1 Topic by xkanuk

  • xkanuk
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  • Registered: 2010-12-24
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Topic: HELP! Can't see operations window and don't know what's happening!

Environment: GParted(live) .0.7.0-7 in a Virtual Box on Mac OS X 10.4
Western Digital Elements 1TB drive

Has some info on the drive which I've backed up to my main harddrive but would rather not lose whats there.
Want to create a multiboot drive using GParted and grub to basically hold a clone of my Tiger install for safekeeping as I upgrade to Snow Leopard, and also to hold a few bootable Linux dist's to play around with.

So I booted GParted live from an iso image in Virtual Box.  Plugged in the USB drive and made my selections.

Left the current first partition, shows as bootable but not sure what's there.  Reduced the 900gb partition to 500gb, and created a 125gb freespace where i hope to put the Tiger clone, and left the remaining 200(or so) GB space for future linux dists.

It ran overnight and the disk light is still flashing.  I can't tell the status because the operation window has shifted left off the screen with only the right edge and cancel button visible. I have a screenimg but don't know how to include in this post.  I can't reposition it and have no idea what GParted is doing at the moment.

Questions:
1) If all is still working, any idea as to expected duration of this op?
2) If I cancel it, I realise I'll lose some/all information BUT can I just start over with a new partioning scheme?
3) If I finally get it all done, how to I tell my Mac to boot the USB drive ?

Thanks in advance!

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: HELP! Can't see operations window and don't know what's happening!

xkanuk wrote:

Environment: GParted(live) .0.7.0-7 in a Virtual Box on Mac OS X 10.4
Western Digital Elements 1TB drive
<snip>
Questions:
1) If all is still working, any idea as to expected duration of this op?

Unfortunately the speed over USB is much much slower than via a direct SATA or IDE cable.  With a 1 TB drive, these operations could take many days or weeks to complete over the USB interface.

xkanuk wrote:

2) If I cancel it, I realise I'll lose some/all information BUT can I just start over with a new partioning scheme?

Data will certainly be lost.  If you do not need this data, or can restore it from backup,  then you can star over with a new partitioning scheme.

xkanuk wrote:

3) If I finally get it all done, how to I tell my Mac to boot the USB drive ?

You might need to consult a Mac OS X specific forum for answers to this question.  With PC compatible computers, the settings for the order and which media to boot are stored in the BIOS.  The BIOS is accessible by pressing some key or key combination while the computer is first booting up.


Note that to post a screen shot you would need to upload it to a file sharing service first, such as imageshack, and then list the link to the image in this forum.