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doolally · 10:47 PM

Hi,

I have an aborted Boot camp install partition that I can't remove. I've tried using Disk Utility to erase it but it just won't go away.

Does anyone have any thoughts (apart from formatting and reinstalling OS X)?

advTHANKSance

edit: I downloaded a demo for iPartition and it shows the Mac HD and the Bootcamp partition, but warns me that I cannot make changes to the disk from which my system booted, which tells me that there is no actual partition, it just thinks there is.

I also thought about re-trying the Bootcamp install, or seeing if the Bootcamp assistant can delete the partition, but when I try to open the assistant it tells me 'This startup disk is not supported'. So, now I'm really confused.

Just to be clear, I know it sounds like the partition is gone, but my Mac HD lists it's free space as 32GB less than it should be, and when I boot disk utility, the Bootcamp partition shows up on the left. I click on it, choose ERASE, it gives me a warning, then mounts the disk, then nothing. And I'm left with this Bootcamp drive icon on my desktop.

Cold Warrior · Mar 7, 2008, 10:38 PM

You need to rerun the Boot Camp Assistant. It will dump the partition and merge it with your OS X partition.

doolally · Mar 7, 2008, 10:50 PM

I thought of that, but when I try and run the Boot camp assistant it tells me 'This startup disk is not supported', and that's as far as I can get.

Could I boot from my Leopard disc and run it from there?

Cold Warrior · Mar 7, 2008, 11:06 PM

You should boot from your Leopard disc and run Disk Utility to repair the drive. Then reboot and try Boot Camp Assistant.

doolally · Mar 7, 2008, 11:28 PM

Well, thanks for your continued counsel, Cold Warrior, and we've made some progress, but it's still not fixed.

I booted from the Leopard disk, and used Disk Utility to repair the disk. It thought about it for about four minutes and then declared there was nothing wrong. Fair enough. So, I booted from the HD, started up Boot Camp asst. and now I get this message:

'The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition'

Which is a different message than the last one, but still doesn't solve my problem.

ghporter · Mar 8, 2008, 09:49 AM

"Repairing" the disk is only half the task when you're using Disk Utility from your Leopard disc. You have to delete the aborted partition too. You can ONLY do this when you boot from the Leopard disc because Disk Utility doesn't let you mess with the disk you've booted from.

doolally · Mar 8, 2008, 12:19 PM

Hi ghporter,

Thanks for the advice. I tried that and it still refuses to budge. Disk Utility, while booted from the Leopard disk, works at it for a moment, and I think it's working, but then it's still there when the utility is finished.

doolally · Mar 11, 2008, 05:50 AM

So, it looks like we're all out of ideas. I guess I'll stop by the Apple store today and see if a genius can do anything with it.

doolally · Mar 13, 2008, 10:13 AM

Okay, so now I'm getting panicky. I reformatted and did a fresh Leopard install and the aborted Bootcamp partition is still there!

Does anyone have any other thoughts?

ghporter · Mar 13, 2008, 10:49 AM

Reformatting would only clear your OS X partition. To get rid of this you'll probably have to repartition using Disk Utility after booting from your Leopard disc. Yes, you'll have to redo your Leopard installation again.

But by repartitioning the disk, you'll get rid of the unwanted and unusable Windows partition permanently. Guaranteed.*

*As long as there isn't something else going on that I don't know about.

doolally · Mar 13, 2008, 11:21 AM

That's got it. The HDD is back to one, single partition, as clear and deep as an unmuddied lake

Thanks muchly for your counsel and patience, ghporter.