Slaytanic Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Hi, I'd like very much to try OSX on my laptop but I've run out of primary partitions: 1 for linux root, 1 for linux boot partition, 1 for windows and 1 is an extended partition.. I could only install OSX into the extended partition, but I don't really understand if it is impossible or if it could only give problems in some cases (which problems btw? Failures during installation or worse problems like data corruption of other partitions or catastrophic things like that?) I would appreciate any suggestion! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
belgrano Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 If I remember correctly you will not be able to select the partition in OS X installer so you can't install OS X. But you could convert your 4th partition (the extended one) to primary and install OS X on that. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119508 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 If I remember correctly you will not be able to select the partition in OS X installer so you can't install OS X. But you could convert your 4th partition (the extended one) to primary and install OS X on that. The problem is that I have a windows data partition inside the extended partition, which I could only resize and not remove.. Argh, I'm not able to think about a feasible solution.. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119517 Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedragon1971 Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 The problem is that I have a windows data partition inside the extended partition, which I could only resize and not remove.. Argh, I'm not able to think about a feasible solution.. If you have Partition Magic, you could merge the Windows data partition into your Windows partition, then remove the extended partition. After that, resize the partitions as needed and create your HFS primary partition in the empty space. Not the ideal way, but the only way your are going to be able to do it without getting rid of one of your other primary partitions. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119520 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 If you have Partition Magic, you could merge the Windows data partition into your Windows partition, then remove the extended partition. After that, resize the partitions as needed and create your HFS primary partition in the empty space. Not the ideal way, but the only way your are going to be able to do it without getting rid of one of your other primary partitions. Excuse me for the following perhaps stupid question, but if I merge the two partitions (say C and D in one single C), will I have problems with the software installed on D or with software that refers to files previously on D? Thank you for the suggestion, I think it is the only possibility... but I must take care not to damage my actual installation, since I have some work on D partition and NO time to reinstall everything from scratch.. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119544 Share on other sites More sharing options...
belgrano Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 ...if I merge the two partitions (say C and D in one single C), will I have problems with the software installed on D or with software that refers to files previously on D? ... Most certainly so, you must uninstall those apps from your D: partition and then reinstall them on C: Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119650 Share on other sites More sharing options...
edav Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Hi Slaytanic, [...]but I must take care not to damage my actual installation, since I have some work on D partition and NO time to reinstall everything from scratch.. Don't EVEN think of installing OSX86 on a PC you need for work! Especially because your question indicates that you're not familiar with partition management... Find another drive to install OSX on, a usb one for example. edav. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119717 Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmarsh Posted May 25, 2006 Share Posted May 25, 2006 Most certainly so, you must uninstall those apps from your D: partition and then reinstall them on C: Actually, Partition Magic comes with a tool to change all the D: Drive references to C: so you don't have to do this. Linux can have boot and root be on same partition, so that is another option. Although I don't know how to implement that without reinstalling Linux. Linux can also boot off an extended partition. That also probably requires reinstallation. Or linux root can be in an extended partition. So you could dd your Linux root partition to an extended partition, change the fstab line from hda# (where # is your current root) to hda5 (if its the first extended partition, 6 if second, etc). You could then put OSX in your current Linux root partition. If you can borrow an external HD, I would recommend installing OSX onto that disk in a partition precisely the same size as the partition you want on your laptop. Probably its safest to perform the installation on a non-critical machine, then move the disk to your laptop. Then boot Linux and use dd to copy that installation onto your laptop's hard drive. It has to be a primary partition; OSX won't boot off an extended partition. Add it to yout bootloader, and its a go. I have no problem with OSX on my "work" machine. I have OSX, Linux, Solaris, and WinXP on 1 disk on my Dell. But OSX really likes to install on its own disk, and I have had it delete other primary partitions during installation, so unless you are good at partition recovery or have backed up all your data, don't install on your work machine. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119751 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 Hi Slaytanic,Don't EVEN think of installing OSX86 on a PC you need for work! Especially because your question indicates that you're not familiar with partition management... Find another drive to install OSX on, a usb one for example. edav. Hi, I'm quite familiar with partition management (almost with fdisk in linux), but never merged two partitions together.. BTW, I've thought about a possible solution that would prevent loosing my data, but there is still a problem.. This is my situation: /dev/sda1 Linux Root /dev/sda2 Linux Boot /dev/sda3 Windows Root /dev/sda4 Extended Partition with two partitions inside I removed sda2 and put boot on sda1(so, now I do not have a sda2 partition) and reinstalled the Grub Boot loader: linux obviously starts with no problems while when starting windows it gets stuck immediately because it can not find one of its files. I think the problem is that windows gets confused because there is no more the second primary partition.. Do you think that if I resize the sda4 extended partition and add before it a primary one (which would become sda2) will windows start correctly again? At the moment I rebuilt the sda2 partition with fdisk and windows works again.. Now I'll investigate also if there is a grub option that makes windows believe to be on the first partition (as a friend told me it was possible with the Lilo Bootloader) wmarsh: you said that OSX installation have deleted other partitions... how is it possible? I've read a complete installation guide and you have simply to choose onto which partition you want to install it.. The deletion you told about was a consequence of your mistake? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119879 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 Problem solved with windows: I've changed the boot.ini file in order to start windows from partition 2 instead of 3 and everything works even after removing the linux boot partition sda2.. So, I will be able to create another primary partition after windows and before the extended partition: should I really worry about the possibility to delete existing partitions during the installation of OSx86? Thank you very much for all your answers and suggestions! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119893 Share on other sites More sharing options...
belgrano Posted May 26, 2006 Share Posted May 26, 2006 ...So, I will be able to create another primary partition after windows and before the extended partition: should I really worry about the possibility to delete existing partitions during the installation of OSx86? ... No, unless you use Disk Utility to edit the partitions on your hdd. Create the primary partition using Partition Magic or Acronis Disc Director (I think you passed that point already) and use Disc Utility only to erase the partition as "Mac OS Extended" (that would be the eqivalent of formating as hfs+). Then you can install OS X. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119913 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaytanic Posted May 26, 2006 Author Share Posted May 26, 2006 No, unless you use Disk Utility to edit the partitions on your hdd. Create the primary partition using Partition Magic or Acronis Disc Director (I think you passed that point already) and use Disc Utility only to erase the partition as "Mac OS Extended" (that would be the eqivalent of formating as hfs+). Then you can install OS X. Thank you very much! As soon as I'll come back home (on sunday) I will try the installation! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/18315-installing-osx-1044-in-an-extended-partition/#findComment-119926 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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