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#1 2013-09-05 13:43:06
- rabcor
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- Registered: 2013-02-09
- Posts: 500
What is this 2mb gpt partition on a macbook?
I have an around 5 years old intel based macbook, I'm doing its owner a favor and installing linux on it, the original plan was linux mint but... something went wrong with that.
So to troublesoot things and find out what exactly is failing and why i decided theres no better OS than the arch i'm so familiar with by now.
Now during the installation, using cfdisk which i normally do to set up the partition table, i couldn't help but notice a 2.10mb GPT partition flagged as "NC" (not compatible since cfdisk can't read GPT) at the start of the disk, something that the linux mint installer which was told to replace OS X did not erase.
What is this? and is it safe to delete it?
Last edited by rabcor (2013-09-05 13:44:28)
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#2 2013-09-05 15:01:29
- Scimmia
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- Registered: 2012-09-01
- Posts: 11,591
Re: What is this 2mb gpt partition on a macbook?
If you're trying to use cfdisk, you should probably do some reading: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
It could be the ESP, but at 2 mb, I'm guessing MINT created it to use GRUB.
Last edited by Scimmia (2013-09-05 15:20:26)
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#3 2013-09-05 16:36:40
- srs5694
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- From: Woonsocket, RI
- Registered: 2012-11-06
- Posts: 719
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Re: What is this 2mb gpt partition on a macbook?
The cfdisk utility is incompatible with GPT, and continuing to use it on your disk COULD TRASH THE DISK! Chances are you're seeing a hybrid MBR setup.
If you want to use a cfdisk-like tool, you should instead use cgdisk, which is part of a package called either gdisk or gptfdisk (I don't recall which name Arch uses, offhand). Alternatively, you could use gdisk or sgdisk (both also part of the same package as cgdisk) or a libparted-based tool (parted, GParted, etc.). Note that if the computer is also booting Windows, you may have to create a fresh hybrid MBR after you repartition for Linux, particularly if you use something based on libparted to do the partitioning.
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