Messed up partition map with iPartition - how to fix?

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Messed up partition map with iPartition - how to fix?

I was trying to change the partition map on my external USB HDD from Apple Partition Map to GUID so I would be able to create a FAT32 partition on it to be accessible from windows. I used iPartition to do so (through a bootable CD as it doesn't yet work on Leopard), but it told me it was "unable to write the new partition scheme".

Then, when I booted back into OS X, it told me that the drive could not be read, and under disk utility its partition map shows up as "Unformatted". I have a lot of important files on this drive, and only some of them are backed up. Is there any way I could fix the partition map of the drive? I'm pretty sure the files themselves are intact, I just don't know how to get to them.

I'm not a very experienced mac user. If this had happened under windows, I might've been able to fix it, but unfortunately I'm at a loss :S Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jan 18, 2008 6:12 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Jan 18, 2008 7:36 PM in response to Silviu

You have only one option. You will have to boot from your OS X Installer Disc One and repartition the drive using Disk Utility. All your data will be lost, unfortunately.

You cannot change a partition map on the fly, and you cannot use partitioning software that is not compatible with Intel Macs and the GUID partition scheme.

As for recovering your files read the following:

Basics of File Recovery

If you empty the Trash the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When you delete files you erase only the directory entries, not the files themselves. However, the space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.

If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten with recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.

The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.

Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

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Answer 2

Silviu Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 19, 2008 1:46 PM in response to Kappy

Thank-you very much for the advice, I will look into getting some file recovery software and just reformat the whole drive. Hopefully I can save my files, and if not, lesson learned I guess. Thanks again!

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