I messed up my HDD partitions. How do I make it whole again?

Hi, I recently (obviously) got the new Macbook Aluminum with the 2.4 Ghz processor and the 250GB HDD. For work related reasons and for tinkering, I wanted to try a triple boot. Since Bootcamp would only let me make 2 partitions instead of 3 or 4, I only made 2. Then I loaded an Ubuntu 8.10 CD to use its partition editor to split the 2 partition up.

I realized that these partitions are too big and I want a do-over. I restarted in Mac and tried both Disk Utility and Bootcamp. Bootcamp won't let me make the Hard Drive whole again, while Disk Utility sees the partitions, it won't let me mount them. It asks to try "First Aid" but that really doesn't do anything.

This is what I see in Disk Utility:
231.9 GB FUJITSU ....
- Macintosh HD
- disk0s3
- disk0s4
- Linux Swap

All my files and stuff are backed up and I'm okay with a total reformat of the hard drive. I tried booting from the OS X Install DVD but it only recognized the Macintosh HD. I was considering reformatting at that point, but it would have only reformatted the partition for Macintosh HD, instead of making all 4 partitions back into one.

Thanks for the help!

If you booted into the OS X Install DVD, and open Disk Utility, you should be able to select the partitions and should be able to delete them. Then Bootcamp 'Might' be able to restore them to the original drive size.

If you booted into the OS X Install DVD, and open Disk Utility, you should be able to select the partitions and should be able to delete them. Then Bootcamp 'Might' be able to restore them to the original drive size.

Click to expand...

No such luck on either part.

I fixed it!

For future reference, neither Disk Utility nor Boot Camp could. I got GParted, the Linux thing, as part of the Ubuntu Install CD.

1. Delete all partitions using GParted. However, it won't let you delete the SWAP partition. Create a small, like 5 GB partition, FAT32 format or EXT3, doesn't matter.
2. Install Ubuntu. When you see the partitioning screen, choose "Manual" mode. Point (mount) the 5GB partition to "/" Then select the SWAP partition and reformat it as FAT32 or EXT3. Don't point it towards anything. Then continue.
3. At some point, it will prompt you to mount a SWAP partition. Don't do it.
4. After it's done installing, it will prompt for a restart. Don't. Click on the "Continue using Live CD" option.
5. Open GParted again. Delete that 5 GB partition that you used to install Ubuntu.
6. Now you have lots of free unallocated space. sda1 should be the EFI Boot, sda2 should be Macintosh HD.
7. Shut down, start up with Mac. Go to Disk Utility. Click on the icon for the hard drive itself, i.e., "232.9 GB FUJITSU..." Then click on the "Partition" tab. Lastly, drag the Macintosh HD space to fill the entire frame and hit Apply. It will take a while.

Yay!

I'm glad you had success, but I think you kind of went about it the hard way. Instead of installing Ubuntu, you could have booted with the GParted Live CD and done your partitioning from there. Here's the link to the GParted download site: GParted -- Download

BTW, I think you can also run GParted from the Ubuntu Live CD without having to install Ubuntu.

Good one! I like GParted, but it's definitely not for the novice.

For future reference, you might want to download and use the free "rEFIt" from Sourceforge.

rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit

Regards.