HELP!!!!! Stuck in Disk Utility, No OS, Hardrive locked.

[5stateweather]

Number 4 stops me.
It still won't let me click on the partition drop down.

[DeltaMac]

You have a failing hard drive, or the partition map is simply really messed up.
If you didn't do anything that you are aware of, to 'lock' your drive, then maybe the hard drive is coincidentally close to failure.
Boot to your older system - which would be the system restore DVD, or your previous OS X installer, whatever that is.
When booted to your installer DVD, you'll likely still need to re-partition the hard drive. You'll find Disk Utility in the Utilities menu. Do the same process that I listed to re-partition your hard drive, then reinstall OS X...

[5stateweather]

You have a failing hard drive, or the partition map is simply really messed up.
If you didn't do anything that you are aware of, to 'lock' your drive, then maybe the hard drive is coincidentally close to failure.
Boot to your older system - which would be the system restore DVD, or your previous OS X installer, whatever that is.
When booted to your installer DVD, you'll likely still need to re-partition the hard drive. You'll find Disk Utility in the Utilities menu. Do the same process that I listed to re-partition your hard drive, then reinstall OS X...

Okay, so I did some more research.
My actual hard drive is not locked, but it still won't let me create another partition.
My Parition is locked. It is locked and read only.
I currently don't have my install CD. Which sucks.

[stottm]

The disk is in use because you booted from it. You need to boot an external disk to format the internal disk. Your original OS install Disc should be able to run Disk Utility.

Or you can create a bootable thumb drive from Apple's Recovery Disk Assistant. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
This is not the full install of Lion but it should let you blitz the HD and install the recovery partition then re-download Lion or just blank the disk so you can reinstall your original OS.

Ideally, I would take the time to install your older OS then re-download Lion and follow these directions to create a bootable thumb drive install of the full Lion.

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/08/11/build...ive-for-cheap/

[stottm]

Duplicate post...