How do I fix/reset my disk partitioning(s?)

[coryjones]

Hello, this is my first post so please don't eat me (or whatever you do to bad posters). Ok here's the deal. I attempted to install Ubuntu and OpenSolaris on my Mac and it didn't work. I didn't care too much about it so I just forgot about it. But now, I want to install Windows Vista and I get errors when I run Bootcamp Assistance: "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restores to a single partition."

http://evilbooger.web44.net/untitled.html

That is where I uploaded a screenshot of my disk utility window on my Macintosh HD partition tab and a pic of the error message I received when trying to run Bootcamp Assistance.

I have my Mac disk and I just bought Vista so I have that disk too. My Mac(book) runs Mac OS X with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (whatever that means). Please help me and thank you in advance for your time.

 

[karazelle]

You need to boot your Mac with your Leopard/Tiger DVD and enter disk utility from there.
First, backup stuff.
Then I would recommend you remove all other partitions except your Mac partition, and extend it to fill the entire disk.
Reboot to MacOS X and try to run the Leopard bootcamp assistant again.

 

[coryjones]

Are you talking about the "Mac OS X Install Disc 1", if so I can only install it on the "DISKOS4" partition because the Bootcamp partition is FAT32 and I can't install it on the Macintosh HD because it is already there and fully upgraded.

 

[karazelle]

Ah, what you need to do is:
Boot the OS X Install Disc 1, but after choosing language (on the 2nd screen), ignore the installer, but go to the menu bar top left and enter disk utility there.

DO REMEMBER that there is a real posibility that you might accidentally lose your Leopard partition or damage it to such an extent that you would need to erase the entire disk and start from scratch. You cannot physically damage or end up in an unrecoverable situation, and most likely it won't happen, but I want you to know that = make sure you made a backup of your important files

And the installer is correct about not being able to install Leopard, but that is not what you want now. You want to remove the extranous partitions and then resize the primary partition.

When you are done, quit Disk utility the normal way, then quit the installer also through the menu top left instead of proceeding with the installation.

Hopefully, you should now have one large disk filling Mac partition containing all your stuff. Then you should be able to run the bootcamp assistant.