Partition Problems

[jgbhardy]

My friend has recently tried to install Linux Ubuntu on his Macbook (i was at the same time) however the install didn't work, somehow it never actually installed it on the HDD. So we gave up and now when he went to go re-partition his HDD back into one for OS X, the disk utility app wont actually do anything and just hang there.
Any help would be great.
I myself had no problems with re-partitioning my HDD back to one.
Here is a screenshot of the Disk Utility window.
Any help on how to get this work would be great.

 

[silverblack]

Google for Gparted. Download, burn to CD and boot from it. It will allow to you delete and resize the partitions.

 

[SHIFTLife]

Try booting from the OS X CD and use the disk utility there. Delete the other partitions first, then expand the OS X partition.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Try booting from the OS X CD and use the disk utility there. Delete the other partitions first, then expand the OS X partition.

+1. If you plan on installing other OS's on your MacBook, it's easier to just use Boot Camp that way if you need to revert back to one partition, Boot Camp can do that for you as well, no hassle. (Boot Camp should work for other OS's and is not build specifically for Windows installations if I remember correctly)

 

[jgbhardy]

+1. If you plan on installing other OS's on your MacBook, it's easier to just use Boot Camp that way if you need to revert back to one partition, Boot Camp can do that for you as well, no hassle. (Boot Camp should work for other OS's and is not build specifically for Windows installations if I remember correctly)

He did originally use the bootcamp way of partitioning as you can see there is a partition labelled bootcamp. However when he went to go re-partition them bootcamp wouldn't work for it. Thats he then tried Disk Utility.
Thanks everyone else, I will pass on the info and see if it works.

 

[jgbhardy]

Still Nothing

We have tried the booting out of OS X option to try and re-partition it, but still nothing works it would just hang on preparing to move the volume.
Any other ways of solving this please?

 

[SHIFTLife]

We have tried the booting out of OS X option to try and re-partition it, but still nothing works it would just hang on preparing to move the volume.
Any other ways of solving this please?

Just out of curiosity, how long are you waiting before deciding to give up? When I repartitioned my drive after boot camp, it took a good 15 minutes to prepare to move the volume, but it eventually worked.

 

[jgbhardy]

Just out of curiosity, how long are you waiting before deciding to give up? When I repartitioned my drive after boot camp, it took a good 15 minutes to prepare to move the volume, but it eventually worked.

We left it to do it overnight so its not us being impatient. I've considered trying to re-partition from the linux install CD.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Weird. Something is very wrong. Creating/removing a partition isn't a difficult task and it doesn't require the computer to complex things to your HDD to do so. Running Boot Camp Assistant and re-partitioning the drive results in the same error when trying to remove the same partition in Disk Utility (off the install disc?) Maybe something happened when installing Linux? I'm out of ideas (shouldn't be any problems removing a partition). The only thing I can suggest is to backup all your files and then erase the whole HDD and start again unless someone has any other ideas?

(Try repairing disk/permissions and try again, though I doubt that will do anything...)

EDIT:
1. Boot off install DVD
2. Utilities>Disk Utility
3. Select HDD with the partition (don't select the partition itself)
4. Click on the Boot Camp or partition you want to remove and then click delete or the "-" button.
5. You should be able to increase the OS X partition by dragging the line down
6. Click on "Partition" to complete the process

Again, all of this should be done outside of the OS, off the install DVD.