How to partition a hard drive on mac. Non-destructive hard drive re-partitioning on Mac
"Rifat, I bought new disk and I need to make it work on both Mac and Windows.” “Hi, I have a disk, but I can’t write anything to it on my Mac, what should I do?” “Listen, how to format Mac drive, so he ?".
My friends and clients ask me approximately these questions once a week, if not more often! So now, I will show you how to format a disk in disk utility, for different cases!
First, a short introduction to basic file systems (FS). If you don't want to bother with theoretical aspects, you can scroll below, directly to the formatting procedure.
To format a disk, you need to go to Disk Utility, which is located in the Programs - Utilities (Utilities) folder or find it through Spotlight. In the window that appears, on the left side, you need to select the disk to format - the disk itself, and not the volume name. In my case it is 160.04 GB Seagate TOSH..., not Extended HD. Next, we need to click on the Disk Partition button, at the top in the middle, and here we can see all the options for formatting the disk for different needs! So, now I will describe all the sections and what they give us:
1) Partition scheme - by clicking on “Current”, we can select the number of partitions on the disk. Someone may need to create a disk with 2 or more partitions for storage different files or for use on different computers.
2) Partition information - here you need to select the disk name and FS. For use on Mac and Win, select FAT or ExFAT. To use the disc for Time Machine, select Mac OS Extended (journaled).
3) Options - by clicking on this button we select the type of bootloader - this is very important parameter, because It depends on it whether the disk will be detected on the computer or not!
— GUID Partition Scheme- no matter which FS you select, the disk will only be detected on a Mac with Intel processor(all modern poppies). Together with the HFS+ file system (Mac OS Extended), the disk will be available for creation backup copies via Time Machine! No other combination of the “Partition Scheme” and FS parameters will allow you to use the disk for copies!
— Apple partition scheme- designed for use in old Mac computers with PPC processor. We won't need it.
— Main boot record — when you select this item, the disk will be visible on computers with Win. But besides this, the format must be FAT or ExFAT.
ATTENTION! FORMATING A DISK ERASES ALL DATA FROM IT!!! BEFORE FORMATING A DISK, MAKE SURE THAT THERE ARE NO IMPORTANT FILES ON IT OR SAVE THEM TO ANOTHER DATA STORAGE!!!
After selecting all the parameters, you can click on the “Apply” button in the lower right corner and this will appear:
The system will warn you that all data will be deleted from the disk, and if you agree, then click on the “Disk Partition” button. Formatting is quite fast - from 3 to 20 seconds, depending on the disk size.
If you have chosen the path for creation of Time Machine, then immediately after formatting a window may appear asking you to select this disk for backups.
Let me clarify once again which items you need to select for:
— Time Machine and disk operation only with Mac- Mac OS Extended file system and GUID partition scheme;
— Disc for Mac and Win- file ExFAT system and Master Boot Record.
So we figured out how to format a disk in a Mac, and what options you need to choose for different cases! This method suitable for disks, flash drives, regardless of the connection interface - USB, FireWare or Thunderbolt. If you have any questions or difficulties in the process of formatting a Mac disk, write about it in the comments :)
By the way, if you were interested in this article, then feel free to add to my groups at
In preparation bootable flash drive For Mac installations OS, as in the first time after installing Mac OS, you often have to access the EFI partition of a bootable flash drive, HDD or SSD. There are three ways to mount an EFI partition on Mac OS.
First way. Fast, but you need to be very careful when performing this operation, since you can mount the wrong EFI partition and ruin it.
The second method is more complex, but gives a 100% result in mounting the desired EFI partition.
The third method is the fastest, but you also need to be very careful.
So, first things first.
To quickly mount an EFI partition, you can use the application. Launch the application, enter the password. The application will open a window in which the EFI partitions will be listed. In my case, disk0s1 is the MacBook HDD, and disk1s1 is a bootable USB flash drive with Mac OS, so I need to mount the EFI partition of the flash drive. You need to be more careful when choosing a partition, since you can mount an EFI HDD partition, change it, and after a reboot the system may not boot. You need to clearly understand all actions. Of course, after installing the Clover boot loader on the HDD or SSD, you will most likely have to work with the EFI partition disk0s1.
