Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

badidea · Oct 30, 2014, 04:01 PM

Hi, I have serious problems with re-partitioning my startup disk!

Setup:
MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD and a 1TB standard HD - the SSD is in the slot were the superdrive used to be.
The SSD has 2 partitions - 1 partition for Yosemite and 1 partition which was once created for Bootcamp and then reformatted to HFS+ and used for the Yosemite Beta test.
Now I would like to re-partition the SSD since I don't need the second partition anymore.
This does not work!!

What I tried so far:
I created a time machine backup and restarted into recovery mode - all partitioning options are greyed out!
I installed a fresh copy of Yosemite on an USB stick, started from the stick and tried my luck there - all partitioning options are greyed out!
Bootcamp assistant doesn't work either!

What am I missing?
How can I re-partition this SSD to 1 partition now?
Any ideas?

andi*pandi · Oct 30, 2014, 04:13 PM

can you wipe it entirely?

reader50 · Oct 30, 2014, 04:21 PM

In the Partition tab, switch the partition count popup from "Current" to "1". This will unlock the partitions, so you can drag them around, or resize as desired.

badidea · 08:49 AM

No, I cannot wipe or switch the partition tab - it's all greyed out!
I could reformat a single partition though but I cannot change the partitions!
That's weird!?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tsuuxrc6yw...20.09.png?dl=0

Edit: Oh...and should't 2 partitions which belong to the same HD be grouped together?

Spheric Harlot · Oct 31, 2014, 06:43 AM

Is this the generation of MacBook Pro that had the broken second S-ATA port?

badidea · Oct 31, 2014, 06:51 AM

Don't know...never heard of that!
It's a late 2011 17" MBP.

Never had a problem with partitioning until...well...now!

Oh and does someone know why the space is in blue and white? Looks like it shouldn't be like that but it looks like this since...I don't know...always!?

P · Oct 31, 2014, 08:00 AM

Yosemite converts partitions (on MOST Macs, mine is apparently too old - though I haven't bothered with Yosemite yet) to CoreStorage Local volume groups, and apparently this has killed the ability to resize partitions inside Disk Utility. As a workaround, you can convert the partition back to HFS+:

Awesome Toast! | OS X Yosemite, Core Storage, and partition woes.

Note that if you want to enable Fusion Drive or Filevault 2, you have to convert it back again. Supposedly the Core Storage volume groups add some reliability to the file system (ditto blocks for metadata), but this has not been confirmed.

Atheist · 08:15 AM

badidea, see my post here.

P, just saw your post! Great to know you can do a non-destructive reversion to HFS+. Just tested it out on my Hackintosh. Worked perfectly! I've struggled a bit with Yosemite on my Hackintosh and I've suspected it had to do with the LVG. Hopefully this will be the fix I needed.

badidea · Oct 31, 2014, 08:45 AM

Thanks guys!!!! That did the trick...and it was fast and non-destructive!

But what's going on in Cupertino?? Are they nuts? I am not supposed to partition my drive anymore without the use of Google, Forums and the Terminal??
Sometimes I really understand the haters!

Spheric Harlot · Oct 31, 2014, 10:57 AM

I'm sure they'll update Disk Utility for the functionality, but it probably wasn't deemed mission-critical for the deadline.

P · Oct 31, 2014, 12:04 PM

Yes, probably. Core Storage is actually a big step forward in this respect, as you can modify the currently-booted partition as you like, add more partitions to the group etc. I imagine implementing these sort of features into Disk Utility GUI in a logical manner might take some thinking.