Disk Utility refuses to work because of Lion!

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Level 1

41 points

Disk Utility refuses to work because of Lion!

I want to resize and add a partition (i.e. split a partition into two smaller partitions) on my hard drive, and I get the following error:

“Partition failed with the error: This operation requires a newer version of Mac OS X for this disk”

This is interesting (and annoying) because I used this exact computer and OS X version, 10.6.8, to format and partition this drive in the first place.

The reason must be the copy of Lion and/or the copy of the Lion installer (the full, “offline”-enabled installer that I made with the help of instructions) that I cloned onto the drive with Carbon Copy Cloner. I also cloned the Lion Recovery partition over. It probably also matters that I booted from all three partitions once (to test that they worked).

So...

what did Lion do to the partition map or whatever that causes the 10.6.8 Disk Utility app to no longer be able to change it and why?!
how do I undo this so I can use 10.6.8 Disk Utility to modify the partitions again?

I know I could just use 10.7's Disk Utility to get the job done now, but I don't want to be dependent on “OS X Vista” in the future.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iMac8,1 (24")

Posted on Apr 21, 2012 5:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ds store

Level 7

30,815 points

Apr 21, 2012 6:03 PM in response to temhawk

Lion changes the GUID when it installs, you can't use 10.6 DU with it or visa versa.

Why I tell people to erase their entire drive when returning to 10.6

And once you hook up a 10.6 TimeMachine drive to 10.7, it's altered too.

How to revert your Mac to Snow Leopard

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Answer 2

temhawk Author

Level 1

41 points

Apr 22, 2012 3:37 AM in response to ds store

Damnit! I don't want to erase the entire HD. I would have to back up tons of stuff to another drive with a large enough capacity that I don't have!

There has got to be a way to convert the GUID back without reformatting (I hope!). How do you see and edit the GUID from Terminal?

Thanks for your reply.

P.S. I didn't actually install Lion onto the drive, I just cloned it over using CCC. I think Lion screwed with the GUID when I booted from it in order to test that it worked.

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Answer 3

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Apr 22, 2012 5:01 AM in response to temhawk

You do not have to erase the HD. The problem is almost certainly the presence of the hidden "Lion Recovery" partition -- the Snow Leopard version of Disk Utility doesn't understand what it is so for safety's sake it won't let you change the partition map.

If you are willing to sacrifice that partition, you should be able to use Snow Leopard's Disk Utility to do what you want, although I can't guarantee this will work, or that it won't cause some unexpected problems with Lion. However, I have done this with a drive that originally had both Snow Leopard & Lion on separate partitions that I wanted to dedicate to Snow Leopard only, & it works fine for that.

With that understood, you can do this in Terminal. First, use "diskutil list" to get the IDENTIFIER value for the Lion Recovery partition. An example would be:

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

The IDENTIFIER value here would be disk1s3.

Now, erase the partition, converting it to a normal HFS+ volume Snow Leopard's Disk Utility will understand, with the following command, replacing {IDENTIFIER value} with what you got from the list command:

diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/{IDENTIFIER value}

An example would be:

diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/disk1s3

IMPORTANT!! The previous step erases the contents of the partition. If you use the wrong IDENTIFIER value, you will erase the wrong partition, leaving you with a drive that won't start up your Mac, no data, etc. If you are not sure about this, don't try it! You really shouldn't be doing this OR resizing partitions without a backup, but if you are unable or unwilling to back things up, this is your only alternative.

At this point, quit Terminal, launch Snow Leopard's Disk Utility & confirm that it shows a new partition named "Blank," which should be about 650 MB. You should now be able to use Snow Leopard's Disk Utility to resize partitions, delete the "Blank" partition, etc.

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Answer 4

temhawk Author

Level 1

41 points

Apr 22, 2012 5:18 AM in response to R C-R

Thank you very, very much!! It worked.

I didn't really need the recovery partition anyway, I have the lion installer.

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Answer 5

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Apr 22, 2012 6:14 AM in response to temhawk

I'm glad it worked out for you but please consider implementing a comprehensive backup plan ASAP. If you are like most people, the value of your data is much greater than the cost of a backup drive.

Drives die, often without warning. If you suddenly lost everything on your main drive not backed up elsewhere, think about what that loss would mean to you.

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Answer 6

temhawk Author

Level 1

41 points

Apr 22, 2012 7:05 AM in response to R C-R

I'm already backing up my boot volume (SSD with OS and apps), but I guess it's even more important to back up my personal files that I keep on the external drive. I was going to sell the 750 GB drive that my MacBook Pro came with to make up part of the cost of buying an SSD from Other World Computing, but I'll think about buying an enclosure for it and using it to back up everything.

Thanks for your advice!

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Answer 7

reiddab

Level 1

5 points

Sep 26, 2012 2:36 PM in response to R C-R

Thank you so much. I've been fighting with this issue for a while now and have finally got SL to re-install after following your instructions to remove the Lion Recovery partition. 🙂

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