To mount the desired EFI partition, click on the “Mount” button.
After this, an EFI partition will appear on the desktop and in “Devices”. Now you can make edits to config.plist, copy the necessary kexts and reboot.
If you need to disable the EFI partition, then this can be done in the same way as with regular flash drive, or run the EFI Mounter application again, select the partition and click “Unmount” (see picture 2).
And now about the second method, more complex. Open Terminal, switch to superuser mode by executing sudo command-s.
We create a directory for the future section. To do this, run the command mkdir /Volumes/EFI
Run the diskutil list command and look at the available partitions. I'm interested in the EFI partition of the bootable USB flash drive. In my case it is disk2s1.
We mount the EFI partition of the flash drive by running the command mount_msdos /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/EFI After executing this command, the EFI partition of the flash drive will appear on the desktop and in “Devices”.
To unmount a mounted EFI partition, run the command
Umount -f /Volumes/EFI, or extract the partition as a regular flash drive.
Please note that partitions may look different on different PCs. It is possible that the EFI partition of your flash drive may be disk3s1.
And finally, the third method, the fastest. If we know exactly which EFI partition needs to be mounted, then we run the following command in the terminal:
Diskutil mount /dev/disk0s1 After this, the EFI partition of the boot disk will be mounted.
When buying a computer with Mac OS X pre-installed, sooner or later the question arises: splitting hard disk into partitions. If your HDD is not partitioned, then after a while you will end up with too many folders in root directory, which will affect the search required document, as well as on performance in general. With a partitioned disk, you can save important documents, photos, videos to a larger partition without fear for the safety of the data in the event of a system crash.
Attention! Partitioning the disk leads to the removal of all data, so you need to do backup important data to another drive.
This method is suitable for newly installed hard drives, or with existing separate section, which should be broken. It should be noted that it will not be possible to partition a disk in a running system on which Mac OS X is already installed; to do this, you need to boot from boot DVD and perform a similar sequence of actions.
1. Open the Disk Utility application (Go->Application->Utilities->Disk Utility)
2. To partition the disk, select your disk in the left column, then go to the Partition tab.
3. To partition a disk, you must decide how many parts you will divide it into, optimal choice These are two disks, one system, the second for data storage.
Select Volume Scheme: 2 Partitions from the list, it is Volume Scheme that is responsible for the number of disks when partitioning, and by default, the size of disks when partitioning will be divided equally. To resize partitions, move the separator under Volume Scheme.
4. Assign a name to the disk, select a file system. By default, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is selected, a journaling file system. When incorrect termination When the system sees the log, the FS rolls back the transaction, which ensures the safety of the data.
The physical drive is displayed in the system as virtual volumes, also called local disks or sections.
The drive can be represented by only one volume that can contain everything disk space and stores all your files. Or it can be divided into several volumes, between which all available space and files are distributed.
The first option is very common, but not the most practical. Storing OS components in the same place with movies, games and other entertainment content is not best idea. You or other computer users may accidentally touch important files. And if the system fails and it is needed, then the rest of the volume’s contents will be deleted along with the old OS.
Fortunately, you can always split your drive into two or more partitions. IN general outline The procedure goes like this: you take a certain amount of space from an existing volume and use this amount to create a new one.
For example, you can leave about 40–50 GB for the volume with the installed OS, and allocate the rest of the space for a new partition reserved for programs and entertainment content. In this case, system and personal files will be stored separately. And if you have to reinstall the system, your content will remain on the computer.
Before partitioning the disk, be sure to copy important files to other media. Your personal data shouldn't be harmed, but it's better to be safe.
The listed separation methods are suitable for both types of drives: traditional (HDD) and solid-state (SSD).
1. How to partition a disk in Windows
By regular means
For partitioning and other operations with drives in Windows, standard utility"Disk Management". To open it, click right click on the “This PC” shortcut and select “Manage” → “Disk Management”. You can launch the utility even faster using special team: press Windows keys+ R, paste into field diskmgmt.msc and click OK.
