MacBook Snow Leopard Partition Problem

mcw92

Hello,
Im having a bit of a problem on my macbook.
I want to install windows on a bootcamp, but when i go to do it i get this message:



I think the problem is that i already have two partition on my 1 hard drive.
But i do not need the 2nd, so how do i get rid of it and only have one hard drive(ie. no partition), so i can create one for Bootcamp.


This is my hard drive layout as on Disk Utility:

muggyog

Your second picture shows that you were the disk utility application. You have to boot from CD/Media with Mac OS and use disk utility to erase all partitions. Just select your 160Gb drive and you should have an additional partition tab. Choose one partition i.e single partition and say goodbye to all your data!

mcw92

muggyog wrote: »

Your second picture shows that you were the disk utility application. You have to boot from CD/Media with Mac OS and use disk utility to erase all partitions. Just select your 160Gb drive and you should have an additional partition tab. Choose one partition i.e single partition and say goodbye to all your data!

Are you telling me the only way to get rid of the partition is clearing the entire hard drive! ie. losing all my data on 'Ciaran's MacHD'.
Please tell me not, as i just cleared my hard drive a month ago and have just about everything copied back and installed again.!


Is there no program that would just merge the Partition into the original Partition without losing all the data on 'Ciaran's MacHD'?

Sad Professor

I'm pretty sure Disk Utility can do this without deleting all your data. But it will delete the data on the partition you are looking to remove - it cannot merge all data from both volumes into a single partition.

You should still not attempt this unless you have a recent backup.

- In Disk Utility, click on your hard drive.

- Then click on the Partitions tab.

- You should see both partitions. Select the one you want to delete.

- Then click the "-" (minus) button below.

It will ask for confirmation, all data on this partition will be lost, blah, blah. Afterwards, you should be able to resize your main (Ciaran's MacHD) partition to use all available space.

mcw92

Sad Professor wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Disk Utility can do this without deleting all your data. But it will delete the data on the partition you are looking to remove - it cannot merge all data from both volumes into a single partition.

You should still not attempt this unless you have a recent backup.

- In Disk Utility, click on your hard drive.

- Then click on the Partitions tab.

- You should see both partitions. Select the one you want to delete.

- Then click the "-" (minus) button below.

It will ask for confirmation, all data on this partition will be lost, blah, blah. Afterwards, you should be able to resize your main (Ciaran's MacHD) partition to use all available space.

Ya i dont mind losing all the data on the second partition as there is nothing on it. I was going to use it for music and movies but decided against it since i need Bootcamp again.
thanks though, i will have to wait until weekend to try this though.

projectmayhem

I had this issue before and found using a free disk defrag app sorted it for me. Worth a shot!