First, I tried to install Debian on my Mac. After giving that up and deleting all the unused partitions, I found, in rEFIt, a Linux startup volume even though no Linux distribution is installed — there is not even a partition. So I open the partition inspector to synchronise, and after a quick restart, no difference.
Finally, after uninstalling rEFIt, I can boot into Mac OS X fine. However, when holding option to list available startup disks, I find Macintosh HD, Windows, and the recovery HD. I can't figure out why the Mac detects this missing Windows/Linux partition. How do I get rid of it, or at least why this is happening?
I don't know if I was particularly clear on this, but the partition isn't there, just Macintosh HD, the EFI System partition, and the Recovery HD. Nothing else....
If it was a partition, I would be very able to fix it with GParted. Also, if I was to reinstall Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion). How could I guarantee it would rebuild my PMBR and GPT? I do not have the install disk (it was preinstalled), just the recovery HD... It does not show up in disk utility or any other command line tools.
This is what I don't understand.
Anyway, here is some output...
diskutil list
**/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3**
sudo gpt -r show -l /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
34 6
40 409600 1 GPT part - "EFI system partition"
409640 975093952 2 GPT part - "Customer"
975503592 1269536 3 GPT part - "Recovery HD"
976773128 7
976773135 32 Sec GPT table
976773167 1 Sec GPT header
sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
start size index contents
0 1 MBR
1 1 Pri GPT header
2 32 Pri GPT table
34 6
40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
409640 975093952 2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
975503592 1269536 3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
976773128 7
976773135 32 Sec GPT table
976773167 1 Sec GPT header
sudo fdisk /dev/fdisk0
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 60801/255/63 [976773168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [ start - size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [ 1 - 976773167] <Unknown ID>
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
4: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0 - 0] unused
and if it helps, the output from rEFIt's own, Partition inspector...
*** Report for internal hard disk ***
Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 975503591 Mac OS X HFS+
3 975503592 976773127 Mac OS X Boot
Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 976773167 ee EFI Protective
MBR contents:
Boot Code: GRUB
Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)
Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Partition at LBA 975503592:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Mac OS X Boot
I hope this helps.