difficulties repartitioning drive

[doc4x5]

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro (3.1) running 10.8.4. I purchased a 4TB drive, installed it internally and partitioned it into 2 logical drives of 2TB each. Now I'd like to return it to a single 4TB drive with a single partition. In Disk Utility, each partition shows as a separate drive. All repartitioning options for each drive are gray'd out. I've tried mounting and unmounting them, erasing each and reformating but it still won't allow me to repartition.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Eric

 

[tamvly]

You need to delete the second partition first. Select it and then click on the minus sign to delete it. You can then expand the first partition to include the whole volume.

 

[doc4x5]

Thanks tamvly but I am unable to delete any of the partitions. Somehow, each partition shows up as a separate distinct volume. I'm trying to attach a screenshot of what I see in Disk Utility but for some reason am having a hard time.

 

[doc4x5]

In the screen shot which seems to have uploaded, the volumes "Photographs" and "Photographs 2" are each 2 partitions of the 4TB drive. As you may be able to see, all options are grayed out regardless of which I select, "Photographs" or "Photographs 2." Thanks again.

 

[Weaselboy]

In the screen shot which seems to have uploaded, the volumes "Photographs" and "Photographs 2" are each 2 partitions of the 4TB drive. As you may be able to see, all options are grayed out regardless of which I select, "Photographs" or "Photographs 2." Thanks again.

Did you happen to encrypt any of these volumes/partitions?

Run the below command in Terminal then post up the output.

diskutil cs list

 

[doc4x5]

here it is: I hope this will help you help me. Thanks so much.

Eric

CoreStorage logical volume groups (3 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group AB2B8034-BD30-41EB-B032-4D224B212C84
| =========================================================
| Name: Untitled
| Status: Online
| Size: 4000443056128 B (4.0 TB)
| Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
| |
| +-< Physical Volume 3A927ED9-C4CF-460B-AE97-E9A8748183D7
| | ----------------------------------------------------
| | Index: 0
| | Disk: disk1s2
| | Status: Online
| | Size: 4000443056128 B (4.0 TB)
| |
| +-> Logical Volume Family FDB4AAD8-5EB7-42FB-850B-C06A27EAD1A9
| ----------------------------------------------------------
| Encryption Status: Unlocked
| Encryption Type: None
| Conversion Status: NoConversion
| Conversion Direction: -none-
| Has Encrypted Extents: No
| Fully Secure: No
| Passphrase Required: No
| |
| +-> Logical Volume 34BD6525-05D8-406C-AB3D-72FD7615D33D
| ---------------------------------------------------
| Disk: disk4
| Status: Online
| Size (Total): 4000124280832 B (4.0 TB)
| Size (Converted): -none-
| Revertible: No
| LV Name: Photographs Backup internal
| Volume Name: Photographs Backup internal
| Content Hint: Apple_HFS
|
+-- Logical Volume Group EAE14E17-D076-4750-AFB1-078ED54C8A3E
| =========================================================
| Name: Photographs
| Status: Online
| Size: 1999115165696 B (2.0 TB)
| Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
| |
| +-< Physical Volume 34165B1F-4889-4DB7-96A1-F91E6A881E4D
| | ----------------------------------------------------
| | Index: 0
| | Disk: disk2s2
| | Status: Online
| | Size: 1999115165696 B (2.0 TB)
| |
| +-> Logical Volume Family 12E0E032-18DC-4A30-98FC-A7EB7605B694
| ----------------------------------------------------------
| Encryption Status: Unlocked
| Encryption Type: None
| Conversion Status: NoConversion
| Conversion Direction: -none-
| Has Encrypted Extents: No
| Fully Secure: No
| Passphrase Required: No
| |
| +-> Logical Volume 17CE84A4-1855-4CFC-B667-7396C96AA7C0
| ---------------------------------------------------
| Disk: disk5
| Status: Online
| Size (Total): 1998796390400 B (2.0 TB)
| Size (Converted): -none-
| Revertible: No
| LV Name: Photographs
| Volume Name: Photographs
| Content Hint: Apple_HFS
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 353B7C9B-3BDC-4A19-8AC8-26F188189F6E
=========================================================
Name: Photographs 2
Status: Online
Size: 2001193672704 B (2.0 TB)
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 369D2613-C38C-465F-816D-47A20B65B54A
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk2s4
| Status: Online
| Size: 2001193672704 B (2.0 TB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family E5690DE3-D048-404C-AA7C-1C495BB26B11
----------------------------------------------------------
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume C11EA4D5-BB8F-4D18-A2BA-434F59192E1E
---------------------------------------------------
Disk: disk6
Status: Online
Size (Total): 2000874897408 B (2.0 TB)
Size (Converted): -none-
Revertible: No
LV Name: Photographs 2
Volume Name: Photographs 2
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
eric-brodys-mac-pro:~ ericbrody$

