Can you delete a partition?

You have a power-pc G4 Mac? and had OS X 10.9 installed on a partition??

More likely, you had OS X 10.3.9 in a PPC G4, and saved that on partition.

Anyway, I've owned utilities from third-party vender that could remove partitions

and not destroy the content of the desired one. I never removed them in Tiger.

A few times I totally wiped, secure erased (overwrite zeros) & reformatted.

And usually save whole complete systems as clones, to boot-capable external

hard disk drives, of the kind with their own power supply and oxford chipsets.

And then 're-cloned' the complete backup clone -- test bootability before wiping.

With older system software, most had to be completely wiped of content

in order to remove the partition scheme, and start over. A secure erase

could also be used in conjunction with 'repair hard disk' to attempt to clear

any issues or bad sectors from a hard disk drive. Or use third-party utilities.

Be wary of disk utilities that won't work on PPC mac or in systems newer than Tiger.

The Disk Utility should tell you the options available to you.

Some tools work only from the booted DVD installer. Mostly

it lets you partition or resize a partition, not remove one.

Not without erasure, and in some cases, reformatting.

How small is the hard disk drive you are talking about?

Is this still in an iMac G4? Which model? I have three.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Well, from other posts and my own experience going back to some ancient days of pre-OS X, (Mac 6.0, though I did use Mac 1.0 in demo on then-new retail displayed Mac) I'd venture to say you would have to erase or wipe out the entire hard disk drive contents in order to completely remove partitions and format mapping, then reformat the drive to HFS+ and reinstall.

Or, if not in a rush, look for a suitable externally enclosed FW400 oxford-chipped hard disk drive and then learn how (trial and error, without erasing the iMac G4's internal drive) to make a bootable OS X system clone. An external hard disk drive would allow for more storage, and if it were 500GB, a partition on there for a backup clone of your computer, in residence, would make all kinds of sense.

Example: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU4S7500G16/

Especially if you occasionally replaced the old clone with a new copy. And then if you do any maintenance to the computer's internal drive, or have to replace the iMac's HDD, you have a bootable complete clone of everything in the Mac, as backup. This clone would run from the self-powered externally enclosed hard disk drive...

Though I have not done business with them, you can see some good storage options and enclosures at the OWC web site under 'storage' and mercury enclosures can be bought with a hard disk drive inside. This may show what they list... http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

I was given one of these a few years ago, but it only has USB2.0 ports and not FireWire400, so I have not used it.

If you get one, it should have the USB2.0/1.1 - and - FireWire400 ports, plus oxford chipset, and an external power supply. I see one with 500GB HDD installed, for under one hundred dollars, plus shipping. And that would invite a call to OWC to ask if their $98 unit with only those ports, can boot an OS X clone.

Most external enclosures now have SATA HDDs, and your iMac uses an earlier ATA (or PATA/parallel, not serial) so the HDD inside a new enclosure would not work inside the old iMac as a replacement part. It would run the computer from its self-powered enclosure, house storage overflow, and host a fully bootable clone. If you get the correct supported kind of unit. This may involve a call to toll-free number to ask direct questions.

I'd check into 'CarbonCopyCloner' older versions http://bombich.com/download.html and see if they still run in a demo mode until you decide to buy. The newer version won't work in your older OS X. I have an older version that still works OK in my PPC G4 macs, to include a mid-2005 iBook, and late-2005 G4 mini 1.5GHz.

These are the basics, and do not use a USB external drive or one that uses port-power from the computer.

Hopefully someone has other ideas that can be performed without finding archives of ancient third-party disk utilities that could maybe erase just a partition and its contents, not the entire drive. That'd be rarer as days go by. A backup is recommended before trying any invasive work on the computer's hard disk drive.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

To resize (or delete) an existing partition without losing data, you will need to use, for example, iPartition:

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php

Does that maker still offer a version for Tiger 10.4.x

that can help this issue in old PPC G4? iDon't see it.

The specifications on the Coriolis iPartition page says:

•System Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.6 or later (including Mavericks), Intel micro-

processor, 1GB RAM. Supports internal and external disks

see: iPartition 3.3.0 Released

October 7, 2010 10:43 PM

"Tiger 10.4 no longer supported"

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/blog/2010/10/ipartition-330-released-update/

Leopard 10.5.8 may not be supported in the PPC 800GHz imac G4.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

{edited 2x}

Dunno, best to ask them.

I use version 3.4.1 with Leopard on a PPC iMac.

Well, for the most part, looks as though unless you can obtain an old obsolete version of the Coriolis iPartition for use with Tiger 10.4.11, you are out of luck; unless you want to invest in an external hard disk drive with enclosure that has FW400 & Oxford-type chipsets so the device can support booting OS X clones, et al.

{The older iMac G4 800MHz computers did not support Leopard 10.5.8 directly, but there was a work-around I knew of and when I had one of these a few years ago (gave it away, a nice kit with all accessories) I included the information on the process of tricking an older 800 iMac G4 17" with superdrive, into running 10.5.8. But included all discs and backups, software, etc with Tiger 10.4.11. And utilities on CD, a UPS, plus extras.}

Coriolis iPartition 3.3.0 Released

October 7, 2010 10:43 PM

"Tiger 10.4 no longer supported"

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/blog/2010/10/ipartition-330-released-update/

Leopard 10.5.8 will not likely be supported in your PPC 800GHz imac

G4 without a patch. And I don't see an active link to leopard assist.

PS: OK... see this (if you happen to have Leopard 10.5 retail disc, too)

http://lowendmac.com/2007/unsupported-os-x-10-5-leopard-installation/

a firmware hack to make it run at 867mHz

http://lowendmac.com/2007/fooling-the-os-x-10-5-leopard-installer-with-open-firm ware/

So as far as it goes, there are a few replies and maybe a few answers.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

{edited to add link + info}

You could move some of you Tiger data to the partition. the ln command is used to redirect a file or folder to a new place.

One way would be to install SymbolicLinker. SymbolicLinker is a tiny contextual menu plugin that, once installed, allows any user to create symbolic links to files inside the Finder.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10433/<br>

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Apple added an experimental bootcap support to Tiger. To support bootcamp, apple added the resize capability to disk utility. I have not used the resize option. Some hints are here:

http://www.ffnn.nl/pages/articles/apple-mac-os-x/nondestructive-partitioning.php

You will have to find more info. use the man command from the terminal

man diskutil

There is someway of removing a partition.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1309?viewlocale=en_US