make a bootable copy onto​

instead it decided to get rid of the other three linux partitions, and combine them into the one i just DELETED and give it 250 gb or so of memory.

Btw, "memory" is not the same as "hard drive capacity":

• What is Computer Memory? RAM vs Hard Drive
• RAM vs. Hard Disk

It is recommended, to have 10 to 20 % of the HDD's capacity unused.

 

[msthespy7]

Ah, your Mac OS X partition is at the end of the HDD.
If you want to combine the Mac OS X partition with the big "DISK0S1" partition, you need to use an external HDD, properly formatted*, to clone your current Mac OS X partition to, boot from that external HDD, open Disk Utility, format the internal HDD properly*, and then clone the now external Mac OS X partition back.
You can use CarbonCopyCloner for cloning.

*

How to format a new HDD/SSD to install Mac OS X or make a bootable copy onto​

Btw, "memory" is not the same as "hard drive capacity":

• What is Computer Memory? RAM vs Hard Drive
• RAM vs. Hard Disk

It is recommended, to have 10 to 20 % of the HDD's capacity unused.

Thank you. But did it delete my mac? Why did it give the partitions more gb than my HD has!!?? Is there any other fix? I just want to get rid of the goddamn partition that isnt my mac. ANY OTHER FIX-I probably dont have access to an external drive.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thank you. But did it delete my mac? Why did it give the partitions more gb than my HD has!!?? Is there any other fix? I just want to get rid of the goddamn partition that isnt my mac. ANY OTHER FIX-I probably dont have access to an external drive.

No, it not delete "your mac", meaning your Mac OS X partition is still intact, as you currently use it to make the screenshots and used Disk Utility to delete one/three partition(s).
If you want to get rid of the partition, "that isn't your Mac", meaning the partition titled "DISK0S1", I guess you want to combine that partition with the "Marc's Mac" partition (which houses "your mac", meaning the Mac OS X partition).
If you want to do that, you need an external HDD.

Don't you make backups?

 

[msthespy7]

No, it not delete "your mac", meaning your Mac OS X partition is still intact, as you currently use it to make the screenshots and used Disk Utility to delete one/three partition(s).
If you want to get rid of the partition, "that isn't your Mac", meaning the partition titled "DISK0S1", I guess you want to combine that partition with the "Marc's Mac" partition (which houses "your mac", meaning the Mac OS X partition).
If you want to do that, you need an external HDD.

Don't you make backups?

Nope. :trollface:

Now, could I have solved this problem without an external HD if I hadn't have erased that partition?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Nope. :trollface:

Now, could I have solved this problem without an external HD if I hadn't have erased that partition?

I don't know how it looked earlier, but I guess not, as the Mac OS X partition is at the end of the HDD. It normally is at the beginning of the HDD.

If you want to combine the two partitions, as mentioned before, you need an external HDD. Do you want to combine them?

Can you spend money for an external HDD?

 

[msthespy7]

I don't know how it looked earlier, but I guess not, as the Mac OS X partition is at the end of the HDD. It normally is at the beginning of the HDD.

If you want to combine the two partitions, as mentioned before, you need an external HDD. Do you want to combine them?

Can you spend money for an external HDD?

I dunno... 138 gb used

 

[msthespy7]

Well, I restarted my mac to find that, unlike what you said, Macintosh HD was deleted.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Well, I restarted my mac to find that, unlike what you said, Macintosh HD was deleted.

Then you probably have done something wrong. I formatted and partitioned several dozens of HDDs several times in my life (at least a hundred times), and I could never delete my boot volume, the one I am using Mac OS X on and use Disk Utility with.

You have ****ed up your Mac before all this. You somehow installed several Linux distributions, which somehow made the Mac OS X partition end up at the end of the HDD (which still confuses me, unless you put it there after you installed Linux) and then you have deleted the partitions and ended up with one. You obviously ****ed up the partition map scheme.

But since you don't have a backup, clever for a guy having three Linux partitions (and probably three distributions as well) and one Mac OS X partition on the same, you are now royally ****ed.

Or not.

Since you may be proficient with Linux, have you tried gParted yet? It can repair your partition table, if that is the cause of your troubles.

If that ain't the cause, your data is still on the HDD (which you might know), thus you should stop any reformatting or erasing steps with that HDD.

Try gParted and see, if that helps.

If you don't want to do this, then that is okay too. I am not here to help you. And you are obviously not here to help yourself too, as you didn't provide enough information, even when repeatedly asked.

