Partition on startup disk

Does anyone know how to go about partitioning the startup disc?

You may be able to partition on the fly provided you haven't filled up the drive and have adequate free space. Note that you should backup before doing this.
Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder. Select the hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You will see a sizing gadget in the bottom right corner of the partition map sizing window. You will also see that the sizing window has a blue section and a white section. The blue section cannot be altered. You can resize the white area by dragging the sizing gadget upwards to shrink the existing partition. Once you've shrunk it and freed up that amount of space you want for the other partition stop. Click on the "+" button in the lower left of the sizing window and add 1 partition. Size it to the amount of freed space then click on the Apply button. Wait patiently until the process has completed and the new volume mounts on your Desktop.

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Partition a startup disk

How do I partition a startup disk? Disk utility does not display a partition option.

Just open disk Utility and grab the bottom right hand corner of the partition layout area and drag it up to create free space below and the startup disk size you want.
Then click the Apply button.
After that finishes click the Plus sign and that now free space will be another partition. Set name and format and click Apply again.
This will not erase or damage the startup volume.

Can't sellect OSX partitions as startup disk from 9.2.2 anymore.

I cant select OSX disk as startup anymore from os 9.2.2
I could before, when i formated the OSX disk I installed the os 9 drivers for it. The OSX drive shows up in the os 9 disk utilities window as unmountable but formatable.
Is there some way to check from OSX weather or not os9 drivers are still installed on its disk? I have to startup from OSX install cd to get back into OSX now.
I have the following setup:
Drive 1 on onboard ata (master)
OS 8.6 on first partition
os 9.2.2 on second partition
Drive 2 On sonnet tempo trio PCI card (master channel 1)
OSX 10.4

Type this into the terminal and hit Return.
diskutil list
If you have OS 9 drivers installed, all of these should be listed on drive 2.
2: Apple_Driver43 28.0 KB disk0s2
3: Apple_Driver43 28.0 KB disk0s3
4: AppleDriverATA 28.0 KB disk0s4
5: AppleDriverATA 28.0 KB disk0s5
6: Apple_FWDriver 256.0 KB disk0s6
7: AppleDriverIOKit 256.0 KB disk0s7
8: Apple_Patches 256.0 KB disk0s8

Partitioning the startup disk

Can I partition my startupdisk, without losing all my data? It sais you can, but I'm scared to do it.

A. Backup first, a clone is probably best so you have a bootable image.
B. One use, a small OS X boot volume to run repairs from.
Mac OS lets you install and boot from multiple drives, and while you can use your Apple OEM or OS X DVD to run Disk Utility, you may want to do more and also so you have the current version.
If you are thinking data or other partitions, maybe not.
Even today, Windows 7 on its own small fast (SSD) and all the data on another physical hard drive, and backup on #3 hard drive, rather than partition. So no, I don't unless you just want to or have some need.
If you want to install Windows, you can but you have to go through a different partition manager, and you can only have a Mac HFS+ volume, and Windows volume, that's it.

Inaccessible bootcamp partition for startup disk

Here are the results of the commands that Christopher asked for in thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4144252
Matts-iMac:~ mattp$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0          geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1660156288] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1660565928 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1661837312 - 291686400] HPFS/QNX/AUX
Matts-iMac:~ mattp$ sudo gpt -r -v show disk0
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
       start        size index contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 1660156288      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1660565928     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1661835464        1848
1661837312   291686400      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1953523712        1423
1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
1953525167           1         Sec GPT header

Sadly, I have the same on my MacBookPro. Here are the results for that one.
Matts-MacBook-Pro:~ mattp$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 91201/255/63 [1465149168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1169921920] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1170331560 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1171601408 - 293545984] HPFS/QNX/AUX
Matts-MacBook-Pro:~ mattp$ sudo gpt -r -v show disk0
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=750156374016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1465149168
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
       start        size index contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 1169921920      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1170331560     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1171601096         312
1171601408   293545984      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1465147392        1743
1465149135          32         Sec GPT table
1465149167           1         Sec GPT header

Hard time for selecting Startup Disk (partition) in Mac Classic II.

