Formatting linux partition

[Michael Baer]

>>>>> "Eric" == Eric D <liriodendron@mac.com> writes:
    Eric> on 8/5/02 18:38, Timothy A. Seufert at tas@mindspring.com
    Eric> wrote:
    >> At 4:14 PM -0400 5/8/02, Eric D. wrote:
    >>> Hello ya'll, is there any way to get a formerly linux
    >>> partition reformatted as HFS?
    >>
    >> Yes.
    >>
    >> Using pdisk, delete that partition.  Then create it again,
    >> using the same base and length.  When you recreate it, use the
    >> uppercase C "create partition" command instead of the normal
    >> lowercase c.  The uppercase option lets you specify the
    >> partition type (lowercase c will always create partitions as
    >> "Apple_UNIX_SVR2", which is what you want for Linux
    >> partitions).  Enter "Apple_HFS" (without the quotes) as the
    >> type, and anything you like for the name.
    >>
    >> At this point it's really still a Linux partition, it's just
    >> now marked as HFS.  But that's OK.  Just boot MacOS.  MacOS
    >> will try to mount the partition because its type signature in
    >> the partition table is Apple_HFS, discover that the HFS magic
    >> numbers aren't present at the beginning of the partition, and
    >> then ask you if you want to format or eject the unreadable
    >> disk.  Tell it to format, select HFS or HFS+ as you like, and
    >> you should be good to go.

    Eric> Now my next question is:

    Eric> How do I get to pdisk? I assume I have to be in YDL to run
    Eric> the app, but I doubt that I will be allowed to format the
    Eric> boot partition.

Yes, it is a linux app. and yeah, even if it will let you format the
boot partition while you were booted off of it, you probably wouldn't
want too :).

    Eric> I have the YDL 2.1 and 2.2 Install CDs and tried booting the
    Eric> 2.1 CD but it wouldn't let me (failed with some error & said
    Eric> it would restart in 180 seconds (& I wasn't able to
    Eric> command-control-power to restart for the first time ever
    Eric> (B&W G3, ADB keyboard)... I thought com-ctrl-pwr was a
    Eric> hardware thing and didn't think software could over-ride
    Eric> it)).

    Eric> I've mangled the Linux partition (1536 MB) with the
    Eric> installer (trying to trick it into formatting me one big
    Eric> boot partition). Should I re-install YDL and try deleting
    Eric> the partition that way (using your pdisk instructions)?

That is probably the best bet. Another thought is that OS X (BSD
anyway) should have some kind of partition map editor too. Unless it's
pdisk, though, I have no clue what it would be.

Mike

-- 
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