drive upgrade - partitioning error

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hi there,

i have a current model macbook pro 13.3" running osx 10.6.2. it is my first mac and it is a great machine! however the standard 250gb hard drive is a little on the small side for me, so i purchased a 500gb hard drive as an upgrade.

to get my data from the old 250gb drive to the new 500gb drive i used a borrowed diskjockey pro which copies the data across sector by sector to make an exact image - very easy! after using this tool i installed the 500gb hard drive and the machine booted up first time and works just like it did before.

unfortunately, when i try to create a new partition in OSX's disk utility to take advantage of the extra space i get an error. it says 'partition failed with the error: the chosen file size is not valid for the chosen filesystem'. if i try to resize the existing partition to use up all of the available space i get a different error. it says 'partition failed with the error: mediakit reports partition (map) too small'.

so at the moment i can't figure out a way of using the extra 250gb of space!

it seems that this might be because of the way i copied the drive - because it copied everything off the 250gb drive sector by sector the partition table on the 500gb drive must think it is a 250gb drive?? indeed in the support section of the diskjockey website they say that it can be a problem and they offer a pretty straightforward method for fixing this with a windows machine... but nothing for a mac. grr, frustrating! but so easy to fix on a windows machine.

sooooo.. can anyone help me please?? how do i fix up the partition table on this mac!?
 
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I don't know about disk jockey.... but I suggest going again, but this time using CCC Carbon Copy Cloner - Home or SuperDuper SuperDuper! to copy your drive.
Then booting from the external HD with the clone, use whichever of those apps you used to clone back.

When I say going again, I mean cloning from the original drive.
 
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...i don't have an external hard drive :/ it's essentially a software issue, so i'd rather not buy extra hardware and pull my macbook apart again to fix something that takes 30secs in windows!
 
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Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
I don't know how you got to where you did with the way you did it.... and what takes 30 seconds in "Windows" is another crash.
It's not a software issue anymore.... you have no external drive with a backup (safeguard), so it is a user issue now!
Any means of fixing your partition table (without a backup) is a risk of losing all it's contents if anything goes wrong.
 

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Using a duplicator that is designed for use with NTFS and their own support still only mentioning a MS operating system that is now two back, their own faq is at least 5 yrs old and they only tested it with XP. I can only wish you good luck at finding someone that has used it successfully with HFS.

Your best bet is as 6string has recommended. It can be done for approx $20 with any number of kits similar to this. Great tool to have in your arsenal.

And like 6string, I must strongly encourage you to set up a bootable backup device. From one that works on others crashed computers from time to time, I find it unreasonable that anyone would be averse to having their data backed up.
 
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no need to preach to me about backups, i use online backups :) if all you are using as a backup is an external hard drive then i think it is you that should be worried! what if you drop it? if your house burns down? ;)

saying that the device is designed for NTFS is completely wrong - it copies the data sector by sector, so it doesn't even read the file system!

and yup, it is still a software issue!! possibly the most frustrating thing about switching from a PC to a mac is that things work differently and you have to re-learn new ways of doing the same task! especially when people tell you that it's not possible! ;)

is it possible to boot from a windows install cd on a mac?? maybe i could boot into a windows install environment and use windows to fix the problem?
 
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hmm, tried booting from windows cd.. windows didn't like that, so it didnt help!

so is there any way to fix a partition table on a mac?
 

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hmm, tried booting from windows cd.. windows didn't like that, so it didnt help!

so is there any way to fix a partition table on a mac?

No way at all if you keep refusing to accept good advice. :[

Regards.
 

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It's too bad that Disk Jockey only made the partition the size of the old drive and does not offer a way to use the whole space as one partition on the destination drive.
 
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firstly, you haven't given me any advice.. so i'm not sure why you felt you needed to contribute. secondly, the only advice in this thread has been to make backups.. and i already do that.
 

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yea dtravis :( it is the best thing and the most annoying thing about the device! you are guaranteed a perfect copy.. 250gb partition table and all! haha
i just didn't realise it'd be such a PITA to fix a partition table with a mac :(
 
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thanks for the link!
i tried what it suggested, which was using diskutil in terminal.. this is what i get :( doesn't work

Code:
trout:~ dan$ diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 100%
Started partitioning on disk0s2 big hard drive
Verifying disk
Resizing
Error: -9939: The partition cannot be resized.

it's not looking that good :( lord help anyone who gets a corrupt partition table on a mac and doesn't have excellent backups!
 

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If in OSX if you right click on the hard drive and click on Get Info what does it show?
 
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According to Diskology's FAQ:
Q. Once I copy a smaller hard disk drive to a larger hard disk drive on a PC, how do I make the rest of the space on the new disk available for use?
A. <NOTE - This process will only work on NTFS formatted volumes> We have tested this process in the Diskology laboratory running Windows XP, although it should work with Win2K as well.

