"Free Space" Partition disaster on new Mountain Lion iMac

Question

Level 1

4 points

"Free Space" Partition disaster on new Mountain Lion iMac

"Help"

I just received a new 27 inch iMac as a replacement for my old machine, which apparently disntegrated during warranty. In setting it up, I tried to create a small partition on the hard drive to run a Linux distro for testing purposes. It seems that with the non-system disc versions of the OS this has become more complex, and what I recall as an easy process turned into a disaster where 2 of the 3 TBs on the machine are locked out as "free space". I humbly retreat from any thoughts of working with partitions on this machine - I just want to clean it up and get it to a one-partition state for music and graphic design production. I have a backup. Here is a snapshot of this nightmare:

I also note that at the top level, where I am used to seeing "Hitachi" (or whomever makes the hard drive) it says Macintosh HD. That can't be right?

Here is a diskutil list report:

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 1.3 TB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Hard Drive *1.3 TB disk1

I want to get rid of disk1, I guess, and make disk0 correspond to the 3.0 TB physical volume, not a "Logical Volume Family".

Name: Macintosh HD

Size: 1255995588608 B (1.3 TB)

Free Space: 0 B (0 B)

|

+-< Physical Volume 27B24C33-92E7-4DC1-99B0-165BF47601AE

| ----------------------------------------------------

| Index: 0

| Disk: disk0s2

| Status: Online

| Size: 1255995588608 B (1.3 TB)

|

+-> Logical Volume Family 4FDA0589-59C5-4C94-AFC1-F7E82B21A450

----------------------------------------------------------

Encryption Status: Unlocked

Encryption Type: None

Conversion Status: NoConversion

Conversion Direction: -none-

Has Encrypted Extents: No

Fully Secure: No

Passphrase Required: No

|

+-> Logical Volume 74E89BB3-AEBF-477C-B7B0-47EE71BC5BB0

---------------------------------------------------

Disk: disk1

Status: Online

Size (Total): 1255676813312 B (1.3 TB)

Size (Converted): -none-

Revertible: No

LV Name: Hard Drive

Volume Name: Hard Drive

Content Hint: Apple_HFS

Any thoughts? restarting to Command-R seems like it would not address the partition problem at all. I suppose I could put it in target mode and use my laptop to wipe it, but I'm not sure that would address the partitions either. I am completely comfortable with removing the built-in system recovery area if necessary, as I made a system mount on a USB stick.

Posted on Jan 31, 2013 9:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 31, 2013 9:48 AM in response to Talabard

Does the system have a fusion drive?

Go to About This Mac->More Info->Storage to see if there is a fusion drive

Reply

Answer 2

Talabard Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2013 9:48 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hi Frank, no it does not.

Reply

Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jan 31, 2013 9:56 AM in response to Talabard

If you booted into Recovery Drive, you could solve the partition issue using Disk Utility.

Reply

Answer 4

Talabard Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Eric Root

When I boot into recovery drive, it gives me the option of reinstalling inside the 1.3 TB "Macintosh HD", which makes me think the partition will remain. I want to see 3.0 TB. I can try and take some screen shots when I get home this evening.

Reply

Answer 5

Talabard Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2013 10:15 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

The specs of the replacement unit are: 27-inch iMac Z0MS 3.4GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB, 3TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5.

Reply

Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jan 31, 2013 10:20 AM in response to Talabard

Boot to recovery. From recovery start Disk Utility and re-partition the drive to 1 partition, choose Mac OSX, Extended (Journaled) as the format and name the drive. (this will erase everything on the drive so clone the partition before you start). When that is done restore the clone to the new partition.

Disconnect any external drives while you do this.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 31, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Talabard

I asked about the fusion drive because I was surprised to see that the Logical Volume family was showing in your display. I thought that would have only been used on systems with a ssd and HD to make the fusion drive.

Unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on a new iMac so I'm not sure what the partitioning of the drive should look like but what you have doesn't seem right.

Reply

Answer 8

Talabard Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2013 12:35 PM in response to Csound1

I will take another look at his option when I get home this evening, I may have some screen shots because this was the option that suggested itself immediately but I didn't see what I expected when I went to disk utility. Also, I am not at all averse to just wiping it all out and reinstalling a backup - in that situation is cloning necessary? Will reinstalling a backup reinstall the partitions?

Reply

Answer 9

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jan 31, 2013 12:45 PM in response to Talabard

I always prefer cloning (especially for this purpose) you can boot to the clone and check that all is OK before committing to it, but if you have a backup (Time Machine?) and you are 100% sure that it will restore to what you want, then use it, but I wouldn't.

Reply

Answer 10

Jan 31, 2013 12:53 PM in response to Csound1

So the fact that a non-Fusion drive 2012 iMac has the Logical Volume family set is ok?

Is this how the new mac's will look by default with or without a fusion drive?

Reply

Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jan 31, 2013 12:55 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Frank Caggiano wrote:

So the fact that a non-Fusion drive 2012 iMac has the Logical Volume family set is ok?

Is this how the new mac's will look by default with or without a fusion drive?

I don't know, but I do know that it boots now, and a clone will preserve that while the rest can be fixed.

Reply

Answer 12

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jan 31, 2013 2:41 PM in response to Talabard

Two cloning programs:

SuperDuper

Carbon Copy Cloner

Reply

Answer 13

Talabard Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2013 6:21 PM in response to Csound1

I restarted in recovery mode. Disk Utility looked exactly like it does in regular mode, minus the debug menu. There was no way to get to the actual 3 TB hard drive, and no way to make the partition larger. I could have divided the 1.26 TB into smaller partitions, but no relief. I'm guessing there must be a command line way to get at this problem.

Reply

Answer 14

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Jan 31, 2013 6:40 PM in response to Talabard

Just going by your posted graphic:

You need to mount the partition named "Macintosh HD." Right click it and mount it. Then erase it, highlight it and press the "minus" sign. You then should be able to drag the right bottom corner of the "Hard Drive" partition down through the space formerly occupied by the "Macintosh HD" partition. Then press the Apply button.

Reply

Answer 15

Jan 31, 2013 6:44 PM in response to Talabard

Is the OS on the machine the OS that came with it or did you clone (or otherwise install) the OS from your prior machine?

I ask because I'm still surprised that the Logical Volume family is on on a non-fusion system. I would have thought a non-fusion system (with just a HD internal, no SSD) would just look like a regular system, disk partition wise. The Disk Utility than comes with the new 2012 fusion capable systems is not the same as the version on pre 2012 systems.

When you experimented with the partitions when you were looking to make the small UNIX partition do you remember the steps you took? Before you started what did the drive look like?

If I had to make a guess here I would say you need to uncreate the Logical Volume family and get it back to a normal drive configuration, but again its only a guess.

Reply