How do I delete a partition on a hard drive?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with OS X Lion (don't know the version), I installed windows 7 shortly afterwards and primarily used that. I've now sold the laptop but need to delete the windows partition and that's where the problem started. The original Mac partition stopped working, so I deleted the content on the bootcamp partition and reinstalled OSX onto that one, now I am unable to delete the original partition so only half of the 500GB hard drive is available to use. Can anyone tell me how to delete the old partition so I can then just re-install OSX so it's ready for its new owner? I also have two recovery HD partitions. Please help!

make it easy, kill 2 birds with 1 stone
reboot holding 3 keys - option, command, r - you should see a spinning globe, if not try again
open disk utilty, select your HD on the left and erase/reformat as mac journaled
exit du, choose install OSX
result - no more windows or other random partitions and a fresh OSX like out of the box

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How to put a recovery partition on the hard drive

How can I create a recovery partition on the hard drive of my laptop. I had to reinstall the whole system, and tried to use the HP recovery software they sent me but it quit when it was about three quarters the way finished. I had to use a copy of windows 8 to put the system back on my laptop. After I got it all straighten out, I updated it to windows 8.1 and it seems like the computer runs a lot faster with windows 8.1 on it. Now I need to find away to install a recovery partition on my hard drive.
Thank You
Garry Crist

When requesting assistance, please provide the complete model name and/or product number of the HP computer in question. HP/Compaq makes thousands of models of computers. Without this information it may be difficult or impossible to assist you in resolving your issue.
The above requested information can be found on the bottom of the computer or inside the battery compartment. Please do not include the serial number. Please enter the model/product information into HP's Online Consumer Support page and/or post it here for our review.
A Recover partition is something the factory places on the computer. It is an image of the factory installation and the software required to restore the computer to a factory like state using that image. You will not be able to create a Recovery partition on your computer unless you use the HP Recovery Discs to return the computer to a factory like state. Please note the HP Recovery Discs and the resulting HP Recovery partition will only contain an image of Windows 8 that cannot be updated to reflect the installation of Window 8.1.
My suggestion is to use the Windows "System Image Backup" utility to create an exact image of the Windows 8.1 partition as it currently is. If your computer developes an issue or you need to replace the hard drive, all you have to do is "restore" the image to the computer. You will need to use an external USB hard drive or other media to store the image. Please see Windows 8.1 Tip: Use System Image Backup for instructions on creating and storing a "Windows - System Image Backup."
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
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Frank
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This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
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I can't delete a partition from my Hard Drive using Boot Camp!!??!!

Hello. Earlier today I installed Windows 8 to my iMac using boot camp and creating a partition. I've decided I don't like it, and want to remove it. I cannot delete the partition!! Help!!

How are you trying to delete it? What happens when you try? There is only one way to remove a Bootcamp partition and return your drive to a single OSx partition, use Bootcamp Assistant and choose the menu option to remove Windows.

How do I delete files from a portable hard drive

I've been backing up my MacBook Pro on an external portable hard drive. I need to delete some but not all the files from that portable hard drive permanently. When I highlight them and click to move them to Trash I get a message telling me this cannot be done because they are Read Only files? How do I go about it. I am required by work to delete them off this hard drive. Do I have to reformat the hard drive? If so how do I go about it?

You can easily delete files from a Time Machine Backup:
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock.If the Time Machine icon isn’t in the Dock, look for Time Machine in the Applications folder.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through the backups Time Machine created.The windows behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to delete, select it, and then open the Action menu (looks like a gear) and choose Delete All Backups for the item.

How do I delete photos from an external hard drive before downloading to my new Mac?

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drive that has all my photos from my old computer on it Because there are thousands, I want to delete a bunch of them before downloading onto my new Mac. However, when I click on the photos, they say "locked." Once I have the photos trimmed down, how do I get the to download to my Mac?

Don't touch that one !
I was hoping that in addition to that there should be another device listed, namely the USB External HD you've got plugged into the USB port. It should show up something like this:

HT4906 How do I delete old mail from the hard drive on my mac 10.9.2?

How do I delete old mail with photoattchements
before a certain date from my mail?

Do they appear in Mail? That is are they listed in a Mail window? If so then scroll down to the target date, select the first email for that date. Hold down the SHIFT key and scroll to the last mesage you wish to delete and click on it. This should select all the messages between your start and end date. CTRL- or RIGHT-click on your selection and click on Delete in the context menu.
Oh, be sure you have your messages sorted by Date Received.

