DiskUtility

[8Apples]

I used to really like to old Disk Utility. I know that much of the functions are still there, but they are hidden and or some are lost. That being said, I want to partition a USB stick with Hirems BootCD to fix some Windows computers and basic stuff. And then use the rest of the USB stick to store stuff. So I would like two separate partitions on this USB stick. It is 16GB, 5GB is more than enough for HiremsBootCD, even 1GB would be enough. I have tinkered around trying to get this done, and come up short. I was able to successfully make the HiremsBootCD and boot off it, so that isn't my question. My question is partition scheme and how to make it happen on my Mac with DiskUtility. I'm not afraid of the terminal, so if that is easier, by all means. I could use a few examples. I do understand that the bootable part should be MSDOS-Fat... or something to that effect. I took and created an dmg file from the USB stick... so it is 'backed-up' and I can restore that image via DiskUtility. Alternatively, I can remake the HiremBootCD pretty easily. So I'm not worried about losing the data.

The real trick is DiskUtility will not setup a partition scheme unless it is a Journaled OS X type system with GUID setup. And yet a bootable USB must have a Master Book Record. I would really appreciate any help offered. Thanks in advance.

8Apples

 

[JTToft]

So this is the structure of the command you need to use in Terminal:

diskutil partitionDisk MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
        [numberOfPartitions] [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]
        [part1Format part1Name part1Size part2Format part2Name part2Size
         part3Format part3Name part3Size ...]

You can get to that information by typing "diskutil partitionDisk" in Terminal.

As an example, this will create a Master Boot Record partition map on "disk4" (be careful you select the correct disk identifier) with two partitions, one FAT32 with name "PARTITION1" and size 50 % of the drive, and one HFS+ with name "PARTITION2" and size 50 % of the drive:

diskutil partitionDisk disk4 2 MBR FAT32 PARTITION1 50% HFS+ PARTITION2 50%

You can change the options to set the sizes, names, and formats you prefer. Instead of a percentage, you can use "5G" for one of the partitions to set a size of 5 GB, and "R" for the other partition to let it fill out the remainder of the disk.
Example:

diskutil partitionDisk disk4 2 MBR FAT32 PARTITION1 5G HFS+ PARTITION2 R

(Keep in mind that the command will delete everything and create a new partition map with new partitions.)

 

[8Apples]

So this is the structure of the command you need to use in Terminal:

diskutil partitionDisk MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
        [numberOfPartitions] [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]
        [part1Format part1Name part1Size part2Format part2Name part2Size
         part3Format part3Name part3Size ...]

You can get to that information by typing "diskutil partitionDisk" in Terminal.

As an example, this will create a Master Boot Record partition map on "disk4" (be careful you select the correct disk identifier) with two partitions, one FAT32 with name "1" and size 50 % of the drive, and one HFS+ with name "2" and size 50 % of the drive:

diskutil partitionDisk disk4 2 MBR FAT32 1 50% HFS+ 2 50%

You can change the options to set the sizes, names, and formats you prefer. Instead of a percentage, you can use "5G" for one of the partitions to set a size of 5 GB, and "R" for the other partition to let it fill out the remainder of the disk capacity.
Example:

diskutil partitionDisk disk4 2 MBR FAT32 1 5G HFS+ 2 R

(Keep in mind that the command will delete everything and create a new partition map with new partitions.)

Thank you!!! Ok, one last question. Doing this should* make the first partition 'bootable' by normal standards? I should in theory then be able to write the HiremBootCD.iso to that partition (the first one) and boot off of it? I tried restoring the dmg file I made to the USB disk via Disk Utility, it was a fail after several attempts. I appreciate the quick informative response! Thanks!

8Apples

 

[JTToft]

Thank you!!! Ok, one last question. Doing this should* make the first partition 'bootable' by normal standards? I should in theory then be able to write the HiremBootCD.iso to that partition (the first one) and boot off of it? I tried restoring the dmg file I made to the USB disk via Disk Utility, it was a fail after several attempts. I appreciate the quick informative response! Thanks!

8Apples

- If the requirements for it to be bootable in the places you intend to use it are that it is MBR and FAT32, I would say so.
I'm not an expert on boot requirements on Windows computers.

 

[8Apples]

- If the requirements for it to be bootable in the places you intend to use it are that it is MBR and FAT32, I would say so.
I'm not an expert on boot requirements on Windows computers.

Hmm, not bootable. Must be another format way... or just multiple partitions is messing things up. I will keep digging. Thanks for the help though! It is greatly appreciated.

8Apples

 

[JTToft]

Hmm, not bootable. Must be another format way... or just multiple partitions is messing things up. I will keep digging. Thanks for the help though! It is greatly appreciated.

8Apples

- You're welcome. Hope you figure it out.

 

[jbarley]

I used to really like to old Disk Utility.

I feel your pain...
I copied Disk Utility over from a Yosemite system and renamed to "DiskTool".
I use this utility for most of my partitioning and raid system maintenance on my ElCap system.
Works for me...

 

[8Apples]

I feel your pain...
I copied Disk Utility over from a Yosemite system and renamed to "DiskTool".
I use this utility for most of my partitioning and raid system maintenance on my ElCap system.
Works for me...

That is genius! I wish I would have thought of that. Little late now.

8Apples

 

[idntknw]

I feel your pain...
I copied Disk Utility over from a Yosemite system and renamed to "DiskTool".
I use this utility for most of my partitioning and raid system maintenance on my ElCap system.
Works for me...

So just copy over from Yosemite and rename? Simple as that?

 

[grahamperrin]

not bootable. Must be another format way

Burn Gparted Live to a USB flash drive then boot from that drive. You should be able to perform actions on any other drive.

 

[jbarley]

So just copy over from Yosemite and rename? Simple as that?

That's correct, and renaming is only necessary to avoid conflict with El-Capitan's native Disk Utility.

 

[idntknw]

Thanks for the reply.

I copied the disk utility app from Yosemite, renamed to DiskTool, put it in the utilities folder and get this while opening it.

What steps did I miss?

 

[jbarley]

OK, my bad, you'll have to excuse my not remembering how I did this, (80yrs and counting).
Did a google search and found several links on how to do do it right, which likely is probably what I originally did.
Here is a sample link, there are others also.

 

[idntknw]

No worries. Thanks for the link and I got it up and going.

 

[jbarley]

No worries. Thanks for the link and I got it up and going.

Good to hear...