Please Help! Lost 60GB deleting Win XP using BootCamp! - Page 3

oshawapilot · #17 January 26th, 2008, 07:10 PM

Sorry to dredge up this post, but I've got this same problem.

I have a new (aluminum) iMac with a 320 Gig HD, running Leopard.

I partitioned 60 gigs to run XP, but after an unfortunate series of events (Windows blew up) I thought I did a clean uninstall.

However, when I went to reinstall a few nights ago I suddenly noticed that the 60 gigs was completely AWOL. The partition doesn't even show as existing anymore, and most curiously, even system profiler identifies the hard drive as only being a ~280gig capacity.

I tried the Ubuntu option listed earlier and partition manager *did* show a FAT32 partition, but only a few hundred megs. I trashed it from within Ubuntu, rebooted into Leopard, but no joy.

Now the OSX Disk Utility partition manager doesn't show the blued-out "mystery" space on my Imac HD as it did before, but the system seems completely oblivious to the fact that the HD is actually 320 gigs - every indication is that it only sees 260 gigs, only expects 260 gigs, and is only ever going to address 260 gigs.

I've also tried booting from the Leopard install disc and running Disc Manager there, but I have the same results - even system profiler there only shows 260 gigs as the drive capacity, even though I know for a fact it's 320 - even the HD model number clearly attests to 325 gigs in it's model number, and when the machine was new, it had all 325 gigs!

Intel ICH8-M AHCI:

Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 3.0 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

ST3250820AS Q:

Capacity: 232.89 GB
Model: ST3250820AS Q
Revision: 3.BQE
Serial Number: [removed]
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 232.57 GB
Available: 136.02 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

Any further thoughts on this?

oshawapilot · #18 January 26th, 2008, 07:12 PM

Gaaaah! I just looked at my system profiler quote above and now see I've lost even more space! My HD is shrinking!

nixgeek · #19 January 27th, 2008, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oshawapilot

Gaaaah! I just looked at my system profiler quote above and now see I've lost even more space! My HD is shrinking!

Hi there. Post a screenshot of what you're seeing in Disk Utility. We might be able to determine what the problem is from that.

oshawapilot · #20 January 27th, 2008, 10:03 AM

As requested. Thanks!

nixgeek · #21 January 27th, 2008, 11:21 AM

From the looks of it, you have a bit of unallocated space as is evident by the space above the Mac OS X partition. I haven't played with Boot Camp in a while but I believe there is a way for it to reallocate that space non-destructively to your Mac OS X partition. Try running the Boot Camp Assistant again and see if you can remove that partition and have it reintegrated into the Mac OS X partition.

oshawapilot · #22 January 27th, 2008, 11:40 AM

Ok, tried that.

Uhoh. The results were not hopeful.

nixgeek · #23 January 27th, 2008, 12:45 PM

Hmm. Well, as I've mentioned I don't have recent experience with Boot Camp in Leopard. The last time I tried it was with the beta in 2006 with a Core 2 Duo iMac, plus I'm only running Tiger at home still on my iMac G5 (will be upgrading to Leopard soon depending on the 10.5.2 update). The best I can tell you unfortunately is that you might have to backup your date and reinstall OS X unless someone else here with Leopard and Boot Camp Final experience can chime in with a more positive, non-destructive way to reintegrate that partition into OS X.

From doing some searches, it seems as though others are also having problems with Boot Camp in Leopard.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...80111102745203

oshawapilot · #24 January 27th, 2008, 09:10 PM

I threw it all to the wind tonight, put my faith in Time Machine, and completely reformatted.

Still nothing - even with the complete format and reinstall the drive only showed 237 Gigs.

I reset the NVRAM and formatted/reinstalled again, and same result.

FWIW Time Machine worked *perfectly* (it restored my system exactly as it was left) and I'm up and running again, but still absolutely no closer to regaining the lost space - the HD itself (not just the system) seems to think it's only a 237 Gig drive now.

I guess I'm looking at a visit to the Genius Bar now...ugh.