In the Disk Management window, you will see a list of local volumes (partitions) into which your drive is already divided. Among them there may be hidden system partitions, which do not appear in Explorer. This is normal, don't pay attention to them.
In the lower half of the window, right-click on the volume you want to split and select the “Shrink Volume” option.
Then specify the amount of data you want to allocate to the new volume and confirm compression.
As a result, the specified number will be displayed on the screen next to the selected volume free space, available for the new section. Right-click on this area and select “Create Simple Volume”.
If you have Windows XP, the compression option will most likely not be available. Then just right-click on the one you want to split and select " New section». Further actions will be approximately the same for all OS versions.
When the New Volume Wizard appears on the screen, follow its prompts.
In the process, you will need to select the letter and label (name) of the section. When the wizard prompts you for a disk, select the NTFS system and confirm your choice. After formatting, the created volume will appear in Explorer. If this does not happen, restart your computer.
In exactly the same way, you can partition the disk in the future, adding new volumes.
In a third party program
If for some reason you are unable to partition the disk using standard using Windows, try this in one of third party programs. For example, in the utility. It's free and compatible with everyone. Windows versions from XP to 10 and quite simple.
To partition a disk in MiniTool Partition Wizard, select the appropriate volume in the program and click Move/Resize Partition in the left panel. In the window that appears, in the Unallocated Space After field, specify the amount of free space that will be taken from the current volume in favor of the new one. Click OK.
A new nameless section marked Unallocated will appear in the main menu of the program. Right-click on it and select the Create command. In the next window, fill in the Drive Letter and Partition Label fields, select as file system NTFS and click OK.
Returning to the main menu of MiniTool Partition Wizard, on top panel Click Apply to apply the changes. The computer will restart and white text will appear on the black screen. Wait and do not turn off the device. When Windows boots, the created volume will appear in Explorer.
2. How to partition a disk on macOS
If you have a Mac, then to split the drive you will need preset program"Disk Utility". It can be found in the Finder menu → Programs → Utilities.
After launching Disk Utility, in the left pane, select the disk you want to partition and click on the “Partition” button.
A window will appear on the screen with further instructions, in which you can select the number, size and other parameters of new partitions.
When you have deposited everything necessary settings, click “Apply” and wait for the changes to take effect.
Article about partitioning the main disk (Macintosh HD) in system Mac OS on 3 sections. On one of which you need to install Windows with Boot Camp .
operating system Mac OS allows you to partition disks without erasing information from them. The tools for this are built into the system and are quite reliable. The program is called Disk Utility. With its help, it is easy to split the main disk into several parts, and then also successfully remove these parts and return the same volume original disk. If you need to install Boot Camp, you can also easily remove it later.
However, when you need to divide a disk into more than two partitions and install Boot Camp on one of them, this procedure is not provided by the system by default. And further steps should be taken at your own peril and risk. Moreover, then deleting the partition with the Boot Camp disk and combining it with the main one, without general formatting, will not work.
Why do you even need to split your hard drive in Mac OS into three partitions? For example, you don't want to encrypt the entire computer, but you want to have one encrypted drive in Mac OS and a drive on which Windows is installed (using BootCamp). Of course, you can use containers like sparsebundle, but suppose for some reason you don’t want to do this. Still, working with wild is more convenient.
The procedure for dividing a disk into 3 parts and installing Boot Camp
The procedure for dividing a disk, Macintosh HD into several partitions: for Boot installation Camp is one of them, very similar to witchcraft. Because order is important here and something can go wrong. Here's what you need to do to split a disk like this:
1. Determine what size is needed for the second disk.
2. Open assistant Boot Camp, insert disk Windows(you can also use a disk image file iso), divide the disk by the size selected in the first step.
3. Restart your computer and click alt. Login again Mac OS.
4. Go to Disk Utility and create section for Boot Camp by formatting it in FAT.
5. Delete partition Boot Camp, created using Assistant Boot Camp. Then restart your computer and start installing Windows.
6. Reformat during installation FAT V NTFS And install Windows.
7. After Windows installations go to Mac OS and in Disk Utility
create a partition in free space.
8. This will create three sections.