Help with partitions

I want to install Windows ME just for some software that doesn't work on Mac, however when partitioning with Bootcamp I installed linux, thus making the format of the partition unknown according to my searched. I get this message.

This startup disk is not supported.

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What should I do. I was hoping to have it running last night...
Also I can't wipe everything and reinstall, and everything from iPartition and that other one by sobrosa software or somethign like that, don't work.

- Thanks in advance.

I'm not quite sure what you have already or what you want to end up with if you can post back with a little more details it may help.

In the meantime why not get a trial of VMWare Fusion or Parallels and install Windows ME! in a VM

Ok I am planning to install Windows ME from a CD. I was hoping to make a new partition with bootcamp, however it originally said I could not restore the partition. I thought I had already deleted it, but it turns out that because I tried to install OpenSuse it doesn't understand the format.
Now after tinkering around it says:

This startup disk is not supported.

Click to expand...

And does nothing. I attempted to try to install Widnows ME anyway, but it only comes up to install on my main hard-drive, and not the partition. I don't want to mess it up, and I use the laptop for 2 things. School, and games. (I have lots of windows only games, only a few mac games..)
I also wanted Windows ME for developing apps and games.

Anyway here are my comp specs:

- 2.0GHz
- 68GB HD
- 1 GB Ram
- Intel processor and Leopard 10.5.2 (obviously Leopard)
- Boot Camp 2.0

Sorry for double posting (if thats a rule) but when I start my machine 'Disk0s3' mounts itself on my desktop.

Boot Camp only supports XP SP2 or Vista. It does not support ME.

I really don't care, considering I got linux running on it. Even if it makes a weird format, I just want ME on it...

Update - new problem:
YAY! I got rid of the useless partition, but now bootcamp won't partition because it needs a Mac Os journaled format, which my disk is using! AHHH!

So you got rid of the 'useless' partition but has that space been re-added to your main mac partition?

If you run "diskutil -list" without the quotes from the terminal you'll be able to see the state of any disks or partitions you have. Post the info back here.

/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *74.5 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 68.9 Gi disk0s2
3: EFI 4.9 Gi disk0s3

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Also I tried to create a partition in the terminal, and it wouldn't work. Then I found this in Disk Utility.

Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume free block count
(It should be 9039476 instead of 8253044)
The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.

Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.

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But the repair button doesn't work...

I'd boot from your Leopard disc and run a disk utility repair from that before you go any further

Ok...

Done. Fixed.

Looks Like Partition 3 (3: EFI 4.9 Gi disk0s3) has been left over from the Linux dabblings and that's what's stopping the boot camp assistant from re-partitioning your Mac HD. The boot camp assistant is quite particular about the number and the position of disk partitions.

I know the 200mb EFI partition is used by Leopard but I'm reasonably confident that the 4.9mb EFI partition you have is now redundant. It'd be nice to have the thoughts of others to support / dismiss this idea.

If it were my mac I'd backup OS X, delete partition 3 and try again with the boot camp assistant.

mrplow

Delete partition 3... *gulp*
I'll see what I can do. :/

Um how do I delete partitions. The Disk Utility (in utilities folder) does not allow me to and it only shows the disk and the mac os partition.

Upfront I've got to say backup your mac partition first.

There's a guide here that has all the info you need.

It's not for the feint hearted but if you read all the info that's there and have a backup to fall back on then you'll be fine.

good luck

Well thanks for your help, its greatly appreciated. I ended up installing Ubuntu 7.10 on the left over partitions that where hidden, then used Wine for the stuff I need to run. Thanks so much.