Resize HFS+ partition to get rid of old Ubuntu partition

[GilGrissom]

Some of you may remember before when I asked for help on how to resize my mac OS X partition none-destructively so I could install Ubuntu safely on another parition without reinstalling OS X. Well, that went all well and fine.

My problem now is that I want to reverse what I have done. I set aside around 8Gb of hard drive space for Ubuntu and now I seriously need it back! (100Gb just aint enough on a 12" PB!) I have deleted the partition of Ubuntu, as well as its swap area using the Ubuntu LIVE CD partitioner, so it comes up as around 8Gb "UNALLOCATED".

Now disk utility says its back up to a 90GB odd file (as its not truely 100Gb is it!) and says it cannot find any other partitions or lost space.

I have iPartition which shows me the unallocated space, but is unable to do anything about it...infact it cannot do ANYTHING on my powerbook hard drive for some reason. Sure it can do stuff on external drives, but not my main internal one!!...so what was the point of this program exactly?!

I'm currently using GNU "parted" off the Ubuntu Live CD. It doesnt see any unallocated space (but Gparted does, the GUI version that runs as part of the Ubuntu installer, but again is unable to do anything with it, even create a new partition there). I'm currently using parted to try and resize my partition back down by 1Gb and see what happens, see if putting a partition there again will do the trick, I'm not sure.

Anyone got any perls of wisdom?

 

[mad jew]

Can you boot from an external and run iPartition from there?

 

[GilGrissom]

Duh! I'd totally forgot about that!

I was a tad fear stricken with losing data on my OS X partition, which I almost did! I realised that resizing my partition down with parted was the wrong thing to do in parted as it said 90Gb, but it wasn't detecting the unallocated 10Gb space, so making it smaller to 89Gb that I was doing to try and trick it into seeing my other lost space (don't ask me how I came to that conclusion!) was totally wrong as I was reducing my already full mac os x partition by a further 1Gb!....ooo ouch!

It took several hours! lol! With me realising what I had done, sitting there bitting my nails as I couldn't stop it!...hoping I could boot up properly afterwards and still have my work, more importantly an assignment I'm currently working on!

But luckily I could boot up. I have a few casualties from the close shave, including some fonts, for some reason, and iTunes has lost its link to the music library, the library is still there, but it for some reason lost where it was!

But so far so good, nothing else lost I don't think!

I managed to create a boot disk using CDMaker that comes with iPartition and safely get my lost space back...phew!

Bit of a panic there!

Thanks MadJew for the splash of cold water there!

 

[GilGrissom]

Not so cleanly done!

As I use my Mac more and more today, I'm realising that there are more and more casualties to my little partitioning stunt. I cannot install any OS X updates (tried reinstalling 10.4.8 combo). A lot of my programs are malfunctioning or have huge chunks of themselves missing. My Office products moan about frameworks missing etc etc...I hate to think what possible personal work I have lost.

I've had to redownload a lot of programs, and still a lot dont work. I have scattered programs in my applications folder that have lost their own icon, instead use the Apple "Appliation" icon, if any at all. These will not open nor can I delete them.

I know a lot of this is because of my missunderstanding of it all, but any of you guys know of ways I can try and help repair my system? I've tried MacJanitor, repair disk permissions (inside OS X, not off CD yet), rebooting. Do I have to do an archive and install?...and will that even help?...will I have to do a total wipe and start from scratch?

My Mac is very much usable, which surprises me, but there is clear damage. Visible bruising and a few broken ribs from a very tight squeeze!

 

[mad jew]

If you've got a spare few hours and the ability to back everything up tightly, then I really think a reinstall is the way to go. Sometimes it's quicker in the long run to just bite the bullet and reinstall, no matter how much it's been drummed into us that it's not necessary on OSX. I'd go the whole reformat + install, too.

 

[GilGrissom]

Well as you may already know from this thread, it kinda all went wrong to say the least!

So it turns out I have had to do a complete format and start from scratch, not even an archive and install would work.

But I'm slowly getting back to where I was!...hunting down all those lost serials and programs again!

Thanks MadJew for the advice though, your pearls of wisdom appreciated as always!

Gil

 

[mad jew]

Ah that sucks mate. Good luck with it all.

 

[hugepark]

Instructions for restoring your Mac to its original state

my first post here, but wanted to share something helpful that i found after many hours/days of searching: pretty clear instructions on how to restore your mac hard drive to its original size (after you've tried out a linux dual/triple-boot and decided that you want to go back to one big HFS+ partition).

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_Boot_via_BootCamp#Restoring_your_Mac_to_its_original_state

i just did it without much trouble at all. the only problem i ran into (which others probably will not) is that initially boot camp assistant didn't want to launch for me because i had less than 10 GB of space free on my Mac HD (my total HD is only 60 GB, so after initially partitioning the Linux space, i didn't leave myself much room on the Mac side). other than that, everything went as documented above.

hope this helps someone out there.