06-21-2009, 07:00 PM

Hey guys I had a question about the partitions on my aluminum macbook bought in late 08 (5,1?).

OK so originally I decided to install windows XP on a 20 GB parition using bootcamp - which worked perfectly. Last week I decided to remove the partition, now here's where I messed up. Instead of using bootcamp assitant to remove the partition, I used to disk utility to "erase" the partition and then converted the partition into HFS+.

So right now it looks like this -
The main partition:


The secondary partition:


Now there are 2 options:

1) "Merge" the partitions - from reading around I don't think this can be done easily

2) Reinstall windows on the 2nd partition - but when I enter bootcamp it says:

"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."

So is there any way to "merge" the partitions (without formatting/reinstalling). And if not, is there any way to install XP again via bootcamp?

Cheers.

06-24-2009, 06:04 PM

anyone?

06-24-2009, 11:03 PM

OK so the solution was painfully simple. I was half way there already, but I will outline the steps just in case anyone else wants to know.

1) Select the partition you want to remove
2) Press the "-" button at the bottom left. This should remove the partition but leave it "grayed out" as "empty space"
3) Then select the other partition (which you want to expand), and simply drag the lower right corner to fill the empty space left behind by the previously deleted partition
4) This does not erase any data. I performed verify disk and it said it needed to be repaired - just rebuild the partition tables using rEFIT.

06-24-2009, 11:21 PM

You shouldn't have had to rebuild the partition table. When you verified the disk and did a repair, it should have taken care of it. But I guess all is well that ends well.

rEFIt is a handy utility to have around. But next time, read the Boot Camp instructions....

Regards.

07-13-2012, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by dc2b18c

ok so the solution was painfully simple. I was half way there already, but i will outline the steps just in case anyone else wants to know.

1) select the partition you want to remove
2) press the "-" button at the bottom left. This should remove the partition but leave it "grayed out" as "empty space"
3) then select the other partition (which you want to expand), and simply drag the lower right corner to fill the empty space left behind by the previously deleted partition
4) this does not erase any data. I performed verify disk and it said it needed to be repaired - just rebuild the partition tables using refit.

thank you it worked for me!!!!!!!!!!