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littlevish

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 18, 2007
92
0
I had Ubuntu installed on my Macbook and I decided I no longer want it because I never use it.

So I erased the Ubuntu partition and the swap partition with disk utility. So they now contain no data and show up on my desktop as Mac drives. But I want to completely delete these partitions and merge them back with the OS X partition.

When I try to delete them on Disk Utility, the Swap partition appears to have been deleted. But if I close Disk Utility and re-open it, the partition is not actually gone. The Ubuntu partition just hangs at "Preparing to remove partition" and never does anything.

Any help? I would really prefer to avoid the command line. I am familiar with the command line but I don't feel safe using it on something like this...don't want to type something wrong and wipe the hard drive.
 
That is strange. I have to ask, have you restarted your machine since then? Verify & Repair permissions? That sort of thing?
 
I had Ubuntu installed on my Macbook and I decided I no longer want it because I never use it.

So I erased the Ubuntu partition and the swap partition with disk utility. So they now contain no data and show up on my desktop as Mac drives. But I want to completely delete these partitions and merge them back with the OS X partition.

When I try to delete them on Disk Utility, the Swap partition appears to have been deleted. But if I close Disk Utility and re-open it, the partition is not actually gone. The Ubuntu partition just hangs at "Preparing to remove partition" and never does anything.

Any help? I would really prefer to avoid the command line. I am familiar with the command line but I don't feel safe using it on something like this...don't want to type something wrong and wipe the hard drive.
Hey,
I'll have exactly the same problem i also keep getting "Preparing to remove partition"
 
I also had this problem, but it was easily fixed

First you will want to wright down some information about your disks and partitions (size,disk identifier,format,etc.) on a piece of paper or something. then you will need to have a live ubuntu Cd. boot from the ubunto cd go to the disk partitioner then look for your partition according to what you wrote down (its not that hard to find) just remember that its is most likely not the first two or possibly three partitions. in my case it has been the fifth partition twice. If you delete it using ubuntu it will leave it as un-partitioned space and you can just adjust you mac partition through disk utility later, although after i did this i had to repair my mac partition, i dont know why though? it was easy either way so there you go =]
 
Sorry to rebirth an old thread - But I have the same problem as above.. I have no linux experience. Ive been in the same situation with a PC and the result wasnt pretty.. Anyways.

Could I simply restore my HDD from a time machine backup?
So basically boot from my Snow Leopard DVD.
Choose to restore from the Time Machine backup
And format the HDD etc..?
 
Sorry to rebirth an old thread - But I have the same problem as above.. I have no linux experience. Ive been in the same situation with a PC and the result wasnt pretty.. Anyways.

Could I simply restore my HDD from a time machine backup?
So basically boot from my Snow Leopard DVD.
Choose to restore from the Time Machine backup
And format the HDD etc..?

Don't think so. That doesn't save partition information.

My guess is that the problem is that the drive is in use by OSX. Just use the Ubuntu DVD to boot into Ubuntu in Live mode (no HDD install) and then open up the partition editor and delete the old Ubuntu partition. NOT your OSX partition.

Above someone said that then you'll be able to expand your OSX partition from OSX.

Another similar solution would be to boot with the OSX install disk and do the same thing. I'm pretty sure that they let you boot Disk Utility off of the DVD.
 
In disk utility, select both the ubuntu partition, and the swap partition (Command + Click on each so both are selected), then delete the partitions together. After this is complete, grab the right bottom corner of your Macintosh HD partition, and drag it down until it fills the empty space. Click apply and your done.
 
I set up a partition to use Ubuntu a few weeks ago and have not touched it since. Decided to get rid of it so deleted VMware fusion (trial) and Ubuntu then went in to Disk Utility ........ and nothing there! No partition! Anyone know why? Did I not create it properly in the first place?

Just curious!

lenb
 
I set up a partition to use Ubuntu a few weeks ago and have not touched it since. Decided to get rid of it so deleted VMware fusion (trial) and Ubuntu then went in to Disk Utility ........ and nothing there! No partition! Anyone know why? Did I not create it properly in the first place?

Just curious!

lenb

VMWare doesn't create a partition for you. It's a virtual drive in a folder on your computer.
 
Since I used google and this thread was on the top results I considered to reply with my solution :

Boot with Ubuntu live CD, run Gparted and delete Ubuntu's partition and swap. Then boot back into Mac os x and run bootcamp twice. The first time assign any amount of disk you want for a Windows installation, quit bootcamp and open it again to revert the partition. You will notice that the second time around, bootcamp offers to use the full disk for Mac os x. :cool:

That's all and sorry for resurrecting the thread.
 
Another thread resurrection!

So, to install OS X Lion today, I had to remove my windows XP partition. I decided that I'd give the latest Ubuntu a shot on my iMac instead of going back to XP. It installed just fine but when I restarted, it replaced the boot loader of mac with the grub boot loader (instead of holding down option to load a different partition, it would make you select every time the computer starts up). I found that to be annoying but figured I could deal with it until I figured how to change it.

This is where the trouble starts. I didn't see any options to change the boot loader in Ubuntu so I tried to switch back to OS X but it wouldn't load, it just gave me a black screen. I started freaking out because I haven't gotten around to setting up time machine (a year and a half after getting this iMac. I know, I'm lazy) and I didn't want to lose all of my files and pictures. Also, I didn't need to listen to my wife complain about breaking the computer and she was getting off work in 2 hours (oh no!).

I rummaged around in my closet and found the snow leopard disc that came with the iMac and tried to boot from that but it just went back to that damn grub loader. I noticed on the disc that it says to hold down c, so I tried that and it worked! Thank goodness! So, I was able to repair my OS X partition with disk utility and reselect it as the start up disk.

Then I had 3 partitions from Ubuntu that I didn't particularly want cluttering up my hard drive. Problem is that they wouldn't delete in disk utility and boot camp assistant didn't want to have anything to do with them. Also, I couldn't seem to get Ubuntu to load from the disc to use that disc utility.

All this is just to point out that steve-m is correct:
In disk utility, select both the ubuntu partition, and the swap partition (Command + Click on each so both are selected), then delete the partitions together. After this is complete, grab the right bottom corner of your Macintosh HD partition, and drag it down until it fills the empty space. Click apply and your done.

To delete them, I had to select them all at once.

So, thanks steve.
 
hehe another thread resurrection

Okay here is my problem, I was able to delete the partition and when I went to disk utility I was able to make my macintosh hd the only partitioned volume on my hard drive, now when I go back to Boot Camp to try to partition my hard drive to install linux again, it doesn't work.... boot camp tells me that is must be restored to a single partition, but I already did that? What do I do now?
 
hehe another thread resurrection

Okay here is my problem, I was able to delete the partition and when I went to disk utility I was able to make my macintosh hd the only partitioned volume on my hard drive, now when I go back to Boot Camp to try to partition my hard drive to install linux again, it doesn't work.... boot camp tells me that is must be restored to a single partition, but I already did that? What do I do now?

I've never tried installing Linux on a Mac, but see if you can boot off of an Ubuntu (or other Debian) Live CD. If so, run GPARTED, and delete the partitions from there.
 
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