Open a command prompt window (Start Menu->Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt)
Enter the Diskpart utility (type the command "diskpart").
List the volumes available on the system (type "list volume" at the DISKPART> prompt).
Select the volume to expand (type "select volume #" at the DISKPART> prompt - where # is the volume number displayed in the volume list).
Expand the volume to include all free space on the disk directly after the selected volume (type "extend" at the DISKPART> prompt).
Unless DISKPART reported an error, the volume will be extended (type "list volume" at the DISKPART> prompt again and it will show the new size of the volume).
See next question if all else fails.

And according to this Macworld review:
Finally, when you’re cloning a smaller-capacity drive to a larger-capacity drive, the extra space is lost unless you run the Disk Jockey Expander utility, which costs $25. Since most users will need this, it should be included with the unit. Serial ATA and laptop drive adapters are also available.

You can buy that Expander software here:
http://www.diskology.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/36?osCsid=04b8glj6b0mb7m1ofvk8ni48c6
 
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Amatuer

Hi,

I am not well versed with hd cloning, etc.

I am an amateur. I had my cousin upgrade my 250gb HD to 500 gb HD and the result. " Mediakit reports partition (map) too small."

I dont know how to open my computer, remove my current upgraded HD and Clone it with my old on all over again, nor can I go back to my cousin who is in another country now.

Please guide me with what else I can do? I am hoping the three years past the last post on this thread would have found someone with the answer.

If there is any other post with the answer please please guide me.

Thank you very very much,
 
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OK, I've recently worked through a drive upgrade with my daughter's MacBook Pro, without the OS X install disk and using only free software. Here's an overview of what I did, posted here in case it is of use to someone else. It's tedious but it works. You will need the following:

a. CloneZilla - download .iso and burn to CD (Google "CloneZilla" to find, I used the Ubuntu-based version)

b. GParted - download .iso and burn to CD (Google "gparted" to find.)

c. A new hard drive with at least twice the capacity of the original one.

d. Temporary use of a USB drive with enough capacity to contain a copy of the original drive.

Here are the basic steps (Hint: power on or reset and hold down the 'C' key until the screen flickers to black to boot from the CD drive):

1. Boot the GParted CD and make note of the sizes and formats of the partitions on the original HD. (Hers were 200MB FAT32, and 114.71GB HFS+)

2. Boot the CloneZilla CD and make a full-disk backup of the original HD to the USB drive.

3. Remove the original HD and install the new one. (You'll need tools and steady hands for this! Google "upgrade macbook pro hard drive extremetech".)

4. Boot the GParted CD and create a new partition table (specify GPT in the advanced options) and then create partitions matching the originals in size and format. (I think the first 200MB FAT32 one is a boot loader, so it should be exactly as-is. The HFS+ one may be any size equal to or slightly larger than the originals, but make sure you leave enough free space for at least one additional copy of your system HFS+ partition.)

5. Boot from the CloneZilla CD and restore your HD. Use "expert" mode and tell it not to create the partition table on the destination disk. (It will ask right before starting the restore.) You want to use the partitions you created in the previous step. If you let CloneZilla create the partition table based on the backup copy (the default option) it will boot OS X but you won't be able to expand the system partition or add new partitions.

6. Boot from the HD. It should boot to OS X and look normal. Unfortunately, it's not; the system HFS+ partition is corrupted and we won't be able to expand it or use the full capacity of the drive, so we have to fix that. At this point, I've read that the system partition can be repaired by booting to the Mac install CD and using Disk Utility to Repair the system partition. I didn't have that option since I didn't have the install CD, so i'll need to copy the data from the corrupted system partition to a new, un-corrupted HFS+ partition.

7. Start Disk Utility and use it to create a new partition at least as large as the original HFS+ system partition. Then use Restore to copy your system partition to the new one. The copy operation will take a while (hours, maybe).

8. Boot the GParted CD. You should now see the original partitions you created in step 4 and one more that you created from within OS X in step 7. Delete the original HFS+ partition that you restored from the CloneZilla backup, leaving the new one that you created under OS X and copied with Disk Utility. Then, move the copied HFS+ system partition to just below the 200MB FAT32 partition. Don't change its size. (GParted can move it but it can't successfully enlarge it. OS X disk utility, on the other hand, can enlarge it downward, but can't move it. See where we're headed?) The move may take a couple of hours or more since, for some reason, GParted wants to read the whole thing through one time first before it starts to actually copy it.

9. Boot OS X from the HD, start Disk Utility, and enlarge the partition or add partitions, as needed.

Possible untried time-saving alternative:

In step 4, create TWO partitions, each at least large enough to contain the system HFS+ partition, then delete the first one, leaving a free-space hole between the FAT32 boot partition and the HFS+ system partition you're going to restore in step 5.

In step 7, use Disk Utility to create the fresh HFS+ partition in the free-space hole, then use Restore to copy the system partition data to it. This should position it right where it needs to be without having to move it with GParted.

In step 8, use GParted to delete the corrupt partition, but skip the move. The copy should already be in the correct location.

If it works, this would save quite a bit of time. I wish I'd thought of it sooner! If you try this alternative and it works, please drop a note here and let folks know.
 

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