Change Apple Partition scheme to GUID-partition scheme...on the fly?

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Level 1

95 points

Change Apple Partition scheme to GUID-partition scheme...on the fly?

My G4 iMac's fan gave up the ghost today, so I thought I'd use the iMac's bootable external b/u drive on my MBP until I replace the fan. The drive mounts okay, but it isn't available as a startup drive because its partition is Apple Partition Map instead of GUID-partition (which Intel Macs require).

My question: Is there a utility that will change the partition type on the fly, leaving the files intact?

Thanks.

Bucky

iMac G4 20-inch flat panel, Mac OS X (10.4.10), MBP 15" 2.0gHz. Wife's 15" PB 1.67gHz. Wife's 5G 30GB iPod. 5G 60GB iPod.

Posted on Sep 13, 2007 5:51 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Sep 13, 2007 6:32 PM in response to BuckyBoy

No. You must re-partition the drive to switch the map scheme from APM to GUID. This will completely erase the hard drive.

However, you can boot an Intel Mac from an APM partitioned drive, but you cannot install OS X on it. You can clone an existing Intel system to the drive and use that system to boot the Intel Mac. Note that you cannot boot an Intel Mac with any drive that has a PPC version of OS X installed regardless of the partition scheme.

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Answer 2

brunus

Level 1

25 points

Sep 14, 2007 2:36 AM in response to BuckyBoy

Hi,
I'm looking for the same solution: there are 2 softwares, iPartition and DiskStudio, who claim to do so, but I have not tried them yet, since I'm looking for a freeware solution.

If anyone has tried them, please report.

thanks,

brunus

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Answer 3

BuckyBoy Author

Level 1

95 points

Sep 14, 2007 7:15 AM in response to Kappy

Thanks, Kappy.

I read your answer after I had already used SuperDuper to copy the Apple Map-partitioned drive onto another external drive that is GUID partitioned. Sure enough, even though SD made the destination drive bootable, it didn't show in System Preferences/Startup Disk on the MBP due to the incompatibilities of PPC OSX and Intel OSX.

Maybe I'll grab a refurb iMac (Intel) and use Migration Assistant to move the data from the PPC iMac to the Intel iMac. Then, I can leisurely take on the daunting task of replacing the fan in the iconic iMac 20-inch USB 2.0.

BTW, iPartition's website says they can "convert" between Apple Map and GUID partitions. Even if true, it wouldn't enable the PPC OSX 10.4.x to run on my Intel MBP, as shown above. But, for those who are interested, it might be worthwhile to contact iPartition's tech support on the website to find out.

Thanks, again.

Bucky

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Sep 14, 2007 6:11 AM in response to brunus

These utilities can only re-partition a drive but cannot change the partition scheme. They also may not work reliably on a drive that is already using the GUID partition scheme.

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