Dragged a partition into the trash...now what?

LABachlr

LABachlr

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I know some of you are going to get a good laugh out of this, but a buddy of mine wanted to get rid of a hard drive partition on his mac, so he just dragged it into the trash thinking that once it was deleted, it would automatically add the 5GB to his main partition, much like deleting a file.

Well, it obviously didn't work out that way, but it did get rid of the partition icon. I am a pc guy, so I am at a loss as to how to get the partition back. I know that it won't just add the space to the main partition, but how does he get the 5GB partition back? Is a reformatting session the only way?
 
If you go into your utilities folder (in applications), and into the disk utility...you'll be able to see all your partitions.

Just select and click Mount. I did a similar thing with my second hard drive when I first got my G4.....*l*

You can also manage all your partitions through that, or disk copy....
 
Cool. Thanks. I assume the only way to make it one drive is to reformat the whole drive?

Also, can he use the disk utility program to format the drive in question? Just select the drive and click "format" (guess)?
 
There's no way change the size or number of your partititions without formatting your drive completely.

You might wanna use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your drive to i.e. firewire drive. You can't format a drive that contains the system currently in use. Therefore you have to boot from CD or another drive and then format.

Disk Utility is very useful...
 
OK. Cool. So he can be booted from his C drive and format the D drive, which is the drive that was thrown in the trash, with Disk Utility? I assume, much like mounting, it would be in Options>Format?
 
You can only format a whole drive. You can't boot from one partition and format another partition from the same drive. You have to boot from CD or from a completely new drive and then format the whole hard disk.

Open the Disk Utility. It really explains itself...:)
 
LOL. I'm sure it does explain itself knowing Mac. It's my friend's computer, so I can't really do anything right now. Just wanted the info. Thanks.

That's odd that you can't format one partition when booted from another partition on the same drive. You can do that on pc.

So, I guess the only way to get rid of its contents is by booting from a CD and formatting the whole drive, which is not really an option, or just dragging all of its contents into the trash.
 
Originally posted by LABachlr
That's odd that you can't format one partition when booted from another partition on the same drive. You can do that on pc.

So, I guess the only way to get rid of its contents is by booting from a CD and formatting the whole drive, which is not really an option, or just dragging all of its contents into the trash.
Click to expand...

Yes, you CAN format a single partition (while booted from another) using the Disk Utility. I think the point that was trying to be made is that you can't actually adjust the size of the partition in any way without formatting the entire drive.

Also, a secondary partition should re-appear after rebooting your computer (trashing it is only temporary).

The Disk Utility is REALLY simple and won't let you do something if you shouldn't be able to do it.

Good luck!

deev
 
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