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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Removing Partitions

bohorseok - Jul 12, 2008 - 5:11 pm

I was trying to install Ubuntu on my Macbook. I used Boot Camp to create a partition, rebooted into the Ubuntu CD, and tried to install. Unfortunately, I created an extra partition by accident (a swap partition and an ext3 /boot partition, in addition to the ext3 / partition, because some comments I found online made me think I absolutely needed them). Ubuntu isn't working, so I was just planning to use Boot Camp to remove the other partitions and try all over again (I found better instructions at help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBook/), but since I have more than 1 non-Mac partition, it won't let me do that. Do you know what else I can use to remove the other partitions and start over? I already tried erasing the partitions in Disk Utility, but it hasn't removed them altogether so Boot Camp still isn't working.

DeltaMac - Jul 12, 2008 - 9:05 pm

I think you have succeeded in trashing the partition map on your hard drive. There's not a lot you can do in that case. Do you have the files and documents (music, pictures, etc) from the Mac partition saved, as you should just wipe the whole drive, and start from scratch.
Here's how you wipe it all - you will lose everything that's not backed up, so are you ready?
Boot to your MacBook restore DVD.
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
click on your hard drive (the manufacturer's info line), then click on the partition tab.
Click on the Volume Scheme dropdown, and choose 1 Partition. Click OK, then Click the Apply button to continue. That will take you back to the single partition that your MacBook originally shipped with. Oh, you can name your partition if you want.
Quit Disk Utility, and continue with the OS X restore.
When you are restored, you can 'mess about' with ubuntu, if that's good for you.
Keep in mind that Boot Camp sets up one additional partition, and you can't back out if you make another partition through some other utility. That's what happened with you, eh?

Good luck, let me know if you need more help...
- Dale

bohorseok - Jul 12, 2008 - 9:48 pm

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually managed to fix it just a few minutes ago. Since I thought the situation couldn't get any worse, and I'd probably have to do what you said above, I tried booting from the CD again, and re-installing. As part of the installation, I was able to manually rearrange the partitions to create just 1 for Ubuntu. It works fine now. Thanks again.

--Rebecca R.G.