How do I remove the partition on my hard drive?

I've got 20 GB dedicated to Windows but want to remove the partition and make the hard drive 100% Mac-use only. Any ideas on how to do that?

Use the Boot Camp Assistant in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to remove it. If you're running Mac OS X 10.4, also see this article.
(56735)

How do I delete files when message is hard drive is full. I have a airport time capsule connected to my mac air

How do I delete files to free up space from my hard drive?
My Apple Airport Time Capsule is connected to my 11" Mac Air . I was under the impression that connecting the time capsule would free up my hard drive to provide infinite space to the internet.

If you'd like to keep copies of them, put them onto an external drive and back it up as well; if you're using Time Machine, remove that drive from the list of items set to be excluded from the backup. If the drive's not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), choose Utilities from the Finder's Go menu and use the Disk Utility to erase it.
If you've done that or don't want to keep them, throw them away and empty the Trash.
The Time Capsule doesn't back up to the iCloud.
(125810)

How can i delete files on an external hard drive

I am trying to transfer all my photos from iPhoto onto an external hard drive. The external hard drive appears to be full. How do I delete the files on the external hard drive so I can add the photos.

If you have a few, you can easily use the drag 'n drop method: just have the external attached, open it in the Finder, and drag files to your internal's trash can. Empty the trash before disconnecting the external (or the files will not be deleted). Make sure you have the files backed up somewhere before ditching them on the external drive (unless you absolutely do not ever need them again).

How do I delete the files on my hard drive but keep all the applications?

I have an old MacBook Pro. By old, I mean abiut three or four years. I recently upgraded to Lion, but I have so many files that my system is forever showing thte rainbow spinner. I copied everything to an external hard drive, and would like to erase everything but my applications. Is there an easy way to do this?

Ok....Here we go.....
First open disk utility - then hit verify your disk.
Once that's done, verify your disk permissions - hit repair disk permissions if there are errors.
Once that's all done, restart your macbook.
Now you've done all those, delete all the files you've copied over to your backup/external drive.
If you've made folders for them, you can safely delete them. Only do this if you've made copies of those files in your external drive.
most of those files will probably in your document/movies/pictures folder. If you've copied them over to your external then you can delete them. Be sure you have copies before you delete them.
also delete anything in your download folder.
once you've done those, go to the appstore and download ccleaner. it is a small yet effective hard drive cleaner. no advance settings to mess around with. it will just delete your cache files and old log files.
good luck.
PS - to delete some of them you must move your mouse over it, tap once then keep your finger in the shift button then use your arrow keys to highlight them. once you've highlighed those files, right click on them then move to trash.

How do I do the partition of the hard drive?

Mac Pro

Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Note that SMART is not supported for external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
7. If you have made more than one volume repeat Steps 5 and 6 for each volume you created.

How do I delete files from an external hard drive?

I am running LR 3.6 on Windows 7 and keep my images on an external drive rather than my internal one. When I select the "delete from disk" option, it removes the file from the catalog but not from the external drive. I have to do this manually. What am I doing wrong?

It should be deleting from both the catalogue and disk.
Are you sure that you don't have two copies of the file on disk, and (of course) Lightroom only knows of one of them?
Try this: before you delete a file, right-click on it and choose Show In Explorer. Then delete the file from disk using Lightroom. Does it disappear from the open Explorer window? (You might need to right click in the Explorer window and choose Refresh.
After your experiment, get back to us.
Hal

How do I delete printer software from the hard drive on my iMac

How do I remove the printer software completely from the harddrive on my iMac ?
Thanks

Double-click your boot volume's Desktop icon, put the Finder window into list view, and drill down into these three Library folders.

Hi, how do i remove a partition on my hard drive and on my time capsule

hi,
how do i import an aperture vault onto a new computer with aperture 3 installed

Use the Boot Camp Assistant in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to remove it. If you're running Mac OS X 10.4, also see this article.
(56735)

How to delete SMS text from the hard drive of a IPhone 3gs

How do I delete SMS text from the hard drive of a iPhone 3GS

If you want to delete the messages from within the text app, swipe over the name or number of the sender and hit delete.
If you are afraid that someone will be able to restore them by ckecking your HD, you will have to set up the phone "as new device" or choose "erase all content and Settings" in Settings/General/Reset. But this willerase the whole phone, not only your text messages.
How to set up your iPhone or iPod touch as a new device
Message was edited by: Ingo2711

How do I delete a partition on a hard drive?

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