Partitioning an existing HARD DRIVE on a Power PC G5

Question

I have a Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 with 4 GB DDR SDRAM running 10.5.6.
The Hard Drive is 250GBs.
I want to create a 110GB partition on it without erasing the data on the HARD DRIVE.
I'm only using 47GBs of the Hard Drive now.
Everytime I try using DISC UTILITY, it first tells me it can't it, that I have to use some type of
special journaling, but their is only one choice in the drop down for that field. I then try again
after I get the error message, and it appears to begin making the partition.
But then it hangs, forever. 24 hours or more and never stops.
Someone told me to try and boot up using a MAC OSX 10.5 boot up disc in safe mode, do
a HARD DRIVE permission repair and then try Disc Utility from there to make the partition.
But when I boot up in Safe Mode with the MAC OSX 10.5 Installation Disc 1, it says that 10.5 can't
be installed on the system.
I'm confused. Can I create a partition on an existing Hard Drive without erasing the existing data on a PowerPC, or is that functionality limited to the newer Intel machines?
Any input would be appreciated.
Message was edited by: brvideo
Message was edited by: brvideo

Answer 1

brvideo wrote:
Everytime I try using DISC UTILITY, it first tells me it can't it, that I have to use some type of
special journaling, but their is only one choice in the drop down for that field. I then try again
after I get the error message, and it appears to begin making the partition.
But then it hangs, forever. 24 hours or more and never stops.
It sounds like there's something wrong with the file system on your disk.
First, *back up* your drive to an external disk. Use the Restore tab in Disk Utility, CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper!, or the like to make a "bootable clone" on a FireWire external drive.
Boot from the clone, then use Disk Utility on it to do a +Repair Disk+ (not permissions) on your internal HD. If that finds errors it can't fix, keep running it until it fixes all of them or can't fix any more.
In that case, you might be able to fix it with a heavy-duty 3rd-party disk repair app, like DiskWarrior. It's about $100 and it (and other similar apps) are available via Google, VersionTracker.com, MacUpdate.com, etc.
Instead of the clone, you can boot from your Leopard Install disc, and select your language when prompted. Then on the next screen, select Utilities from the Menubar, then +Disk Utility.+ Use that copy of DU to do the +Repair Disk.+
If you can't fix it, the drive is suspect. If it's backed-up, you can try erasing it. Select the Erase tab, then +Security Options,+ then +Zero Out Disk.+ If that fails, the disk is dying. If it succeeds, it may be ok.
Then you should be able to make the partition without difficulty.
I'm confused. Can I create a partition on an existing Hard Drive without erasing the existing data on a PowerPC, or is that functionality limited to the newer Intel machines?
Yes, you should be able to partition it, as long as there's enough contiguous space, and the file system is ok.
See item 5 or 6 as appropriate of the Time Machine -- Frequently Asked Questions post for instructions.