Creating a new disk formatting scheme or altering an existing scheme
14
votes
8answers
32k views
Macbook Air + Lion + Windows 7 Boot Camp + shared partition
I would like to setup my Macbook Air's disk drive with 3 partitions - 50Gb for OSX Lion, 50Gb for Windows 7, and the remaining 150Gb for Data to share between both OSes (music, photos etc).
What's ...
11
votes
3answers
3k views
Is there a safe way to move the /Users folder to a separate volume/drive?
I have an SSD on the way and will be moving my HDD to the optical bay slot in my MBP. I want to boot from the SSD and store my /Users folder on the HDD. I've seen the way that everyone suggest ...
11
votes
2answers
5k views
9
votes
6answers
5k views
How can I use NTFS partitions in OS X?
My coworkers use NTFS partitions, and I can't share my data with them, as NTFS on Mac OS X is read-only.
How can I read and write onto NTFS partitions?
9
votes
3answers
19k views
How to resolve error: “Couldn't modify partition map because file system verification failed”?
I upgraded to Lion and decided I no longer want 100 GB of my drive devoted to Boot Camp, I never boot into Windows, I just use it as a VM anyways. So I deleted the boot camp partition using disk ...
9
votes
2answers
6k views
Is it possible to install and boot Windows on a Thunderbolt drive?
I know the BIOS emulation of the EFI firmware in Macs does not support booting from FireWire or USB drives, and the EFI version of Windows doesn't seem to be compatible with Apple's EFI ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Can you make OSX mount just certain partitions when you connect an external HDD?
I have an external HDD with 4 partitions.
My question is the following: is there a way of telling the OS to mount just two of them (One FAT and one HFS+) when I connect the HDD? It is rather annoying ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
Install 2 different OS X versions on the same machine/hdd
OK, here's my situation :
I am a developer needing to debug under different OS X versions
I currently own 2 macs : a MacBook Pro and an iMac
the iMac has Snow Leopard (10.6) on it - it came ...
6
votes
4answers
17k views
How to fix broken EFI partition?
I have an iMac running OSX Lion. I also installed bootcamp and Windows 7. During the install of Windows 7 I wasn't paying complete attention and deleted and formatted the EFI partition.
I didn't ...
6
votes
2answers
4k views
How do I resize OS X main partition when I already have other BootCamp partitions?
Short story: partition resizing using Disk Utility fails because MediaKit reports no such partition when I try to shrink it. I also tried the same while booting from the DVD, same result.
Details:
...
6
votes
4answers
3k views
How can I change the title of a boot image?
I have an external Hard Drive with two bootable partitions on it. The first is an image of a Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD, and the second is an image of a Mac OS X 10.6.3 Install DVD.
When I plug the ...
5
votes
3answers
423 views
Can the contents of a partition be recovered after partition table is overwritten?
I ran a command to make my external hdd bootable knowing that it was risky considering the command itself did not allow me to specify a partition to which to write. (In hindsight, I would now call ...
5
votes
2answers
557 views
Backup Mac OS partition to NTFS: are there any drawbacks?
I need to backup Mac data into our NTFS storage partition. Are there any issues/drawbacks I should consider?
5
votes
4answers
19k views
How can I resize a partition with Disk Utility?
I have 2 partitions, I reduced the size of one and want to expand the other to fill the now available space.
How do I expand the Lion Partition into the empty grey space beneath Macintosh HD ...
5
votes
3answers
8k views
Boot into Mac from Windows after failed Bootcamp
Don't hate on me too much for this one...
I put Win8 on my Mac Mini using Bootcamp, and all was well. I switched back and forth a couple times between the two with no problems. The problem started ...
5
votes
1answer
7k views
How do I format a disk partition from the command line on OS X?
How do I format a disk partition from the command line on Mac OS X?
In case someone wonders why: because for some people Disk Utility fails.
5
votes
1answer
2k views
My Windows 7 Boot Camp partition is missing. Why doesn't Parallels recognize it?
I installed Windows 7 on my (month-old) Macbook Pro using boot camp assistant. I basically used defaults throughout, so I don't think there's anything crazy about my setup.
Usually, after doing this, ...
4
votes
2answers
29k views
What is the 'Mac OS X Base System' disk image on my 2011 MacBook AIr?
