1 Topic by mulmex51

  • mulmex51
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Topic: Reformat erased Mac Internal HD-is this possible

I have an erased 160GB ATA internal hard drive on an iMac intel duo core.  I can make a partition with Mac's Disk Utility, but it will not mount the volume.  Since I am a captive of the Mac User Interface, I'm a terminal (UNIX) idiot.  Yes, pun intended. 
Was able to start up with the GParted Live CD I burned.
Entered Gparted Live Default Settings
Entered Don't touch keymap
Entered English
Entered 0

New window opened:
Unallocated partition, unallocated File System, size 149.05GB  (no other information)

Now, I don't know what to do, as I'm receiving no prompts.  Can anyone give me any advice please?

Thank you very much,

Sean

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: Reformat erased Mac Internal HD-is this possible

Mac OSX uses the HFS+ file system if I recall correctly.

Be sure to use GParted Live 0.5.2-1 as this version includes a fix to properly set the file system type for HFS+ file systems.

You can view if the disk has a partition table by selecting the menu option "View --> Device Information".  I think Mac's use a hybrid MSDOS + GPT partition table, but I am not sure.

If no partition table is found, you will need to select the menu option "Device --> Create Partition Table" and select the appropriate partition table to be written to the drive.

To create a new partition in the unallocated space, click on the unallocated space and then select the menu option "Partion --> New".  In the dialog box that opens, you can select the HFS+ file system and also the size for the partition.

Hope that helps.

3 Reply by mulmex51

  • mulmex51
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Re: Reformat erased Mac Internal HD-is this possible

Thank you very much.  You've given me a good starting point.  I really appreciate you taking the time.