How to Resize Mac Partitions

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Do you like to resize the partition on Mac successfully without deleting any of your data? Then, you are at the right place.

Resizing a partition means that you can either extend or shrink the size of your hard disk partitions. So, in extend partition, we will increase the size of the partition while in shrink, we will be reducing the size of a disk partition.

You can resize partitions on Mac using the free best Partition Manager, called apple’s Disk Utility app. Here, we are going to show you how to resize your Mac partitions with Disk Utility. So, without any further ado let’s get into it.

Why we need to Resize Partition on Mac using Disk Utility?

You must be wondering why I should partition my hard drive on Mac. Well, the answer is simple, the resize partition provides you the ability to install two operating systems on the same computer at once.

You can resize your Mac partitions with the help of Apple’s Disk Utility tool. Disk Utility tool provides the ability to erase data, format data, and create multiple partitions. Resizing a partition is a very easy process and anyone with a Mac user can do it.

If you are new to this field you may be confused that what if resize partition delete or damage your data on the drive. Luckily, Apple made it really easy to resize partitions without losing any of your data.

However, for your safety, you should backup your important data before resizing your Mac partition.

Before going any further, it is important to know some of the basic rules and regulations before making any changes to your Mac partition.

The Rules and Regulations of Resizing a Partition:

Before resizing partitions, here we provide some rules and regulations you should take in mind to make sure that you are ready for resizing the partition. Make sure that you have the complete knowledge of all the below-given rules, if so, then you are ready for resizing a partition. So, please pay attention to the following rules.

  • Resizing is limited to only specific disk formats. Currently, it is only formatted with the GUID Partition Map support resizing.
  • The last partition on a disk can’t be enlarged, but it can be deleted though.
  • Decreasing the size of a partition means that the partition coming behind will be going too deleted.
  • It is good to always back up your device’s data before resizing a volume.
  • Removing a partition will cause the freed-up space, which will be added to the partition that leads it.
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How to Create a Partition on your Mac:

  1. Open Finder from your dock.
  2. Select Applications.
  3. Scroll down and open the Utilities folder.
  4. Double-click to open Disk Utility.
  5. Select your hard drive in the Disk Utility window. It will be the first drive on the list.
  6. Click on the Partition tab. You will be prompted to either add an APFS volume or a Partition.
  7. Click Partition.
  8. Click the Add partition button it looks like a ‘+’ symbol.
  9. Now, you can change the size of the partition you wish to use by dragging the resize controls.
  10. Name the new partition.
  11. Now, you have to specify which file system format you want to use.
  12. At last, Click Apply.

How to Enlarge a Partitions using Disk Utility on mac

You can enlarge your partitions as much as you want as it’s not the last volume on the drive. Make sure you have a current backup of all data on the drive you plan on modifying. Follow these steps to understand how to enlarge a Mac partition.

  1. First of all, Start Disk Utility, by selecting Applications > Utilities.
  2. In the Disk Utility display, select the drive that contains the volume you want to enlarge.
  3. Select Partition from Disk Utility’s toolbar.
  4. Click the Partition tab.
  5. Select Partition again to confirm.
  6. The current partition pie chart for the selected disk will be displayed.
  7. You can see a pie chart with all of the volumes contained on the selected drive. You’ll see what free space is available and how much space each volume occupies.
  8. If you want to make the volume bigger, then you will have to delete another. Once you delete the volume the pie slice turns blue, and the name of the volume is displayed in the Partition field.
  9. Now, click the minus button on the pie chart to delete the selected volume. Or you can click plus button to add a volume and vice versa. After doing this, click apply to proceed or Cancel to stop these changes if this setup is to your liking.
  10. If you click apply for your changes, and then the free-up space is added to your remaining volume.
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How to Resize Mac Partition without Losing Data?

Can we change partition size without losing data? Yes, you can resize partitions without losing any of your data with the help of the Disk Utility tool. As we have talked about before, the resizing partition is divided into two parts extending and shrinking partitions. So, both operations are safe and won’t delete your data.

Pretend that you have two volumes on your selected drive, A and B. A and B each take 50% of the drive space, but the thing is the data on B is only using a small part of its volume space. So, you can enlarge A by reducing the size of B and then adding the free space to A, sounds tricky right? Here is how you can resize Mac partitions without losing any data:

  1. Start Disk Utility and select the drive that contains both the A and B volumes.
  2. Select Partition from Disk Utility’s toolbar.
  3. Click on the B volume located on the pie chart.
  4. Disk Utility has a feature that allows you to reduce the size of the volume as long as the current data stored on it still fits within the new size. For example, we will decrease B to 45 GB. Next to Size, enter 45 GB and then press Enter or Return.
  5. Click on the volume and enter the size on the appropriate field.
  6. The pie chart will show you the expected results of this change. Select Apply to proceed to the new partitioning.
  7. Finally, select Partition to confirm. In the next section, we will add the free-up space to A.
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Moving Data Using Disk Utility

Here we will be adding the newly freed-up space to the “A” partition.

  1. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, select the untitled volume you just created, and then click on the Restore button.
  2. Next to Restore From, select B, and then select Restore.
  3. The restoration process might take a few minutes. Once it’s finished, click done.

Conclusion:

In closing, this is it! This is how you can resize your Mac’s partition with the help of Disk Utility. As you can see, the process is very simple and will definitely resize volumes for you. As well as, you don’t have to worry about losing your data, under the right circumstances there is no risk of losing your data. Just follow the steps and be sure to have a current backup and you are good to go.