 

[msthespy7]

Then you probably have done something wrong. I formatted and partitioned several dozens of HDDs several times in my life (at least a hundred times), and I could never delete my boot volume, the one I am using Mac OS X on and use Disk Utility with.

You have ****ed up your Mac before all this. You somehow installed several Linux distributions, which somehow made the Mac OS X partition end up at the end of the HDD (which still confuses me, unless you put it there after you installed Linux) and then you have deleted the partitions and ended up with one. You obviously ****ed up the partition map scheme.

But since you don't have a backup, clever for a guy having three Linux partitions (and probably three distributions as well) and one Mac OS X partition on the same, you are now royally ****ed.

Or not.

Since you may be proficient with Linux, have you tried gParted yet? It can repair your partition table, if that is the cause of your troubles.

If that ain't the cause, your data is still on the HDD (which you might know), thus you should stop any reformatting or erasing steps with that HDD.

Try gParted and see, if that helps.

If you don't want to do this, then that is okay too. I am not here to help you. And you are obviously not here to help yourself too, as you didn't provide enough information, even when repeatedly asked.

Three distributions of linux? Have you ever heard of a SWAP partition? and by the way, it was ****ed as soon as I installed linux. It doesnt like to work with mac, and bumped OSX to the back of the disk. The whole disk was messed up in the first place, so the whole situation was lose-lose.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Three distributions of linux? Have you ever heard of a SWAP partition? and by the way, it was ****ed as soon as I installed linux. It doesnt like to work with mac, and bumped OSX to the back of the disk. The whole disk was messed up in the first place, so the whole situation was lose-lose.

Yes, I have heard of "swap disk", I used it myself in Windows, but I used an extra HDD for this, as I don't see a need for an extra swap volume, if the swapping happens on the same HDD. There is no speed gain doing this, at least in my experience.
I also use several applications, that use "scratch disks", which is similar to a "swap disk", but again, using the same physical HDD the application or system is running on for a "scratch disk" is not brining any performance gains.

You mentioned three Linux partitions, thus my though, you would have tried three different distributions. My bad.

Since I seem to be a bit older than you, though I sometimes can be mean as a child, I learned from my experiences with tinkering with the OS and multi-boot systems, that a backup is necessary.
And Mac OS X makes having a backup more than easy, as one can use an external HDD, even a small one, clone the working Mac OS X onto it, or install Mac OS X onto it, and have a troubleshooting drive.
That wasn't that easy in Windows.

Have a good day, and I hope you learned your lesson about backing up. If not, there is plenty of room on the Darwin tree.

 

[MisterShepard]

@ simsaladimbamba

Apologies to the OP for not engaging in his problem at all, but I have a question for sims on a similar topic.

I am also having an issue with my MBP after dabbling in Linux at the behest of a friend. I struggled for about two weeks to force my MBP to create a hybrid MBR so that I could get Ubuntu on there.
It hasn't taken me long to realise that Ubuntu wasn't everything my friend inflated it to be, and now I've decided I don't want it there anymore.

My question is: how do I COMPLETELY reformat my HDD, to get it back to the way Apple made it when I bought it?
Edit: I've just realised that if I "delete" the ENTIRE drive, I can get rid of my partitions, and disk utility said almost exactly what I wanted it to: "rewriting partition table" (or similar).

So, my REAL question now is: how can I be entirely sure that my hybrid MBR is gone and is back to the way God (I mean Apple) meant it to be?

Thanking you (very much) in advance,
Mr Shepard

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Apologies to the OP for not engaging in his problem at all, but I have a question for sims on a similar topic.

I am also having an issue with my MBP after dabbling in Linux at the behest of a friend. I struggled for about two weeks to force my MBP to create a hybrid MBR so that I could get Ubuntu on there.
It hasn't taken me long to realise that Ubuntu wasn't everything my friend inflated it to be, and now I've decided I don't want it there anymore.

My question is: how do I COMPLETELY reformat my HDD, to get it back to the way Apple made it when I bought it?
Edit: I've just realised that if I "delete" the ENTIRE drive, I can get rid of my partitions, and disk utility said almost exactly what I wanted it to: "rewriting partition table" (or similar).

So, my REAL question now is: how can I be entirely sure that my hybrid MBR is gone and is back to the way God (I mean Apple) meant it to be?

Thanking you (very much) in advance,
Mr Shepard

How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)​

Guide on how to use Disk Utility from the restore / installation DVD.​

But if your Mac came with a Lion Recovery partition, it will be gone to, thus make sure to make a backup via the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant.

Lion Recovery Disk Assistant​