Problems Resizing "Macintosh HD" Partition

I recently bought a macbook with Leopard installed on it. I wanted to install XP on it, and with bootcamp, created a 32GB partition. (I had 232GB of internal hard drive space altogether) After concluding the first XP install stage (blue screens with partitions and creating files) there was a mishap. I decided to merely delete the second 32GB partition and resize my original. While I was able to delete the second one (BOOTCAMP), I was not able to resize my original. I tried to resize it from Disk Utility. I used the First Aid option to try to repair it, but it did not allow me. When I verified the permissions and disks there were errors. My question is, how can I resize my primary partition (currently 200GB and labeled Macintosh HD) to be 232GB?
Thank you.

IIRC you can't resize an active partition - that is, the partition you're currently booted from.
You'll need to boot from some other device - either an external hard drive, or the Leopard Installer DVD in order to resize the partition.

Similar Messages

Cannot resize "Macintosh HD" after deleting second partition: OS 10.9.4

I have partitioned my Macbook Pro in order to see if I could install Snow Leopard on one of the partitions, the main HD running Mavericks.
Sadly, my late 2013 Mackbook Pro is not compatible with Snow Leopard (or at least I was unable to determine how to prepare the partition in order that the snow leopard install disc would run successfully). At any rate, after this failed experiment, I deleted the partition I created for snow lion using disc utilities. The problem I am having now is that I am unable to resize the single "partition" to the full size of the drive. I read this thread, Unable to delete second partition, and it suggests booting the mac in recovery mode in order to restore to a backed up version of the HD, however this is suggested as a work around for not being able to delete a partition, which is not my case. Again, my problem is simply that once I have deleted the second partition, I am unable to have the single partition assume the full space of the drive. Any suggestions short of a complete re-install?

Here's the disc utilities snapshot after I deleted the partition that took up the space in the lower part of the quadrant. I'd like the MacIntosh HD to subsume the space leftover by the deleted partition.
a

Will resizing a TM partition cause problems?

Hello everyone,
I was just wondering if resizing a TM partition will cause any problems. I'm a little nervous using TM as it is, due to a lot of the problems I've read about, and I was just wondering if anyone has done this or knows of problems with doing this.

If you use Disk Utility:
You will lose the data. I don't think DU does a very good job of resizing. But is this a problem? If you have a good install running now. resize, and run TM again.
If you want to try a third party application that does this. VolumeWorks is one.In any case, expect the TM not to survive, and go into this with that mind set.

How can I resize my Macintosh HD partition?

Last year I had to create three partitions (120 GB for Macintosh HD, 510 GB for Data, and 120GB for Spare) on my HDD for a program I was taking. However, I'm finding that a 120 GB partition for Macintosh HD isn't sufficient for my needs anymore and would like to know if there is a way to expand the allocated size. Selecting the Macintosh HD partition and resizing the bottom-right corner will only allow me to decrease the size of the partition, not increase it. I've also tried doing this booting from a different partition and USB thumb drive.

The reason on why this is happening is because in Disk Utility, once a partition has been created it can only be either split, or reduced in size. That's why you were able to initially split your MacBook Pro partition in three different partitions.
Unfortunately, your only course of action is to boot inside your OS X Installer and from there re-map your hard drive. Consequently, this means that you'll have to format your hard drive and reinstall OS X and then restore your data from your hard drive back up.
If you ever decide to go ahead and format your hard drive I strongly recommend having some form of back up for your data. Things like uploading your personal files to the cloud or USB thumb or external drive are a good start and having copies of the third-party application installers can certainly help in the proccess as well. The ideal and less complicated route is to just attach an external drive and back up all your files via Time Machine.
I hope this information brings some clarification to your issue.
Yum3ji wrote:
Last year I had to create three partitions (120 GB for Macintosh HD, 510 GB for Data, and 120GB for Spare) on my HDD for a program I was taking. However, I'm finding that a 120 GB partition for Macintosh HD isn't sufficient for my needs anymore and would like to know if there is a way to expand the allocated size. Selecting the Macintosh HD partition and resizing the bottom-right corner will only allow me to decrease the size of the partition, not increase it. I've also tried doing this booting from a different partition and USB thumb drive.

Macintosh HD partition delete.

