Convert from triple boot to dual boot

[teras]

I want to bring my disk back to it's older status, before triple booting.

Now I have the following scheme:
1) The EFI partition
2) The OSX partition
3) The Linux partition
4) The Windows partition

The linux partition is under reiserfs and it is not regognized at all from the DiskUtility (it is shown as empty unpartitioned space).

I tried to run BootCamp assistant directly, but it fails :(

What I would like to do is, remove the Linux partition and expand the OS X partition to take over the Linux partition, without reformatting Windows.
Is this possible?

I know that if I remove both windows & linux partitions, and run bootcamp I will solve this problem, but I am trying to avoid reinstalling Windows.


PS: if there is no other way than to reinstall windows, can I simply make a ZIP file from the Windows partition and unzip it afterwards?

[blade2]

I don't know how to remove the linux partition but I'm impressed you got the tripleboot mac working at all. I followed the tripleboot wiki and currently have a dual boot (MacOSX and Windows XP) working. The 3rd partition is waiting for linux but I can't figure out how to bootstap linux.

What version of linux did you use? I'm trying with opensuse 10.2.

[blade2]

I just got the linux partitioning working using by installing Turbolinux on the sda3 partition and configuring the lilo.conf file. I'd like to use opensuse instead, but I don't fully trust it's partitioning tool.

[zarmanto]

What you can do may depend upon the order in which you installed the different OSes: If the disk is partitioned like this...

|-- MacOS X --|-- Linux --|-- Windows --|

... then you should theoretically be able to wipe Linux and expand MacOS X into the space, assuming that Apple's tools will let you do that without wiping Windows. (I haven't actually tried this myself, mind you.) However, if either (1) Apple's tools don't let you expand the MacOS X volume into the Linux volume, or (2) the disk is partitioned like this...

|-- MacOS X --|-- Windows --|-- Linux --|

... then I'm pretty sure that the best you could possibly hope for is to format the Linux partition as a secondary volume for use under MacOS X. You should be able to do this via Apple's Disk Utility, in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder.

As a side-note for that last situation: Supposedly, Norton PartitionMagic* is capable of actually moving an existing partition on a Windows based system, and a MacOS X compatible version of that kind of software is what you would need to put the Windows installation at the tail end of the drive, and reallocate the rest of the space into a single MacOS X volume.

Good luck, and let us know what you end up with!

* Note that I do not recommend using PartitionMagic... I have heard way too many horror stories related to it. And if you absolutely must use this type of software, there is never a better precaution then performing a full backup of the drive first!

[Shiggity]

I know this isn't pertaining to the issue at hand, and I don't have an Intel Mac yet, but to install Linux as the third OS has anyone been able to successfully perform this triple boot using the new Mandriva ONE Live CD? I like that distro, and I may use it when I attempt this.

Oh yeah, could someone somehow make a video of their Mac triple booting? I think it'd be interesting to see.

Thanks,
Shigg