How do I fix partitions Mac doesn't see?

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Sorry if this is posted somewhere else on some forum but this is a very difficult problem to figure out keywords to search for.

I recently tried dual-booting my Macbook with Linux. My installation choice on the Linux side was not one single partition. It was to have a separate partition for root, /home, and swap. I designated the majority of my hard drive toward Boot Camp.

Well, after I decided to switch back to Mac and go without Linux at all, I noticed after I did a fresh, clean install of OS X, it only says that my hard drive is as big as I set the Mac partition to be when I had Boot Camp setup. (only around 30 GB of space)

I presume I'm going to have to use a linux-base solution to get me out of this Linux-induced problem. Something like GParted maybe? Any instruction? I'm a college student, so I need this fixed as soon as possible.
 
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I presume I'm going to have to use a linux-base solution to get me out of this Linux-induced problem. Something like GParted maybe? Any instruction? I'm a college student, so I need this fixed as soon as possible.
Run the bootcamp setup assistant again and select the option to return the the drive to a singe volume.
 
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Ya, I forgot to mention that I tried that already.It gives me this:

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.
 

chscag

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The Boot Camp Assistant will not restore 3 partitions that were not setup for Windows. Your initial error was to create Linux Home, Data, and Swap partitions. Not really needed anyway. Linux works fine using one partition.

Anyway too late for that. If you use GParted, there's a chance you won't recover the space for OS X. GParted will certainly be able to merge the three Linux partitions to one as unformatted space.

One way is to boot the machine with your original install media and run Disk Utility. However that means erasing and reinstalling. So if you decide to do that, use the archive and install method.

The other solution is to purchase "iPartition" ($49.95) and non destructively merge everything back to OS X. No reinstall required. Link

Regards.
 
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Your initial error was to create Linux Home, Data, and Swap partitions. Not really needed anyway. Linux works fine using one partition.
... unless you run out of memory, in which case the lack of a swap partition will crash the computer.
 

chscag

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... unless you run out of memory, in which case the lack of a swap partition will crash the computer.

I've run everything from Ubuntu to "you name it" in Linux, never used a swap partition, and never ran out of memory. Linux handles virtual memory almost as well as OS X. It is a Unix derivative. :)

Modern Linux versions do not need a swap partition. And the "Home" partition is just a matter of convenience. Also not needed.

Regards.
 
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Wow, thanks guys. I didn't know that the swap wasn't necessary, especially when I have 4 GB of RAM. I made a separate /home partition so that in the future I can upgrade/switch distros without touching my data. But after realizing how poorly (so far) Ubuntu working with the aluminum macbook's trackpad and graphics card, I decided to switch back to only Mac.

Anyway, so I tried GParted and it says it found no bootable devices, and I have no idea what to type in.

I'll try the booting from the OSX install disc and use the disk utility.
 
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Hey it worked! All I needed to do was boot from the Mac OS X install disc open up disk utility from the menu bar and erase/format my whole drive.

(funny thing cuz I tried to erase the other three partitions and not my Mac one. But it didn't want to erase the swap partition by itself)
 

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