1 (edited by jamie.marchant 2020-01-13 20:28:13)

Topic: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

I removed my old Mac hard disk and mounted it externally to add a new HFS+ partition to install X.2 on. To do this I shrunk the existing HFS+ partition and made a new HFS+ partition for OS X.2 When I put the disk back in my Mac, Mac OS 8/9 can't see the disk at all but Linux and Mac OS X can see it just fine. So the question is what did Gparted do to the disk that makes it invisible on Mac OS 8/9?

I have tried asking on the 64kmla forum but the people they don't seem to know how to fix this. Here is the thread for reference:
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/to … -mac-disk/

2

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

Public don't seem to be allowed to view that 68kMLA forum thread, however I can see every other thread I browsed.

GParted did this:
1) Check the file system running: fsck.hfsplus -f -y '/dev/$PTN'
2) Shrink the file system using libparted
3) Shrunk the partition using libparted

As to why this makes the file system and/or partition invisible to Mac OS 8/9.  I have no idea.

I don't know how to trouble shoot this.  I have never used Mac OS 8/9 and don't have access to one.

Use GParted 1.0.0 to check the partition, press [Save Details], and upload the save_details.htm file.  I don't expect this to fix anything, but it will at least show me what GParted / Linux can see.

3

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

You might also look at GParted FAQ - How can I fix missing or lost partitions on Intel-based Mac OS X? which might be relevant, but I suspect not.  I don't use Mac's so I don't know for sure.  You might also try asking on a Mac forum.

4

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

It was a long weekend for us in Canada and I was doing other things.

I forgot that thread is not publicly visible but nothing was said there that was helpful, one person had success using Gparted on Mac drives before.(he did not say how old they're where).

I can't get the "[Save Details]" button and from what I've read online that's only available after you do an operation and I don't want to mess around with the partition table on the drive unnecessarily at this point(that is until we know what's going on). You can see a screenshot of what the disk looks like on my Flicker here: https://flic.kr/p/2hvrk7p.. The unknown partitions are needed for Mac OS 8/9 to boot.  More info can be found by searching for
Apple_Partition_Map on Wikipedia. (I am only allowed one link).

Intel Macs use a different partition table then PowerPC Macs, this is a PowerPC Mac.

5

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

The link doesn't seem to show any picture.

Page Not Found
Oops! Looks like you followed a bad link.

If you think this is a problem with Flickr, please tell us.

Here's a link to the home page.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

6

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

jamie.marchant wrote:

Intel Macs use a different partition table then PowerPC Macs, this is a PowerPC Mac.

I'm not at all sure that GParted can work, as it supports the x86 and x86-64 architecture.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

7

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

@class413
Intel based Apple Mac machines boot from disks using GPT.

Older PowerPC and m68k based Apple Mac machines boot from disks using Apple Partition Map (APM).  Parted (and GParted) calls this "mac" partition table.  So APM/mac partition tables are supported, but rarely encountered in the Intel / Linux realm.

8

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

Sorry about the confusion. I had in mind that the GParted live cd does boot on x86 or x86-64 hardware (not on powerpc hardware). It would be possible to attach the drive to such a computer and work from the live cd.
Otherwise, it seems that there are a few Linux distros providing versions for powerpc hardware, being able to boot on older Macs.

I wonder if "testdisk" could analyse the drive and eventually find and fix problem.
It is included in the GParted livecd. It also comes in its own live cd from https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
The program's web page refers to "Mac partition map" instead of Apple partition map among the supported systems.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

9 (edited by jamie.marchant 2019-10-18 19:39:49)

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

UPDATE:
Had a chance to remove the drive to take a look at it. TestDisk says the Superblock header for the 9.2.2 volume is "bad" but Gparted says it's ok. Tools on my Mac that can see the disk also think it's ok. 

Since I did a disc check I now have a 'gparted_details.htm', it looks like this(as plain text, I don't know how to attach files):

GParted 1.0.0

configuration --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize

libparted 3.2

========================================

Device:    /dev/sda
Model:    ATA ST500DM002-1BD14
Serial:    W3TN0GLE
Sector size:    512
Total sectors:    976773168

Heads:    255
Sectors/track:    2
Cylinders:    1915241

Partition table:    msdos

Partition    Type    Start    End    Flags    Partition Name    File System    Label    Mount Point
/dev/sda1    Primary    2048    974992905    boot        ntfs    MinWin   
/dev/sda2    Primary    974993408    976773119    diag        ntfs       
========================================

Device:    /dev/sdb
Model:    ATA WDC WD3200AAJB-0
Serial:    WD-WCAPZ2814890
Sector size:    512
Total sectors:    625142448

Heads:    255
Sectors/track:    2
Cylinders:    1225769

Partition table:    msdos

Partition    Type    Start    End    Flags    Partition Name    File System    Label    Mount Point
/dev/sdb1    Primary    63    308383739            ext4    Linux    /
/dev/sdb2    Primary    308383744    608462847            ntfs    Data   
/dev/sdb3    Primary    608462848    625141759            linux-swap       
========================================

Device:    /dev/sdc
Model:    ATA WDC WD2500JB-55R
Serial:    WD-WCANKH291703
Sector size:    512
Total sectors:    488397168

Heads:    255
Sectors/track:    2
Cylinders:    957641

Partition table:    msdos

Partition    Type    Start    End    Flags    Partition Name    File System    Label    Mount Point
/dev/sdc1    Primary    2048    488396799            ext4    home    /home
========================================

Device:    /dev/sdh
Model:    ST340014 DR83
Serial:    5JXBDR83
Sector size:    512
Total sectors:    78156288

Heads:    255
Sectors/track:    2
Cylinders:    153247

Partition table:    mac

Partition    Type    Start    End    Flags    Partition Name    File System    Label    Mount Point
/dev/sdh1    Primary    1    63            unknown       
/dev/sdh2    Primary    64    117            unknown       
/dev/sdh3    Primary    118    191            unknown       
/dev/sdh4    Primary    192    703            unknown       
/dev/sdh5    Primary    704    1215            unknown       
/dev/sdh6    Primary    1216    41580543            hfs+    Mac OS 9.2.2   
/dev/sdh7    Primary    41580544    78155775            hfs+    Mac OS X.2.8   
========================================

Check and repair file system (hfs+) on /dev/sdh6  00:00:03    ( SUCCESS )
       
calibrate /dev/sdh6  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS )
       
path: /dev/sdh6 (partition)
start: 1216
end: 41580543
size: 41579328 (19.83 GiB)
check file system on /dev/sdh6 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
       
fsck.hfsplus -f -y '/dev/sdh6'  00:00:02    ( SUCCESS )
       
** /dev/sdh6
Executing fsck_hfs (version 540.1-Linux).
** Checking non-journaled HFS Plus Volume.
The volume name is Mac OS 9.2.2
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
** Checking multi-linked files.
** Checking catalog hierarchy.
** Checking volume bitmap.
** Checking volume information.
** The volume Mac OS 9.2.2 appears to be OK.
grow file system to fill the partition  00:00:00    ( WARNING )
       
growing is not available for this file system

--------------------------

Ignore everything but /dev/sdh, the other drives are from my PC.(yes I have 3 hard discs in this machine), I imagine sdd, e and f are my internal USB card reader.

NOTE: I did not give a grow command but for some reason, GParted does a grow of 0% when you do a check disk.(I guess it has to do something to do a check disc)

10

Re: Old Mac HD is invisible in OS 8/9 after re-partition[SOLVED]

Fixed it by reinstalling the "Mac OS 9" driver. You can do this with the repair tools on the Mac OS 9 CD.