# I need help with partitioning of a mac drive...



## Pickles Von Brine (Feb 28, 2009)

Earlier I tried to partition my HDD on my MacBookPro 3.1 so I can dual-boot Ubuntu, but boot camp came up with saying it cannot partition because of unmovable files. I am using Lepard 10.5.6. I researched my problem and it says I need to use a defrag program to get it to work. Is this true? If so, is there a freeware defrag for mac? Also, please let me know if there is any other way to get things to work.


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## Fleck (Feb 28, 2009)

A guy says he just used the partitioner in the Ubuntu setup to resize the partition.


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## Pickles Von Brine (Feb 28, 2009)

I read that can cause problems... Is this true? Also, what should I use, 32 or 64 bit? It has 4GB of ram and a Nvidia GPU.


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## Fleck (Feb 28, 2009)

I went with 64 bit just because there's a less likely chance that stuff won't work in a 64 bit Linux environment.  That's the upside of open source.

Any time that you resize a partition it's recommended that you back up your data.  There's technically always a chance that it will fail.  I've done it dozens of times without fail though.

The difference between MacOS and Linux are like night and day.  The problem with MacOS is, for instance, all the best most commonly used apps are shareware.  With a Mac you're always expected to bust out the credit card, coz it's a Mac, it was made for people with ridiculous budgets to begin with.


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## Pickles Von Brine (Feb 28, 2009)

So are you sure I can do it that way? It says there are immovable files....


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## microtrash (Feb 28, 2009)

> researched my problem and it says I need to use a defrag program to get it to work.



Yes ! But not just a file defrag, but a hard drive defrag. Your problem is simply that you have one or more file located at the end of your partition, so the boot camp utility (or any other software) can't resize down the partition. So, you have to move these file at the beginning of the disk, then your partition will be resizable.



> Is this true? If so, is there a freeware defrag for mac?


 No, as far as I know... But if you can grab a copy of iDefrag, Drive Genius or techtool pro, you will solve your problem. iDefrag is very powerful and simple to use, it's my favorite.

You can't grab any of those utils ? No problem is you have a backup HD. You can use a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner (shareware with full functionality) to copy your entire HD on your backup HD, then erase your main HD and copy it back from your backup. It's like a full defrag


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## Pickles Von Brine (Feb 28, 2009)

Meh..... I do not want to spend money nor do that to it.... Are there really any other options? How much is iDefrag?


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## microtrash (Feb 28, 2009)

OmegaAI said:


> Meh..... I do not want to spend money nor do that to it.... Are there really any other options? How much is iDefrag?



iDefrag is $30. Techtool pro cost more, but there's a free DVD if you ask some sweden pirate site about it


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## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 4, 2009)

OmegaAI said:


> Meh..... I do not want to spend money nor do that to it.... Are there really any other options? How much is iDefrag?



I would suggest making a complete backup on a separate HDD of your OS X install, and just doing a clean install.(When you are in the OS X Install, you go to utilities->disk manager, and partition accordingly there).

it only requires a separate hdd/time, and gives you an opportunity to clean out pesky files that you don't need 

Don't have to, but is an extra option.


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## Pickles Von Brine (Apr 4, 2009)

Meh. I destroyed my mac and sent it back to my mom to get fixed. I just got it back today and I am just going to run a VM of the machine. That way I do not cause any problems with my Mac itself.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 4, 2009)

OmegaAI said:


> Meh. I destroyed my mac and sent it back to my mom to get fixed. I just got it back today and I am just going to run a VM of the machine. That way I do not cause any problems with my Mac itself.



ah, yes, for linux unless you're trying to run Wine games or such (No idea why you would need to), parallels, or Vmware will definitely meet your needs well.

Totally forgot about that. D'oh!


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## Pickles Von Brine (Apr 4, 2009)

I cried when I broke my mac but I am happy to have it back  Also, I may try and install Vista and use it to play some games but not sure yet seeing as I do not have a Mac OS install disc to install the drivers and whatnot needed.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 4, 2009)

OmegaAI said:


> I cried when I broke my mac but I am happy to have it back  Also, I may try and install Vista and use it to play some games but not sure yet seeing as I do not have a Mac OS install disc to install the drivers and whatnot needed.



The initial restore CD that comes with all macs has the necessary bootcamp drivers located on the CD.


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## Wile E (Apr 5, 2009)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> The initial restore CD that comes with all macs has the necessary bootcamp drivers located on the CD.



Not only that, but BootCamp itself gives you the option of burning a driver cd.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Apr 5, 2009)

Wile E said:


> Not only that, but BootCamp itself gives you the option of burning a driver cd.



Yeah, the rough thing though is windows XP does not have a way to eject it(The CD) on the older macbook pro's, since it isnt by default 2 finger right click


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## Wile E (Apr 5, 2009)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Yeah, the rough thing though is windows XP does not have a way to eject it(The CD) on the older macbook pro's, since it isnt by default 2 finger right click



lol. I guess that's what a cheap optical mouse is for? lol.


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