Dear coleagues, I'd like your help to understand and solve a tricky trouble. I'm sorry for the long text, but the issue is probably living in a small detail.
The issue regards a Mac Classic II with internal and external HDDs. Internal HDD has two partitions, a smaller with System 7.1 (first) and a larger with System 7.5.3 (second). This one is installed there since 5 years ago, working fine.
The (just installed) external HDD has 6 partitions (because of its size 9 Gb). It has been formated runing VCP in this Classic II itself and all partitions are initialized with HFS. It is intended to be a backup for my Classic II as well as my Mac Plus. I've started Installing System 7.5.3 in its third partition. Other partitions remain still empty.
Using only internal HDD I can already perceive that "Startup Disk" control panel is unable to change the boot partition attribute between partitions in the same drive. When I open "Startup Disk" it usualy both partitions of internal HDD are highlighted. I can select a Zip Drive, for instance, and it will boot from Zip. But, when I switch it back to HDD, doesn't bother wich partition I select, it will always boot with the same partition (usually 7.5.3). Then, If i open Startup Disk CP again, both partitions are again highlighted.
To switch between partitions in the same drive, I use Lido 7.5.6 PMount and there I select the boot partition. Then every time I select my HDD, that'll be the default boot partition.
My conclusion is that in Mac Classic II the Startup Disk CP is unable to set a partition within a drive, it selects the drive only. The boot will obey the drive's partition table flag. That's why I can do it whith Lido, writing directly at HDD's flags.
Now, attaching the external HDD, I can see all its partitions in Startup Disk CP and then I select one of them (the 3rd, with 7.5.3). Before rebooting, I close and open again the Startup Disk CP, then I can see all its 6 partitions highlighted. Just like I've been doing with the internal HDD, probably the solution to set a specific boot partition would be through Lido 7.5.6 PMount again. But Lido is unable to handle this drive. It appears gray in the drives list.
What does it sound to you? What would you recommend to test? Is there an alternative for Startup Disk CP?
Thank you.
Regards, Ciro (Brazil)

Dear Jan, good Evening.
Thank you for your time.
In fact I can select a specific partition, but by closing and reopenning Startup Disk CP I realize that the selection has been attributed to the physical drive (all partitions highlighted).
I have tried Startup Disk CP in both System 7.1 and System 7.5.3. They do the same way.
Internal HDD has been formated, partitioned and initialized with Apple HD CS Setup.
This external HDD in a different way. Apple HD SC Setup hasn't been able to "see" it, probably because of its prior format system. Lido neither. That's why I went to VCP. Moreover, as it is too big for 68030, I had to format it attached to a Performa 6360. After formating, I've let VCP make set the partitions in HFS mode (partitions with 512, 1024 and 2032 Mb).
I've mounted VCP in Mini VMac to get some screenshots for you:
Bringing it back to Mac Classic II, it could be mounted with Lido, but System 7 has asked to initialize all partitions again. I've accepted, installed system 7 on it, and it didn't boot. Then I've repeated the partitioning and initializing procedures using Apple HD SC Setup (since now there's a Mac HDD with "small" logical drives). Nothing changed.
I'm following your tip about System Picker. I've downloaded the sit file and read about it. It seems to be able to overlay the problem. I'm gonna try it and report back here.
But I feel still uncomfortable not to be able to do things the regular way. As far as I know, the boot partition is an attribute of a drive partition in partition map, just like the "Active Partition" found in FAT systems. I should be able to write there as I can do with Lido in internal HDD.
Thank you, Jan.
Best regards,
Ciro Bruno.

Startup disk App in System preferences not working in one partition

Using the Startup disk App, I cannot reboot from my Mac OS X drive to another; but when I am in another of the drives/partitions, the Startup disk App. works. Checking the console, system.log, I found this statement repeated many times, after I filtered it with "Startup disk":
Mar 29 10:26:21 xxx-xxxxxxx's-powermacg3series /usr/sbin/update: FIXME: IOUnserialize has detected a string that is not valid UTF-8, " ˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇˇ". I am not sure that this is pertinent, however.
How can I solve this problem without an archive and install on my primary drive?

The G3 is the Blue & White model, 450 MHz, 896 MB RAM. I have 3 HDrives, one with two partitions; all the drives/partitions have Mac OS 10.4.11, except for one which has 9.2.2. The problem has been going on for many months. As I stated, when I am in my primary drive, I cannot get the Startup Disk application in the System Preferences application to boot to any other of the drives/partitions. However, when I am booted in any of those other drives/partitions, I can boot wherever I want to. I suspect that the original installation had a gliche that caused this problem; installations sometimes don't work the first time, but I want to avoid a new archive and install on my primary drive, if I can locate the problem and correct it more directly. Any help you can give I will really appreciate.

Windows Startup disk disappeared!

I installed Bootcamp successfully last year and have run it quite satisfactorily since then. I hadn't used it for a few months but when I tried to switch from OSX to Windows this week (rebooting holding the Option key) there was no start up disk for Windows. Going into System Preferences, only the OSX and 'from start-up disk' options were listed. So, there's not trace of Windows having been installed.
Although I'd rather not reinstall, I'm unable to because I get an error message about the partition when I launch Boot Camp Assistant.
I've used the Disk Utility to repair but that has made no difference.
Any suggestions?

