Bootcamp not Disk Utility; Whoops.

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I'm not new to Mac at all, but I never had the need to partition a drive until this job. This is my work computer, so I'll do what it takes to keep it in tip top shape.

Long story short: Bossman sent Windows XP disc but the new Macbook Pros do not run XP, only 7. But I had already tried running Bootcamp and installing WinXP, when it failed I finally found the Apple support page about Win7. No big deal I'll just get rid of the partition I made.

I was unable to do so in Bootcamp. I did not get the option to remove the partition. After searching, supposedly this partition could be removed via Disk Utility. Apparently this is a no-no.

Bootcamp still does not give me the option to remove the Windows partition, and upon boot up I get the "insert boot disc and press any key" error, and the only help I'm finding is to backup everything and reinstall OSX.

Is this the only way?

Thanks.
 

chscag

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I don't understand why Boot Camp refused to remove the partition? Whether it was XP or Win 7 you were attempting to install should not make a difference. Did you attempt to use the BC assistant, select create partition, and then select restore?

If you need to remove it via Disk Utility, it can be done easily enough. No rule against doing it that way, only a bit more work. Boot the Mac with your Snow Leopard install DVD, select Utilities, Disk Utility from the top menu. Select the partition tab. Select the BC partition, press the minus button at the bottom and save. Drag the partition line separator to encompass the entire drive and save it.

Reboot.

From System Preferences, Startup Disk, choose your MacIntosh HD as the default startup and that will get rid of the error message about no boot disk.
 
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I don't understand why Boot Camp refused to remove the partition? Whether it was XP or Win 7 you were attempting to install should not make a difference. Did you attempt to use the BC assistant, select create partition, and then select restore?

It does not give me the option, it asks me to start installation or quit and install later.

If you need to remove it via Disk Utility, it can be done easily enough. No rule against doing it that way, only a bit more work. Boot the Mac with your Snow Leopard install DVD, select Utilities, Disk Utility from the top menu. Select the partition tab. Select the BC partition, press the minus button at the bottom and save. Drag the partition line separator to encompass the entire drive and save it.

Reboot.

I'm hesitant about backing up and reinstalling as I have the full Adobe Creative Suite. It'll take me several hours to do this. Which is fine if it's the only way, just trying to avoid it ;D

From System Preferences, Startup Disk, choose your MacIntosh HD as the default startup and that will get rid of the error message about no boot disk.

I'll try this. Thanks for everything! Edit: this did remove the error. Thanks.
 

chscag

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I'm hesitant about backing up and reinstalling as I have the full Adobe Creative Suite. It'll take me several hours to do this. Which is fine if it's the only way, just trying to avoid it

Maybe I'm missing something here, but you don't have to reinstall Snow Leopard in order to use Disk Utility from the DVD and remove the BC partition. Of course, making a backup is always a good idea prior to doing anything that changes partitioning on the hard drive.
 

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