Hello All,
Simply, my problem is that I do not have a selectable hardrive to either load a back up copy of timemachine or to download a copy of Yosemite.
To get to this sorry state I went through the following steps:
1. My Macbook Air SSD, was completly full so I wanted to carry out a full rebuild and start from scratch.
2. I made a full backup copy through TimeMachine and also copied my photos and other important files to an Western digital 500Gb external harddrive.
3. Restarted the Mac using Option + R, went to diskUtility, and erased the Macintosh Harddrive, ensuring that the journaled option is chosen.
4. Downloaded and successfully installed Maverick.Immedialty updgraded to Yosemite.
5. Linked Itunes to my NAS drive, and then realised that I did not copy all the iTunes cover work and structure from my local drive. Decided to revert back to the original state to get what I needed.
6. Restarted the Mac uisng Option + R and tried to use the previously saved backup from the external drive, was told that there was not enough space.
7. This is where it all starts going wrong! Went to diskutilkity and erased the partion again and then tried to use the backup, but there is no harddrive to select.
8. Back to diskutility, there is no partition indicated beneath the top level macintosh HD line item. In the partiton tab all the dropdowns and textboxes are grey out and can't be selected.
9. within the avaliable drives I do have disk1 with a OS X Base System partition.
I am unable to download or install anything and so basically stuck!
I would appreciate any help or thoughts that you may have.
Thanks for your help. Also let me know if I have posted in the wrong forum.
Cheers

You could try first to convert it to a 'normal' Mac volume by doing the following in Terminal.app
diskutil eraseVolume JHFS+ Blank /dev/disk0s6
Then try deleting it in the GUI normal DiskUtility program. If you still cannot delete then try also doing the following.
First expand the Macintosh HD partition to use all the empty space. This will not destroy any data.
Then back in Terminal.app try the following
diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s3 disk0s6
Note: Instead of disk0s3 use whatever corresponds to your existing Macintosh HD partition. Macintosh HD needs to be a Journaled HFS+ volume. You can use the following to list all the partitions.
diskutil list
The following is what the 'manual' for DiskUtility says
mergePartitions [force] format name fromDevice toDevice
                Merge two or more partitions on a disk. All data on merged
                partitions other than the first will be lost. Data on the
                first partition will be lost as well if the force argument is
                given.
                If force is not given, and the first partition has a resizable
                file system (e.g. JHFS+), the file system will be preserved
                and grown in a data-preserving manner; your format and name
                parameters are ignored in this case. If force is not given,
                and the first partition is not resizable, you are prompted if
                you want to format. You will also be prompted to format if
                the first partition has an (HFS) Allocation Block Size which
                is too small to support the required growth of the first par-
                tition; see the -b option for newfs_hfs (8).

How to Resize Macintosh HD in Disk Utility

Hello everyone,
I am currently running OSX Mountain Lion, but at the time of this problem, I was just running OSX Lion.
I had recently installed Windows 7 to a Bootcamp Parition that was made via the Apple Bootcamp application. It was a success, all went well, and everything is fine in that regard.
However, at some point along the line, I figured that I was going to run out of room on my Windows partition, so I decided, foolishly, that I would make the Macintosh HD partition smaller and then just simply make the Windows partition bigger.
As I'm sure you all know, that was the wrong thing to do, and now I would just like to have my Macintosh HD partition take back its' unallocated space.
Unfortunately, It will not let me resize the Macintosh HD back to its' original size, and I am dumbfounded. I've tried many times but to no avail. It will let me drag the Macintosh HD slider down into the unallocated space, let me press the apply button, then it says "Partition Complete". But it is left exactly the same as it was.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. The unallocated space measures up too about 125 gb...... which I kind of want back
Thanks in advance!

Hi I realize this is an old thread but I thought I might chime in with my workaround. I did what you did, and resized my windows partition to include 50 more gigabytes using partition wizard. Later I decided to give it back to macintosh and when trying to reclaim the unallocated space with the disk utility it simply snapped back to where it was before. After digging around I decided to mess with it because I really did not want to delete my windows partition. I tried just repartitioning 49 of the 50gb and it worked. I still have about 1gb that is unallocated but for me it is a much better solution than to reinstall windows.
OSX Mavericks 10.9.3
MBPr late 2012 model