On my 2011 MacBook Air with Mac OS X Lion, and I boot into Recovery mode via holding the command-R key during startup, if I go into Terminal and do a diskutil list, I get a list of 12(!) logical ...
4
votes
4answers
6k views
Why can't I resize my existing partition?
I just finished downloading my copy of Lion and wanted to install it on a new second partition. I freed up just over 50 GBs from my hard drive and am now stuck trying to shrink my existing partition. ...
4
votes
2answers
11k views
How do I change a disk partition map scheme from MBR to GUID Partitions Table?
I just finished the huge download of Mac OS X Lion, started the installer, and now I have a problem. The installer says that I must have the GUID-Partitions Table Scheme.
The problem is that when I ...
4
votes
1answer
743 views
Why does Disk Utility create EFI partitions on external disks?
A technical told me about the EFI partition that...
...it's only there in case your computer will do an EFI update so the update files can be loaded onto the EFI partition.
This is consistant with ...
4
votes
3answers
468 views
Triple boot (Lion, Win7, Ubuntu)
I currently have my MacBook Pro set up to dual boot OS X Lion and Windows 7. I am in the middle of a development project where I need to write some custom software that depends on proprietary drivers ...
4
votes
1answer
170 views
50% SSD Space lost issue on MBA
I have an MBA 2009, model A1304. The Hard drive system information says its an "Apple SSD SM128". But when I look at the available and total space, I have one partition 28.8GB (bootcamp) and one ...
3
votes
2answers
6k views
How can I convert a NTFS drive to HFS+ without having to move the data?
How can I convert a NTFS drive to HFS+ without having to move the data?
It is an external drive of 2TB and I don't want to spend too much time moving the data.
This is required in order to be able ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Is blessing the Ubuntu partition reversible in OS X?
I'm considering using Ubuntu as a main OS. So far, I've been using it in a dual boot setup with OS X. The dual boot worked by holding the ALT key upon boot (not rEFIt).
Blessing the Ubuntu Partition ...
3
votes
4answers
7k views
How can I mount partition disk0s4 that became inaccessible after a clean installation of Mountain Lion?
The hard drive on my MacBook Pro has two partitions. One with the OS and the other with data.
Yesterday, from a USB boot drive, I performed a clean installation of Mountain Lion to the OS drive. I ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Can I move Applications to another partition?
My Startup disk partition is just 20 GB and I'm running out of space.
What's the safe way to transfer Applications folder to the other partition?
Can I just move all apps into a folder on the other ...
3
votes
3answers
6k views
How do I delete a BootCamp partition using Terminal's diskutil?
For some reason, the BootCamp Assistant app won't let me delete my BootCamp partition. How can I do so using Terminal and the diskutil terminal app?
3
votes
1answer
205 views
Why can't I make the partition use the full 500 GB availiable?
I can't seem to make my Mac partition utilize the full 500 GB that I have available.
It only uses 243.47 GB.
It looks like my hard drive is somehow split into 2 sections:
Any ideas on how I can ...
3
votes
4answers
83 views
How to find where files reside on a partition
I'm trying to use Bootcamp to install a Windows partition. But it gives this error message.
I remember there was a program that let you see where all the files are on the partition and how much ...
3
votes
3answers
6k views
Deleting a partition in Disk Utility fails. (Error: -69879)
This is the output in Disk Utility:
Disk Utility cannot modify this disk because it contains CoreStorage
physical volumes. Use command line distil instead.
The selected partition won't be ...
3
votes
1answer
440 views
Presence of a Linux partition causes FileVault2 setup to fail
I'm currently dual booting Mountain Lion and Ubuntu 12.04 on a rMBP. Everything works fine, but enabling FileVault fails with the error message: "Some information was unavailable during an internal ...
3
votes
1answer
434 views
VMware Fusion virtual machine from a local partition
When you have a Windows partition on your system, VMware can see and boot a virtual machine from partition.
However, with other OS X and Linux partition, there's no such option. Is there a way to ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
“Not enough space” on partitioning?
I have a 320GB harddrive with 95GB free. I boot to a 10.5 disk, open disk utility, and add a 40GB partition. Halfway through the progress bar, though, it tells me that there's not enough space. I'm ...
