TheHarbinger Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 I'm having a hard time with this install, and need help! I partitioned the disk using Ubuntu. I have several partitions--disk0s1 is XP, disk0s2 I left for OS X (with Linux/Unix format), disk0s3 is Ubuntu, disk0s4 is NTFS format (extended for XP), disk0s5 is Linux swap. I boot to the OS X installer and launch Disk Utility. I see the main disk drive in the left window, with all the partitions listed below it. The Mac OS X empty partition and the NT partition are greyed out. If I click on the main disk icon I can see a tab for partitioning but am not allowed to partition disk0s2. I can format it as a Mac format disk, though. If I delete the disk0s2 partition through Ubuntu and leave it as free space, I'm told when I select the free space in Disk Utility 'this will remain as free space.' So, how the h*ll am I supposed to format the space as GUID...? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 I'm having a hard time with this install, and need help! I partitioned the disk using Ubuntu. I have several partitions--disk0s1 is XP, disk0s2 I left for OS X (with Linux/Unix format), disk0s3 is Ubuntu, disk0s4 is NTFS format (extended for XP), disk0s5 is Linux swap. I boot to the OS X installer and launch Disk Utility. I see the main disk drive in the left window, with all the partitions listed below it. The Mac OS X empty partition and the NT partition are greyed out. If I click on the main disk icon I can see a tab for partitioning but am not allowed to partition disk0s2. I can format it as a Mac format disk, though. If I delete the disk0s2 partition through Ubuntu and leave it as free space, I'm told when I select the free space in Disk Utility 'this will remain as free space.' So, how the h*ll am I supposed to format the space as GUID...? Use NTFS or FAT32 for OS X.........then use Disk Utility on the OS X Install DVD to format the OS X volume as required..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124002 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieptit Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Use NTFS or FAT32 for OS X.........then use Disk Utility on the OS X Install DVD to format the OS X volume as required..... Same problem with me I use Acronis Disk Suite to creat new Partition ( exp: F) ( NTFS , set Primary ) to install Mac. Pass welcome window, cho Disk Utilities. Click on partition F, chose Eraser : set name partition (MacOSX) and chose Mac OSX Extended ( Jour) . Then click Eraser. All done . But when finishes , partition F cant fomat to Mac partiton, it automatic change name to Disk0s4 (NTFS ) not name MacOSX Plz help me to fix this problem, i cant install Mac Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124009 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Same problem with meI use Acronis Disk Suite to creat new Partition ( exp: F) ( NTFS , set Primary ) to install Mac. Pass welcome window, cho Disk Utilities. Click on partition F, chose Eraser : set name partition (MacOSX) and chose Mac OSX Extended ( Jour) . Then click Eraser. All done . But when finishes , partition F cant fomat to Mac partiton, it automatic change name to Disk0s4 (NTFS ) not name MacOSX Plz help me to fix this problem, i cant install Mac Try formatting as MS-DOS (FAT) using Disk Utility and then formatting as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124150 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHarbinger Posted April 4, 2009 Author Share Posted April 4, 2009 Use NTFS or FAT32 for OS X.........then use Disk Utility on the OS X Install DVD to format the OS X volume as required..... That doesn't work. I can format it as NTFS or FAT32 in XP, and then as a Mac volume through the installer but its not GUID and the installer won't install to it. If I delete the partition through XP (leaving free space) then try partitioning through DU I'm told the partition (which is free space) won't be erased. See the problem... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124194 Share on other sites More sharing options...
verdant Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 That doesn't work. I can format it as NTFS or FAT32 in XP, and then as a Mac volume through the installer but its not GUID and the installer won't install to it. If I delete the partition through XP (leaving free space) then try partitioning through DU I'm told the partition (which is free space) won't be erased. See the problem... OS X does not recognise unallocated space AFIK.......also the partition for OS X does not have to be GUID.......for most PC users MBR is a more friendly choice especially for multi-booting.......GUID is a better choice for servers.....its only advantage is being able to resize partitions..... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124197 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHarbinger Posted April 5, 2009 Author Share Posted April 5, 2009 OS X does not recognise unallocated space AFIK....... Not true. I just put a new hard disk into an Intel Mac and had to set it up. THe disk was unformatted and unpartitioned and I used DU to set it up. also the partition for OS X does not have to be GUID.......for most PC users MBR is a more friendly choice especially for multi-booting.......GUID is a better choice for servers.....its only advantage is being able to resize partitions..... The only choice I was given that would work when partitioning that new disk was GUID, so I don't think that's correct (at least, not in all cases). After reading your comment I did more investigation and it seem that most tutorials say that GUID must be used. I found a couple of posts where people used MBR, but they were using a patched DU. When my OS X partition is formatted MBR, the vanilla installer tells me that it can't install to it. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1124670 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHarbinger Posted April 6, 2009 Author Share Posted April 6, 2009 Okay, let me ask this: Is there a disk partitioning utility I can boot from that will allow me to make/format a GUID partition outside of OS X? I made a gparted boot disk from an iso, and it doesn't have that option. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1125611 Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHarbinger Posted April 8, 2009 Author Share Posted April 8, 2009 Answering myself here... I was finally able to format a partition last evening. I blew away the disk with all existing partitions, then booted OSX and used DU. The really odd thing was that, on a 500GB disk, DU would not allow me to set an install partition size of less than 49.5 GB. Try as I might I couldn't set a smaller value. This might be why DU was telling me it couldn't install or format the partition I had previously allocated for it. I may well have been able to choose an MBR partition. I formatted as GUID, though, since I knew from past experience that the installer was happier with that. I didn't want to spend time experimenting on this machine (as it's my main PC), but I am curious now. How many people on this board have experienced the same thing on a multiboot system? BTW, I wanted a triple-boot system with XP and Linux as well. I had chosen to format in two partitions, with the plan of using gparted outside of OSX to further subdivide the disk. I discovered that OSX actually created three partitions--one was an EFI partition (set as primary, boot), the second was a GUID partition (set as primary, type af), and the third was set up by default as an HFS+ partition. When I went into gparted I was able to blow away the third, HFS+ partition and subdivide it for Linux and XP. However, I ran into another problem--I'm only allowed four primary partitions and the rest must be extended. WIth EFI, OSX, XP, and Linux, all my primaries were used up. I could create an extended partition for XP's use, but could not create a 5GB partition at the end of the disk for Linux swap. Gparted wanted to set it up as primary but couldn't. Another problem for another forum... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/160525-disk-partitioning-help-needed/#findComment-1127351 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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