Can't Departion disk—Lost 500 GB in storage

Question

Can't Departion disk—Lost 500 GB in storage

So I was playing around with partitions on my external hard drive because I had planned on using bootcamp, and it required me to have a flashdrive with >5GB which I didn't have. So now it is looking like half of my drive is available and the other half is referred to as "free space." I have tried to add a journaled mac partition but it won't execute the task, even though I can make the screen look like it is about to do it. How can I get my memory back?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Apr 12, 2013 10:57 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Apr 12, 2013 11:03 AM in response to guesswhosback

Are you saying that when clicking in the free space area you cannot then click on the Add [+] button to create a new partition? If that's the case then the boot block must be corrupted meaning you will have to repartition the entire drive.

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Answer 2

Apr 12, 2013 11:13 AM in response to Kappy

It will let me click on the [+] and add a partition of any format, and when I click apply it looks like it worked. But when I try to click to another tab it says "

There are unsaved changes to the partition settings of this disk.

Are you sure you want to switch tabs?

and if I click on a different hard drive, it lets me do that but the hard drive has not been fixed when I check back.

Heres what my Log says

2013-04-12 14:04:19 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:05:11 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:05:19 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:09:28 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:09:37 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:10:44 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:12:37 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

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Answer 3

Apr 12, 2013 11:13 AM in response to guesswhosback

Sounds like the boot block is corrupt

Backup your data

Reformat drive

Allan

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Answer 4

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Apr 12, 2013 11:17 AM in response to guesswhosback

Did you click on the Apply button after making the partition change? Nothing happens otherwise. If you did that and it still doesn't work, then repartition the entire drive as I suggested previously.

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Answer 5

Apr 12, 2013 11:25 AM in response to Kappy

yes

it lets me get this far

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Apr 12, 2013 11:35 AM in response to guesswhosback

You can't partition a logical volume group, and the drive hosting it doesn't even appear in Disk Utility. Decrypt the volume "Backup Storage" and then repartition the drive.

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Answer 7

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Apr 12, 2013 11:36 AM in response to guesswhosback

Click the Partition button. If you read the print above cancel all it is going to do is add a partition

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Answer 8

Apr 12, 2013 11:39 AM in response to Eric Root

the whole problem is that when I press the button nothing changes

see this from an earlier post of mine:

2013-04-12 14:04:19 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:05:11 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:05:19 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:09:28 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:09:37 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:10:44 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

2013-04-12 14:12:37 -0400: Preparing to partition disk: “WD My Passport 07A8 Media”

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Answer 9

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Apr 12, 2013 11:46 AM in response to guesswhosback

Do you happen to have encrypted this drive? If so then you first need to decrypt it.

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Answer 10

Apr 12, 2013 11:51 AM in response to guesswhosback

So someone on another forum with the same problem suggested test disk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and it ended up erasing everything. Now its anylizing the cylinder, what ever that means. is there a way to get it back or am I ******

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Answer 11

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Apr 12, 2013 12:17 PM in response to guesswhosback

If you followed bad advice and didn't back up, the data is lost.

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