Macintosh HD partition is not visible in Windows

Hello
I've a MacBook Pro mid 2012.
A week ago I had a problem with OSX 10.9 and the Apple Premium Reseller fixed it with a clean instal of OSX. I've set everything back with my Time-machine backup. Because it was a software problem, my windows partition wasn't damaged. In Finder I can see the BootCamp-partition and of course my Macintosh HD-partition. But when boot with windows I can only see the Windows BootCamp-partition but not he Macintosh HD-partition. And that's my problem. I want to see the Macintosh HD-partition in windows. Before the clean install I could see the Macintosh HD-partition and now I want it back because I need it.
I've downloaded the newest BootCamp software (Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621) and installed it. Because the HFS+ driver is included in the BootCamp software you should think it solved the problem but it doesn't. I've read many communities and they told about only to reinstal the HFS+ driver which was exluded from the BootCamp software but this also didn't work.
I also tried to give the Macintosh HD-partition a 'disc-letter' because maybe that should be the reason why I can't see the partition but I can't give the partition a letter. I did it this way: Run => type: diskmgmt.msc. But it's impossible to give it a letter. (See additional photo at the bottom) I only can delete the partition when I right-click on it. (Is it normal that my disc have so much partitions which I don't know?)
Can someone solve my problem please?
Thank you very much for helping me out!
Joachim

The number of partitions should be four (the ESP/EFI information, OSX, Recovery HD and Bootcamp) on a single disk Mac machine.
From a working system with bootcamp, the partition id for entry 2 is AF (not AC) as is shown in your MBR, and the Windows installation only understands MBR (if you do not install using Windows 8.x/EFI on late 2013 Macs).
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Password:
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 121643/255/63 [1954210120 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1452530904] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1452940544 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
*4: 07 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1454211072 - 499998720] HPFS/QNX/AUX
There is a simple fix for this. You may have to re-install Bootcamp drivers again, to allow the HFS driver to pickup the MBR entry or a reboot may be needed. Please use the following commands and stop if you see any errors. (the i386 boot error message at the start can be ignored safely). This is done by using the fdisk utility in interactive mode with the '-e' command line option.
sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0
p
setpid 2
AF
p
w
y
Here is the help page for the fdisk utility.
sudo fdisk -e /dev/disk0
Password:
fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> ?
help Command help list
manual Show entire man page for fdisk
reinit Re-initialize loaded MBR (to defaults)
auto Auto-partition the disk with a partition style
setpid Set the identifier of a given table entry
disk Edit current drive stats
edit Edit given table entry
erase Erase current MBR
flag Flag given table entry as bootable
update Update machine code in loaded MBR
select Select extended partition table entry MBR
print Print loaded MBR partition table
write Write loaded MBR to disk
exit Exit edit of current MBR, without saving changes
quit Quit edit of current MBR, saving current changes
abort Abort program without saving current changes
fdisk: 1>

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or re

I erased my windows partition using disk utility then realized I should have used boot camp, because now I can't resize the original partition and seem to be stuck with a ghost unusable space. Boot Camp now doesn't give me the option to install or remove windows partition.

Hi, Ralph,
The problem is that I did erase the partition, using disk utility, but I can't go back to my original disk size pre-partition, as disk utility won't let me do it and gives the message "Couldn’t modify partition map because file system verification failed." When I try to use Boot Camp Assistant it won't let me select the third option to remove windows.

Problem with Macintos HD partition.

TL;DR so basically, my problem is that my Macintosh HD partition (OS X) is somehow blocked and I can't format it, I can't boot into it, I can't write files into it and I can't even mount it back. Good thing is atleast I could make a copy of my files to an external drive from a Windows 7 partition I had installed before this problem happened and I can actually boot into this Windows 7 Partition but not the OS X one.
I'll make this as detailed and informative as possible, I'm pretty desperate now and I just want to solve this.
A few weeks ago I got Windows 7 as a partition on my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro 13" (the last non-retina model), I got the base model, which as a core i5 cpu, 4GB of ram (upgraded to 8GB recently), Intel Graphics 4000 etcetera, model no. is A1278 I believe.
Okay, so the reason I installed Windows 7 in a bootcamp fashion is because I have to run Revit/Lumion and other various software that aren't available on OS X, for I study architecture and I require them, I tried using Parallels but I just did find the bootcamp experience a little more pleasant and natural. Naturally, whenever I wanted to use those programs, I had to restart my notebook and boot into windows, and I didn't find this extenuating or unpleasant, but then, a few days ago, after doing what I wanted to do on the windows partition, I tried to go back to OS X, selecting the option "Restart in OS X" from the Bootcamp Assistant in windows. After that, my sytem restarted and just went normaly into the apple loading screen before OS X boots completely, but, this time, a loading bar appeared under the apple and just started loading for... well, a little more than 10 minutes, then, when it finished, I got a message saying that OS X couldn't be accessed or couldn't load, something like that, and I still get it, so I've been using windows since then, because funny enough, my windows partition DOES work, but my OS X partition doesn't.
So I've read a few threads on different forums and trying everything, but the thing that gave me more info about my problem was when I booted into recovery mode and saw that my Macintosh HD partition was "unmounted", naturally I thought "so THAT was it!!!" and tried to mount it, but it didn't, it told me to verify the drive and try again, so I did, and the Disk Utility in recovery mode found that my drive (only Macintosh HD partition) needed to be repaired, so again I tried to do it and clicked on Repair right there in the Disk Utility, but then again I couldn't repair it and it told me to make a copy of all my files and make a clean install of mavericks again (this happened a few weeks ago when yosemite wasn't out), so I told myself "meh, I can still copy-paste the files from my windows partition into an external drive and just format the Macintosh HD partition and re-install Mavericks. I did that, and then went back to disk utility on recovery mode, and when I tried to re-install mavericks on that drive, when I tried to choose the Macintosh HD partition it told me that "This drive is blocked".
I don't know how in the world could I block my own OS X partition but I hope someone can help me, please, this is driving me crazy. Thanks in advance guys.

