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    How to properly remove OSX partition?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by exastify, Nov 1, 2011.

  1. exastify

    exastify Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a MBA with Lion and Win 7 via boot camp on it. View of my partitions:
    [​IMG]

    First, what are the 200mb and 620mb partitions? I'm pretty sure the 200mb partition is the factory recovery partition from the factory. Did I somehow create the 620mb partition by creating a backup lion USB?

    Also, I would like to get rid of my OSX partition and only have Win 7. If I erase the other partitions besides the win 7 installation, can I "extend" the windows 7 installation? (I'm worried because it uses the "right" side of the HD, as I think I remember the disk utility only being able to extend right and not left)

    Thanks!
     
    exastify, Nov 1, 2011
    #1
  2. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    Actually, from what I recall, Lion creates a partition around 650MB for backup purposes so that you can boot from said partition, Lion will contact Apple's servers, and you can perform a re-installation of Lion. So I think the 620MB partition is for recovery purposes, I am not sure what the 200MB partition is there for. Though, in the grand scheme of things, 800MB isn't a whole lot to lose.

    I am pretty sure you can get rid of anything OS X on a Mac's hard drive (or SSD in your case) but I don't recommend doing that since EFI and various other firmware updates are only done through OS X. Instead, I recommend taking OS X's partition down to a very small size (7-8GB) and leaving it on there so that you can at least keep your Mac updated. You can change each partition size without reformatting using the Bootcamp Assistant in OS X. Take OS X as far down as it can go (though I would leave 1-2GB of extra space) and then select Windows as the primary boot option. Just make sure you boot into OS X once every month or two so that you can continuously update your Mac.
     
    kornchild2002, Nov 2, 2011
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  3. AppleUsr

    AppleUsr Notebook Deity

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    when you formatted the windows partition it created the 200mb partition. its necessary for windows to boot properly
     
    AppleUsr, Nov 6, 2011
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  4. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    I must say that i have never seen windows 7 use a 200MB partition for boot, it's always been 100MB, so i have no idea what it is for in the OP's case, but maybe it is larger when you use bootcamp to install windows?
     
    Michel.K, Nov 6, 2011
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  5. AppleUsr

    AppleUsr Notebook Deity

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    windows 7 has always shown 200 for me
     
    AppleUsr, Nov 6, 2011
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  6. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    Michel.K, Nov 7, 2011
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