Partitioning

[TheAppleFreak]

I don't know what to do...
I'm trying to partition about 30 GB off of my HD so I can install Windows XP (for compatibility reasons only), and my computer is refusing to partition it. I've tried the free Boot Camp software to do it, but it failed. I tried Disk Utility, with the same result. I tried to boot from my install DVD and do the partitioning, only to have it fail on me. I've tried the command line, only for it to fail. I even tried booting from a live CD of Ubuntu (9.04, BTW) and used their partitioning util, only for it to nearly mess up my entire file system. Under normal circumstances, I would just virtualize XP, but I need the full power of my GPU so I can play games over a 2-week vacation coming up at the end of August, and everything I've tried to do has failed (though a disk repair did free up about 30 GB of data that was unallocated). HELP!

[Tangent128 offline]

Strange... Have you tried defragmenting? Or maybe a "resize partition" first?

[TheAppleFreak]

I haven't tried defragging it yet... Maybe I should give that a try.

As for resizing, I have tried that, but failed. Go figure.

Do you know about any free defragging apps for the Mac OS? I know that OS X automatically defrags anything larger than 20 MB, but since I routinely work with humongous files (my VMs are 8-40 GB each), it may be possible that OS X cannot keep up with my work.

[TheLQ offline]

I'm not familiar with mac, but i believe you have to use a live cd if your partioning on the drive that osx is installed on.

With ubuntu, i'm curious, how did you screw it up? I've repartioned a few drives with ubuntu with no problem.

[TheAppleFreak]

I'm not familiar with mac, but i believe you have to use a live cd if your partioning on the drive that osx is installed on.

With ubuntu, i'm curious, how did you screw it up? I've repartioned a few drives with ubuntu with no problem.

I have no idea. I think the partitioning froze midway (system crash), and I had to reboot. Thank god for fsck.