Hard Drive Replacement Question

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Hello All!

I have been snooping around these forums for quite sometime now, and have finally decided to join :Cool:

I have two questions for you all that I have not been able to find the answer to anywhere. If you all have any insight on them, that would be great!

My first question is regarding a hard drive swap. About 3 months ago, I swapped my 250gb hard drive for a 320gb hard drive my brother had laying around. He transferred the data between them and the new 320gb has been working perfectly...until now.

Today, I recently "filled" my hard drive. This would not be a problem if my computer knew I had a 320gb hard drive. For some reason, my computer is telling me i have "200 mb of 250gb free." I click on disk utility, and my 320gb hard drive shows up with MacIntosh HD right below it (almost as if it is a subscript of it. How can i transfer this MacIntosh HD into my 320gb hard drive?

And a side note, if i have 250gb of data on my computer and want to use Time Machine, would I need at least a 250gb external hard drive? Or does Time Machine compress the files?

Thank you all for your help, I truly appreciate it!

Cameron

Here are some photos for clarification:
ScreenShot2011-11-01at53413PM.png

ScreenShot2011-11-01at53220PM.png
[/IMG]
 
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It's normal to show the Macintosh HD as a subset of the actual named HD b/c you could partition it. You didn't show a picture of this, but my best guess is that the 320GB HD is partitioned and it was basically copied over as a 250GB partition. Click on the 320 WDC and then click on the Partition tab and let us know if thats what it is.
 
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Thank you for your help. When I click on he partition tab, this is what appears...
ScreenShot2011-11-01at111611PM.png

And when I hit the "+" tab, it turns to this...
ScreenShot2011-11-01at111611PM.png


When I partition it, what exactly does it do? Will it keep the files separate? Or will it turn "MacIntosh HD" into a 320gb thing?

Thank you so much!
 
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EDIT: I tried partitioning it, and it said it failed because the chosen size for the partition is not valid. I tried decreasing the size of the partition, but it did work. Any ideas?
 

bobtomay

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You can't partition it while you're booted into the OS. You need to restart the computer and boot to your OS disc - or if running Lion - to the HD Recovery partition.

If you're just wanting to increase the partition to fill the whole disk, then drag the bottom right corner of the Macinstosh HD partition all the way down to the bottom and click Apply. This should leave your data intact.

But, always make sure you have a backup before playing with your partitions.

If you go to partition the entire drive - that will delete everything on the drive.
 
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I have tried numerous times to drag the size of the partition down, but when I hit "apply," it either has an error or goes through all the steps with no errors but shows no increase in the hard drive space. In fact, the only thing I have managed to do is shrink "macintosh hd" down to 231gb....I do have it backed up with time machine. Should I just reset the computer and boot it with time machine?
 
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Here is some more info,
When i attempt to extend the size of "MacIntosh HD," This is the error I get...

"Partition failed with the error:

Couldn’t modify partition map because file system verification failed."
 

chscag

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Since you have a Time Machine backup, the easiest way to rectify this is to erase the drive, make it into one partition, format it and reinstall. During the reinstallation you'll be asked if you have a TM backup.
 
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THank you for your help. I think thats what has to be done.

Just to be clear, Time Machine will restore my computer to the exact state since the last backup?

And what is the best way to erase the drive?

Thank so so much!
 

chscag

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Boot with your install - recovery DVD and run Disk Utility directly from the disk. With Disk Utility, you can erase, partition, format the drive. After which proceed with the re-install. At that point, you'll be asked about using your TM backup to restore. And yes, Time Machine will restore everything as it was before. I've done that several times and it works great.
 
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Update:
I have just completely wiped out the computer by restarting it and holding command r. I went to "Macintosh HD" and erased it, then preceded to erase "wd320". I tried to partition wd320 again and still no luck. This is getting really frustrating. I now have 90 gigs on my hard drive that can't be used. Right now, my laptop is restoring itself through time machine.

Do you believe that I will be able to partition it after it is restored? Or am i just out of luck? :|
 

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