H Nerowolf and thanks so far,
1. Never had the Windows disk icon on the desk top but it appeared always when I selected
"Start Up Disk" from System Preferences. It no longer appears here.
2. The error message reads: +The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.+.
3. No, no A/V programme running in Windows. The only application I installed on the Windows partition was a business accounting package called 'Cash Flow Manager'.
4. Running the command in Terminal results in:
+Son-of-Dome-Head-2:~ Al$ ls /volumes+
+Macintosh HD Skype 1 baystongroup+
+Skype Time Machine Backups iDisk+
+Son-of-Dome-Head-2:~ Al$+
Doesn't look like a Windows partition to me....
My objective is (firstly) to recover a data file (which was only 80% backed up) and (secondly) to restore the Windows XP.
Grateful for any further assistance you can offer.
Regards,
A.

Cant partition external FW disk

a. launch DU
b. see that my 240Gb ext disk is already partitioned into three volumes.
c. wish to further split 3rd volume into 3 more volumes of around 20Gb each
d. launch Help from DU
e. search on partition
f. see that at step 3 of the suggested solution "Partitioning a startup disk into several volumes" - mentions that I should be able to "click partition"
g. see that there is no button or menu to do this...
am I missing something ? btw the Help stuff mentions "partitioning a non-startup disk" as well, and the instructions dont significantly deviate from what Ive already stated....

never mind figured it out. Wrote too soon ! Have to click on the correct icon within DU. Duh.
- Still cant split the 3rd partition without erasing the whole disk, but I have Disk Studio from Macromat.

Trying to get rid of error "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". Recovery HD visible.

Hello,
I've been stuck for some hours now trying different things to install Windows 7 on my Macbook Air, and I think now is the time to call for some custom help.
I'm using OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks.
So some months ago I just wanted to run Linux on my laptop so I installed rEFInd, shrunk the Macintosh HD partition by 25GB and booted on a linux live USB flash I burned using dd.
Then I used gparted to create my linux partitions.
It worked just fine, even though disk utility from OS X seemed quite unhappy about this (it seemed to have incorrect informations about the filesystem on these partitions, seeing them as journaled Mac OS while they were clearly not). At this point already, the Recovery HD from mac showed up in disk utility, which I found weird but didn't bother me.
But recently I needed windows on my Mac. So after a few tries for the triple boot, I managed to create a bootable USB stick with boot camp, which already showed me the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" and hence refused to partition/install himself.
So I thought "OK, that's no big issue, I can just partition with disk utility and then boot on the USB stick and everything will work fine". But when EFI booting on the USB flash drive I got stuck at the beginning of Windows installer with no keyboard or mouse support.
After some hours spent googling, I was unable to find a working fix for that, and as there was no support for my case (where I used bootcamp to create the bootable flash but NOT to partition/reboot) I decided to give bootcamp a try.
So I erased my linux partitions, and cleaned up everything I could on the HD with disk utility. That means I now have two partitions showing in disk utility : Macintosh HD and Recovery HD.
When using disk utility from terminal, the list is :
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            80.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3
But boot camp still isn't happy, and the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" keeps popping after the intro and I can't partition/boot from bootcamp.
So, as I don't understand what is wrong here anymore, any help would be greatly appreciated!
I will be watching the thread a lot because I really would like this resolved (or windows installed one way or another) this weekend; so any questions on my past manipulations or config just ask!
Thank you.

keyboard issues are also something of a common issue.
I wish the best threads were voted to the top of forums, something! Me, I literally burned out here, but after installing 10 Preview, wanted to "see what was going on" after hiatus of a couple years and see if anything had changed (no, not really!)
Also, these new Communities are not putting "more like this" and failing to help too.
I think rewriting Boot Camp Assistant's built in help and pdf would help a lot, and needs to be clearer and go into details. And Yosemite was not it seems tested against Boot Camp, and drivers for new Macs + new OS also lag behind. Again, common and no sign of improvement or change.
One of the tricks to the "can't partition" is rather simple - of course backup is step #1 and is spelled out - SHRINK the main HFS+ partition! then stretch it back to full length. Sometimes a reboot is needed, and sometimes even do a Safe Boot - not sure what but Recovry Mode might be a good option too. That does seem to consolidate free space, move files that are locked and cannot be moved otherwise, and allow BCA to partition, jusst be sure to have enough space left and large enough for a proper Windows install (and fudge factor).