 

[tamvly]

OK, now I see.

In the graphic you provided you are selected on the volume, not the partition. I'd try to click on the partition below each volume label and delete it. Very strange.

 

[doc4x5]

Thanks yet again Tamvly, but when selecting the partition one does not have the option of partitioning. Indeed, I am unable to delete the partition. I can mount or unmount it. When selecting the volume, which is described by Disk Utility as a "logical volume group," I'm back where I started in my initial query and the screenshot still says it all, all is grayed out and no choices are possible regardless of which of the volumes I choose.

 

[Weaselboy]

here it is: I hope this will help you help me. Thanks so much.

Eric

It looks like somehow you managed to create core storage volumes rather than just regular partitions. How you did that, I have no idea, but I can show you how to get back to normal.

First, let me make sure we are on the same page here. From looking at this output and Disk Utility, you currently have three drives connected... a 500GB WD, a 750GB Seagate, and the 4TB with three logical volume groups called Untitled, Photographs, and Photographs 2. If any part of this is incorrect, stop now and let's discuss, because I don't want you to blow off the wrong volume(s).

Assuming my info in the above paragraph is correct, and understanding all data on the 4TB drive is going to be gone... run the below commands in Terminal one at a time to delete the logical volume groups.

This one will kill Photographs 2.

diskutil cs delete 353B7C9B-3BDC-4A19-8AC8-26F188189F6E

This one will kill Photographs.

diskutil cs delete EAE14E17-D076-4750-AFB1-078ED54C8A3E

This one will kill Untitled.

diskutil cs delete AB2B8034-BD30-41EB-B032-4D224B212C84

Once these three commands are run, you should have a blank 4TB drive with no partitions. Now select the drive name itself (it should be something like 4TB Seagate or whatever) and then go to the erase tab and format the entire drive as Mac OS Extended.

Once that is done run a repair disk on it just to make sure it looks good.

That should do it.

 

[tamvly]

Another learning experience in the forums. Thanks ... I'll file this away for future use (hope not).

 

[doc4x5]

Thanks to all. What I ended up doing, which worked, though I'm not sure exactly how or why, is to take the drive out of hte Mac Pro, place it in my Voyager, which connects via Firewire 800 and which sees 4TB drives as 1.8TB drives (?).

I then spun it up and formatted it on the Voyager. When I placed it back in the Mac Pro, and formatted it again, the machine saw all 4TB and it had but one partition.

Thanks so much. These problems are very vexing and I don't usually ask for help until I've run into a brick wall. I appreciate all the help.

Eric

 

[tamvly]

So are you saying that the fix supplied by weaselboy did not work?

 

[doc4x5]

Sorry, did not mean to confuse. By the time I saw the post from weaselboy, I had already done what I did and since it worked, I never actually tried weaselboy's suggestion, though it is much appreciated.

Again, thanks, this forum's members are an impressively knowledgeable and helpful group of people.

 

[Weaselboy]

Sorry, did not mean to confuse. By the time I saw the post from weaselboy, I had already done what I did and since it worked, I never actually tried weaselboy's suggestion, though it is much appreciated.

Again, thanks, this forum's members are an impressively knowledgeable and helpful group of people.

Glad you got it worked out. Can you confirm (just curious) how the partitions got encrypted? Did you by chance select the encrypted option in Disk Util when you made the partitions?

So are you saying that the fix supplied by weaselboy did not work?

It will work. You can try it out on a USB key or something. Just make a coupe partitions and encrypt one if you want. Then run "diskutil cs list" in Terminal to find the UUID of the partition(s) you want to kill and use that UUID after the "diskutil cs delete" command.