Potentially serious problem due to partition... HELP!!!

[Arkanok]

Ok so today I decided to partition my hard drive for Windows XP, and allocated about 31 gb for it. During the Boot Camp partitioning, I had a Kernel panic!!! So I shut down the computer the only way I could, by holding the power button till it shut down, and restarted into OS X, and found something seriously wrong... The 31 gb that I allocated towards Windows is now gone from the Macintosh HD partition, as if the windows partition was created; however, there isn't a Windows XP drive, and the boot camp assistant doesn't seem to see it either, so I can't re-allocate it to the Mac HD..

Does anybody know if this is fixable, and if so, how do I do it? Or am I seriously screwed?

 

[sash]

Hi,

I would erased both partitions (with Disc Utility after booting from install DVD) and reinstalled Mac OS.

sash

 

[OrangeCuse44]

Similar situation happened to me. I had to reinstall OS X. Thank god for time machine. I hope you're using a backup app.

 

[Arkanok]

Similar situation happened to me. I had to reinstall OS X. Thank god for time machine. I hope you're using a backup app.

I am, actually. I use Time Machine just as you do.

Speaking of which, if I do the format/partition on the entire drive, how do I go about restoring my info from time machine, such as photos in iPhoto, music in iTunes music, and all the documents, movies, and everything else in their respective folders?

 

[OrangeCuse44]

When you begin the reinstallation of Leopard, and there is the menu bar at the top just as in a booted OS X, click Utilities -> Restore From Disk (I believe that's the wording. If not, it's similar and you can't miss it). Once it finishes, you're system will be back just the way you had it.

 

[J@ffa]

Noooo! Don't reinstall or erase anything! Boot from your Leopard install disc (or included system install disk), and use the 'Repair Disk' function. Reboot and the 31GB should reappear.

 

[Consultant]

After Boot Camp made the partition, the partition is HIDDEN in OSX until it's been formatted.

Open Disk Utility to see if you have a partition grayed out with name of:
disk0s3

 

[mags631]

Noooo! Don't reinstall or erase anything! Boot from your Leopard install disc (or included system install disk), and use the 'Repair Disk' function. Reboot and the 31GB should reappear.

This method worked for me when I had hard-freeze during my first attempt at boot camp partitioning. I strongly recommend doing this first, before something more drastic, like initializing the disk and reinstalling everything...

 

[Arkanok]

Well, using the method of placing the Leopard DVD into my drive and booting into the installer (pressing the "C" key on startup) I went into the disk utility and pressed the "repair" button and it worked, it allocated the memory back into the Macintosh HD. However, upon the attempt of partitioning the drive for Windows again, I experienced yet another kernel panic! I tried a third time, kernel panic again...

At this point, I decided to insert the disk that came with my mac, rebooted, pressed the "D" key on startup, and into the Apple Hardware Test to see if it could find anything wrong with the memory or hard drive. I did the quick test, and after a few minutes, the results came in. Memory was fine, hard drive was fine; however, it did run into an unexpected error...

The error was with my video controller (click here to see an image of the error). So while I was looking for one issue, I ran into a completely different one!

So, if anybody knows what this error message means -- likely my video chipset is defective -- please let me know. Thankfully, I'm still under warranty for another month, so I don't think there will be any problem with getting it looked at and repaired. It's just a bummer, my first Mac, and I run into a potentially fatal hardware problem...

 

[mags631]

Well, using the method of placing the Leopard DVD into my drive and booting into the installer (pressing the "C" key on startup) I went into the disk utility and pressed the "repair" button and it worked, it allocated the memory back into the Macintosh HD. However, upon the attempt of partitioning the drive for Windows again, I experienced yet another kernel panic! I tried a third time, kernel panic again...

At this point, I decided to insert the disk that came with my mac, rebooted, pressed the "D" key on startup, and into the Apple Hardware Test to see if it could find anything wrong with the memory or hard drive. I did the quick test, and after a few minutes, the results came in. Memory was fine, hard drive was fine; however, it did run into an unexpected error...

The error was with my video controller (click here to see an image of the error). So while I was looking for one issue, I ran into a completely different one!

So, if anybody knows what this error message means -- likely my video chipset is defective -- please let me know. Thankfully, I'm still under warranty for another month, so I don't think there will be any problem with getting it looked at and repaired. It's just a bummer, my first Mac, and I run into a potentially fatal hardware problem...

Here's something to try while you look into your hardware problem. While booted from your system disk, within Disk Utility, create a new partition there (with the size that you intend to use for Boot Camp). Once it is done resizing the original partition, creating the new one, and then verifying everything, you should see both partitions in Disk Utility (without having to restart even). Now, delete the new partition, then resize the old one to take up the full disk. After it's finished, reboot into your normal system and then try the boot camp partitioner.

The above worked for me (the directions are from some one else -- I have since lost the reference).