Boot Camp partition not showing in startup disk or when holding alt key

I've read countless discussions about similar questions to this one, however, I still haven't been able to find any solution.
I have an old 2006 MacBook that has just been fully updated and reformatted. I'm running OSX 10.7.5 and Boot Camp 4.
I went through the Boot Camp installation from an Windows ISO image in my usb drive, where it succesfully downloaded all files needed, and prompted me to make the partition, after which it restarted and was supposed to take me to the installation manager in the Windows partition. I first got the "No bootable driver" error, to which I read I was supposed to restart the computer, hold the alt key, and choose the boot camp partition. However, it does not show up. I only get Mac and Recover drivers.
I went into the Mac's startup disk, and only the Mac driver is showing, no Boot Camp driver, however, when I go into Disk Utilities, I can see that the BootCamp driver there.
I read somewhere that I should zap pram and reset SMC, which I did with their instructions. It didn't change anything, I still only get the Mac driver and Recovery when hitting the alt key.
Does it have something to do with my MacBook being older? That's the only reason I can think that would not allow me to do this.
Let me know what other info I can give you so that you can please help me!! Thanks in advance!

In last resort I solved my missing BOOTCAMP partition problem using a program called: iPartition from coriolis systems located in the United Kingdom http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php it took me a coupleof days to figure out the credit card system they have Hint: use your 9 digit zip code to find your credit card address and call your bank if you have an overseas hold on the card!!!! The program found my missing BOOTCAMP partition and restored it. It did take a couple of e-mails to learn to use their program. Let me know how you turn out!

How can I get my Windows Partition to be a startup disk?

I have Tiger 10.4.11, I had boot camp, Running Vista, Just fine for months.
I recently had a problem, within vista which caused a problem with the hard drive/master boot record which wouldn't allow Vista to boot anymore and actually reported "missing operating system".
Previously if I did nothing, after powering on my MacBook, it would default to the Windows partition and start it up (Vista).
Of course I could change this from the "startup disk" applet from within Tiger or I could use boot camp from within Vista.
I have since been able to fix my Vista related startup issue, however at present the MacBook is booting into Tiger by default.
I can HOLD the OPTION key and select either OS.
From the "startup disk" applet within Tiger, it no longer shows "Windows" as a startup option which seems to be an indicator of a problem with Tiger of how it sees the hard drive and/or partition.
I ran disk utility, no change.
How can I make Windows appear as an option in the "startup disk" applet within Tiger?
I can use Boot Camp within Vista, to select the "Windows" disk to restart from, and that works, but I would like to restore full functionality to Tiger.
Thank you and please advise,
Joe

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions ...
You will receive better exposure to your query in the BootCamp forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237
Carolyn

Windows partition no longer available on startup disk tool

I can no longer see my Windows XP partition from the startup disk tool.
The WinXP partition was created with bootcamp, and it was visible ok on the startup disk. Now it is no longer visible, although it keeps working if I select the partition at startup using the Option (Alt) key.
I suspect the problem is related to the fact that I have installed NTFS-3g and MacFUSE to make the WinXP partition read/wirte, but I have no evidence that this could be the root cause of my problem.
Any hint?
Thanks,
Fede

Hi, me again.
When you found the setupact.log file (from the other thread) did you do a search for "detected boot environment"?

Boot Camp error: The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Jounraled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.

Hi!
I am getting the error:
"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Jounraled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."
I read up some on google, but all of them says that they have crated a partition and that is the problem, I only have the standard "Macintosh HD".
I tried to create a partition manually in disk utility but then the error message: "Partition failed with error message: Could not unmount disk."
Can anyone help me? It's driving me crazy.
Thanks.

This message, and threads like yours got asked daily for over two years, now it is only a couple times a week!!
Is it so hard to follow through? you were to have backup already, clones are best, then erase/format and restore.
Then partition.
Some have been able to use Disk Utility booted from OS X DVD or another drive, and repair the drive.
You have to use Boot Camp Assistant (99.9% anyway) to create and achieve a proper Windows Master Boot Record partition.

How can I reformat my hard drive if erase and partition don't work in disk utility and I get an error when I try to erase and install from the Leopard install disk? I have had several kernel panics, but the volume shows up in startup disk.

I have had several kernel panics on my iBook G4; the panic message shows up just after the desktop appears. Although the startup volume shows up in Startup Disk, the installation disk reports an error when I attempt an erase and install. Disk utility is unable either to erase or partition the hard drive. The hard drive shows up in disk utility, but the startup volume doesn’t HELP!!!

Do you have the original system discs that came with the iBook when it was new?
Which exact iBook model is it?
You can choose from this list:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html
Erasing the disc and installing Mac OS X 10.5 will result in loss of the other applications (such as the iLife applications) which came pre-installed on the iBook.

Partition on startup disk

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