Resolved Partitioning Problems

[kreekkrew]

Hello Everyone,

I have a mid 2007 MacBook (running Lion) that dual-booted Ubuntu a couple years ago. I decided to go back to single booting, since I was having problems with on the Linux end and I didn't use it much anyway. So I just deleted the Linux partition/swap in Disk Utility, and I figured I would just resize the main partition after as usual.

The problem is that I couldn't resize the remaining partition to take up the free space. I could make it smaller, but it wouldn't push the recovery drive down like I thought it would. After playing around with it a bit, the free space ended up as a part of the recovery partition, which I can't resize. So now I have my main partition with ~79 GB of space, and my recovery partition with ~40 GB of unused space.

Does anyone know how I can take the free space from the recovery drive and put it in the main drive? An easy solution sounds like erasing the recovery partition altogether, but that's my only way of starting over if something ends up bricked, so I want to avoid that.

Thank you,
kreekkrew

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Not sure if I read that and understand correctly, but you're saying the unallocated space from the deleted Ubuntu partition disappeared and grew the recovery partition? Is that correct? (Can you take and attach a screenshot of Disk Utility to verify?)

For future reference, try using GParted (Live CD/thumb drive) to delete the Linux partition - Disk Utility doesn't work well with non-Mac formats (ext2/ext3/ext4 in this case).

 

[kreekkrew]

Here's a screenshot of what I have now.



The Recovery HD part says it's only 650 MB, but there's 40GB of free space there (Macintosh HD has 79 GB). I just now found I can make another partition with that free space (default name Recovery HD 2), but I still can't merge it with Macintosh HD. I also tried repairing the disk in case something was up with that, but no dice.

It sounds like GParted might be able to help. However, I don't have any CDs on me, so I can't use it quite yet. When I get a chance, I'll try playing around with it, and I'll post an update.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Enter the following command in terminal (/Applications/Terminal.app):

diskutil list

And post the output here (should look similar to this):

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

This should give a better understanding of what DU is showing.

 

[kreekkrew]

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            78.9 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

If I make a partition with that free space, I get this:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            78.9 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD 2           40.0 GB    disk0s4

 

[kreekkrew]

Solved

So after finding nothing else on Google, I just decided to get rid of the recovery drive, re-partition the main drive, and get the recovery part back somehow. I got everything sized the way I wanted, but I noticed that I still had a recovery drive. *shrug* At least it's fixed now.

For anyone else who has this problem: you can't resize it because the recovery partition gets in the way. Delete it, and you should be able to change the partition size just like any other. If you still want the recovery drive (and a new one didn't magically appear), this article might point you in the right direction.