3
votes
1answer
95 views
Erasing partition doesn't give me free diskspace
I'm using a Macbook Air and until today I had two partitions on it (not counting the restore partition). I had my OSX partition and an Ubuntu partition.
As I don't use Ubuntu anymore, I decided to ...
3
votes
1answer
801 views
Multiboot usb stick with Mountain Lion, Windows 7, lInux, Freebsd
Looking for way how to carry always an USB stick (16GB) what allow me live rescue boot for different OSes. Is possible manage multiboot USB stick with 3 or 4 operating systems:
Windows 7
Mountain ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Disk Utility says: “Error: This disk doesn't contain an EFI system partition.”
After a clean install of Lion, followed by partitioning which again was followed by a installation of Ubuntu, I noticed some error messages of Disk Utitity.
When verifying the volume I get told that ...
3
votes
1answer
155 views
What is the right way to maintain Time Machine backup history for a HDD with two partitions?
I have two user partitions (not counting any hidden/system ones like Lion Restore etc.) on my MacBook Pro's internal HDD: Volume_A (100 GB) and Volume_B (20 GB). My Time Capsule has been keeping ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Why won't disk utility let me remove a partition from my external hard drive?
I have an external 1.5 TB hard drive split evenly with a partition for backup and a partition that was used for Time Machine on my previous computer (OS X Lion).
Now I'm using this hard drive with a ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Why is the Mountain Lion Installer unable to complete due to recovery partition problems?
I just bought the Mountain Lion upgrade, but it's unable to complete. When I select my harddrive it says:
Some features of OS X Mountain Lion are not supported for the disk
“kollaps”.
...
2
votes
3answers
6k views
How long should Boot Camp formatting selecting drive take?
I'm trying to install Windows 7 using Boot Camp Assistant. Now the boot camp is on task "Formatting the selected drive" and it has been going on three hours and it is not even on the half way. How ...
2
votes
3answers
1k views
How do I merge System partition with another HFS+ partition without data loss?
My hard drive is split in three visible partitions: System, Data and Backup.
I'd like to merge System (OS X Lion) and Data into one partition without data loss.
Disk Utility won't let me resize the ...
2
votes
1answer
163 views
Partitions in Mac
Recently I got a Mac mini with OS X 10.7 installed. Right now it has one 500GB hard disk.
What I want to know is wheather we can partition the hard disk like on Windows. I would like to save my ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
Mountain Lion, EFI and Intel SSD Toolbox
Here's the problem:
I want to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on my (custom) Intel 520 SSD inside my iMac. The first time this SSD was setup, it was done by a certified Apple Retailer.
This ...
2
votes
1answer
629 views
How can I fix my GPT?
I just migrated from a 120 GB SSD drive to a 600 GB SSD drive. As I was lazy and didn't want to reinstall Mac OS X (Lion), I chose the following migration path:
I created at GPT on the 600 GB target ...
2
votes
1answer
283 views
Delete swap partition
I made a swap partition to install Ubuntu on my MacBook Air 2011, but now I want to clean all the partitions up. However, I can't delete the "swap partition" in Disk Utility. Can anyone help me?
2
votes
4answers
4k views
Unable to increase Macintosh HD partition size with data in a subsequent partition
I can't make my main Macintosh HD partition bigger. It's limited by the FAT partition in the middle, which seems to be frozen, I can't move it down to make space for my main partition.
To get some ...
2
votes
2answers
262 views
How to create third partition after Macintosh HD and Boot Camp partitions?
I have a mid 2009 MBP. I am going to install Boot Camp beside Snow Leopard.
I would like to have a third partition, DATA, and format it FAT32, where I will keep my data files easily and safely ...
2
votes
1answer
457 views
Dedicated SSD/HDD to install Windows on a MacBook
So I have a Late 2008 unibody MacBook. I recently bought a caddy to replace my optical drive with so I can fit a secondary drive in the laptop.
I have a 256 SSD in the main and a brand new 128 SSD to ...
2
votes
1answer
4k views
Add Home Folder Hard Drive to Favorites and Desktop
I just reinstalled my Mac, thinking I'd give OS X Mountain Lion a try.
In my system, I have both a regular HDD with a partition Storage and a SSD. On the SSD, I've installed OS X, and now transfered ...
