Can't restore HD to single partition

[O'Brien]

I recently tried to do a dual boot with Linux but was having a lot of problems with it so I decided to erase it and restore my hard drive. I managed to erase the linux partition, but when I tried to expand Macintosh HD all the way I get the error message:

"Partition Failed. MediaKit reports partition (map) too small."

There is about 6 GB of space that is not being used by anything and I would really like to get this back. Anyone?

 

[chscag]

It seems we see more boot sector and partition problems with failed or unsatisfactory Linux installations. I know it's too late for you, but the very handy "rEFIt" is the way to go when setting up a dual boot with any Linux distro.

As for resolving your difficulty: Probably, the best way is to backup your OS X partition, use Disk Utility from your install DVD and remove all partitions, erase the drive, reformat it, and start over.

I advise doing that because it appears the partition map (and possibly the boot sector) has been corrupted. Best to re-do everything. Let us know...

Regards.

 

[O'Brien]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

 

[O'Brien]

Ok so I restored from a time machine backup and all is well with my hard drive but now I can't log into my account! I had to log in as the root user. It says that I am unable to log into the filevault account at this time!

 

[chas_m]

You were using Filevault? What for?

I wish you luck, but frankly your old account is probably locked and there's nothing anyone can do to help. If the Filevault isn't responding to your password, you're basically hosed.

This is exactly why I always tell people to stay away from Filevault.

 

[O'Brien]

Well I set up Filevault when I first got my Mac (when I didn't really know that much about them) because extra security had sounded good at the time and I never really gave it another thought. I finally gave up on that account and created a new user and managed to salvage most of my data through various storage devices, though almost all of my pictures are lost forever. I definitely learned my lesson though. Using Filevault is a bad idea!