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Question / Recombining Split Partitions

S

sbattisti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
10
0
Hi folks,

Some time ago, I split my Mac into two partitions so that I could run both Leopard and Panther for various testing reasons. To do so, I needed some technical help. However, I'm at the point now where I no longer need the Panther partition.

How can I recombine this into a single partition, preferably without messing up my Leopard installation and associated files?

Thanks!

Steve
 
pick up a copy of iPartition, that will combine the partitions. You'd need to delete the unwanted one and then reclaim the space, but it will leave your leopard partition intact.
 
Use Disk Utility, its free and does the job nicely.

All you have to do is select the Panther partition and click on the "-". This will leave your Leopard partition and delete the Panther partition.
Re-size your Leopard partition by dragging the slider on the bottom right of your Leopard partition and apply.
 
Thanks guys, I'll give this a whirl! Probably tackle it with Disk Utility unless I hear otherwise.
 
OK, I'm getting around to giving this a try, but my version of Disk Utility has no "-" signs anywhere.

There is an "Erase" tab with a number of different options, like "Erase," "Erase Free Space" and "Security Options".

If I select "Erase" it gives me a chance to back out, saying "Erasing a volume will destroy all information on the volume. It will not erase information on other volumes on the same disk. Are you sure blah blah?"

Is this the option I want?

Steve
 
I think you'll have to boot off either Leopard or Snow Leopard Install DVD and then run the Disk Utility on it. Why? Because if you're booted off the same HD you want to do this stuff on, Disk Utility won't let you do that for safety reasons.
 
Alright, booted from the Mac OS X disk, but the same question remains:

Do I select the "erase" option? I don't want to just wipe the partition, I want the entire partition to go away and be added to my Leopard (main) partition...

Still a little confused about how to handle this with Disk Utility!

Thanks,

Steve
 
sbattisti said:
Do I select the "erase" option? I don't want to just wipe the partition, I want the entire partition to go away and be added to my Leopard (main) partition...
Click to expand...

Been a while and I'm not near my Mac so I can't test this right now, but I'm pretty sure erase just wipes data within the selected partition but leaves the partition in place.

What you seek looks like this:

http://macs.about.com/od/applications/ss/diskutilitysize_5.htm

Basically, you select the partition to delete then click on the - (minus) icon.
 
That's what I suspect too. However, when I'm in Disk Utility, I don't have that "Partition" tab in the screenshot on the page you linked to. I just have the other four: First Aid, Erase, RAID, and Restore.

Very strange...

Any further suggestions?

Steve
 
Hmm. Can you double check to ensure you're booted off the OS DVD?

Hold down the 'c' key at power-on if necessary.

The only time I saw what you're describing was when I was running Disk Utility off the hard drive. Booting off the DVD -- problem solved.

If it's not that, then, hmm, some additional thinking will be needed.
 
OK, duh.

Apparently, the partition tab only appears if you select the hard drive, and not the individual partitions. I kept clicking on my partition, and wondering why I couldn't get my screen to look like the ones in the link you sent.

I believe I am good to go! (I just deleted the partition, rebooting and checking things now...)

Thanks!

Steve
 
Well, half and half success. The second partition is gone, and everything boots fine, and my data looks good, but the extra space wasn't claimed by my main partition, so I basically have 30 GB of free space floating out there in nothingness. It didn't seem like Disk Utility was capable of handling it, but at the time I was logged into the OS. So, rebooting to the CD again to see if that will help...

Steve
 
In Disk Utility, you may need to drag the main partition's lower edge downwards to the end of the drive, so that it covers the free space and then possibly save the setup?
 
electroshock said:
In Disk Utility, you may need to drag the main partition's lower edge downwards to the end of the drive, so that it covers the free space and then possibly save the setup?
Click to expand...

Apparently, the problem is that my remaining partition is the SECOND partition on the drive, and I guess you can't move the starting position of the second partition??
 
sbattisti said:
Apparently, the problem is that my remaining partition is the SECOND partition on the drive, and I guess you can't move the starting position of the second partition??
Click to expand...

Ooh... that could be problematic, but not likely insurmountable with a little work.

First, need a clear picture. The original first partition is what you just nuked, correct? And now you have the 'second' (remaining) MacOS X HFS+ partition?

IF that's the case, I'm thinking maybe you could hook up an external drive (whether USB 2.0 or FW-based) temporarily that's of at least the size of your existing MacOS X partition... then use either CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) or SuperDuper! -- both no cost to use -- to create a bootable clone of your existing data.

Then you'd hold down the Alt key at power-on, select the external drive, and try a boot to ensure it boots OK. If it does, then shut down the system, boot off the DVD, run Disk Utility, and delete the second (OS X) partition then recreate a new journaled HFS+ partition that covers the space of both partitions.

Then boot back into the external drive and use CCC or SD! to clone data back to the internal drive. Afterwards, boot off the internal drive.

It's a bit of time and work, but may get the job done. I don't think Disk Utility can handle reclaiming space from before the OS X partition, only afterwards.
 
electroshock said:
First, need a clear picture. The original first partition is what you just nuked, correct? And now you have the 'second' (remaining) MacOS X HFS+ partition?
Click to expand...

Yes, although I don't know what "X HFS" means. :) But yes, there's a 23 GB of free space at the beginning of the disk now, followed by 57 GB partition with Leopard on it.

Honestly, I don't have a huge volume of data or applications on this machine, so I'm rapidly approaching the point where I might as well just install a fresh copy of OS X. :)
 
sbattisti said:
Honestly, I don't have a huge volume of data or applications on this machine, so I'm rapidly approaching the point where I might as well just install a fresh copy of OS X. :)
Click to expand...

Here's an idea.

With your Leopard setup, just make sure you have a good Time Machine backup to an external hard drive. Any old external hard drive as long as it's USB 2.0 or Firewire-based, and is at least the size of your existing Leopard partition.

Then pop in the Leopard DVD, boot off it, run Disk Utility. Delete the second partition and recreate as a single partition that spans the entire disk. Then run the Leopard installer (while booted off the DVD).

The key trick here is to tell the installer to restore FROM a time machine backup! That will essentially restore your entire Leopard setup to the way it was... but on a larger partition.

Doing it this way will give you the least amount of headache if you'd like to preserve your current Leopard environment.

But if you really honestly have nothing important on the existing Leopard partition, then you have nothing to lose by just simply doing a fresh reinstallation of Leopard after adjusting partitions via Disk Utility when booted off the Leopard DVD.
 
I'll restate my original recommendation.

Go and buy iPartition. It works great and can non-destructively move, resize your partitions.

I hope you have a current backup because playing with partitions can be a little risky.
 
RE:
"Apparently, the problem is that my remaining partition is the SECOND partition on the drive, and I guess you can't move the starting position of the second partition??"
Don't "move" the position of the partition. Rather, move the data!

Why not do this (in exact order):
1. Use Carbon Copy Cloner (or SuperDuper) to clone the second partition to the first one.
2. You will now have the same system files and data on BOTH partitions.
3. Boot up from the FIRST partition to make sure it is good. Inspect all your files to MAKE SURE they are good.
4. Now, make sure you are booted from the FIRST partition. Open Disk Utility and choose to delete the SECOND partition.

Actually, before I'd completely delete the second partition, I'd just "resize it down" to about 20+ gig. Then I'd install a clean copy of the OS onto that mini-partition and just LEAVE IT THERE. You never know when you might need to boot from a source OTHER THAN your "main" partition - if only to do disk maintenence (i.e., run Disk Utility to "repair disk") that you can't do while booted up from your main system.
 
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