Problems with partitioning

[eravulgaris]

Hi guys, I've got a (big?) problem. I wanted to format my entire harddisk (128GB SSD, probably doesn't matter) to install Mountain Lion on it. There was a bootcamp partition on it as well, which I erased. I did this in Disk Utility in recovery mode (when I pressed CMD + R in the beginning).

The problem is, I wanted to erase my whole HD so I could have it whole again, but I couldn't because it said something about: "unable to unmount partition".

So now I'm left with a BOOTCAMP partition and a greyed out part that I can't use. I've tried resizing the HD to take the gray part, but it doesn't work.

I've got no idea what to do...

Thanks in advance guys. These problems are hard to explain.

 

[Fishrrman]

This way is guaranteed to work -- but you WILL need a second (external) drive.

1 First, you will need to download CarbonCopyCloner. You can download it free and use it free for 30 days (from the date it's first launched).

2. Use CCC to create a fully-bootable clone of your internal hard drive to the externally-mounted drive.

3. TEST your new clone by doing a switch-boot:
a. Restart
b. As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN
c. The startup manager will appear. Use the pointer or tab key to select the external drive and then hit the return key
d. The Mac should now boot from your external clone. When you get to the finder, check "about this Mac" to be sure that you _are_ booted externally.

4. Now that you are booted from the clone, launch Disk Utility and RE-INITIALIZE the internal drive to ONE partition.

5. Once re-initialized, now launch CCC again, and RE-CLONE the contents of your backup clone back to the internal drive.

When done, you should have your internal drive "back together" with a single partition.

Some work involved, but it WILL produce the desired results.