First you should try to fix the bad sectors, you can use the following command:
chkdsk c: /f /r

How to resize/erase a partitioned external drive

Just checking if I got this well before proceeding.
I have a new Western Digital external FW drive (1TB). I partitioned it in two for using with Time Machine (300GB) and the rest for my huge iTunes and iPhoto libraries.
Now I've changed my mind and I want to have a single partition (or no partitions at all ) in the WD drive and use it for my data only. I don't really care about the Time Machine partition at this time, since it's relatively new and I use SuperDuper! for my startup drive anyway. Right now I care about my libraries in the lower partition. I have another external, Maxtor 500GB hard drive that can be used for Time Machine and other backups afterwards.
The problem is: The first partition (the UPPER one) is the partition I'd like to erase, and the bigger one with my data is below. I've read there's no way to resize the lower partition without erasing it or corrupting/losing the data. I know I should think before partitioning in the first place.
So, my only choice would be backing up my libraries and other data from the WD in the 500GB drive, then erase the WD drive and copying everything back again to a single, new and fresh partition? Hope there were a better solution for this. If not, I'd appreciate a comment anyway.
Thanks for your help and comments in advance, gurus.
JJ

Now that I think of it, I can try something. Copying the lower to the upper partition is a good option, and it could be done if I temporarily move SOME of the files stored in the lower one. Then copy the rest to the upper partition and do what you suggest.
Some questions about this: Can I first erase the data in the upper partition to have more room to copy data? And... is this resizing procedure SAFE for the rest of the data?
I'll think about it before proceeding, anyway
Thanks for your suggestion, it could be the answer.
JJ

Resized Boot Camp partition; now I have "disk0s4"

OK so i was following this tutorial on how to increase your boot camp partition from this website.
Following this blog post:
http://blog.craigharvey.me/2012/09/02/resize-boot-camp-partition-for-free-window s-8/
I resized my Boot Camp partition to give Windows 7 more space. In Disk Utility on OS X ML, I reduced the size of my OS X partition. So then i clicked apply and now that partition says disk0s4. I tried to verfiy and repair it through disk utitlity but It wont let me as there are problems. I have reiszed my parition before and never had this problem before. What did I do wrong and will I be able to fix it?

As you have found out, those instructions do not work, so.
If you can you still boot to OSX, you can Use Boot Camp to remove the Windows partition and return the Mac to normal, then start agin.
Next time you need to resize an NTFS partition use Paragon Camp Tune, which can do it without borking things.
Do Not Ever use Disk Utility to do anything to a Windows partition, it will make the problem worse.

"Resizeing" A Bootcamp partition

Hi - a pretty complex question
I know that you can't just resize a bootcamp partition, but I'm wondering if this proposed solution would work so that I could save myself some time:
-Make a disk image of the bootcamp partition and store it on the Macintosh HD using the Disk utility from the Snow Leopard installation disk.
-Get rid of the Bootcamp partition (which currently is a 32GB fat32 partition)
-Repair disk permissions (for good measure)
-Use the Bootcamp utility to create a larger (50GB Maybe) NTFS Partition.
-Use Disk utility from the snow leopard installation disk to dump the disk image of the old partition into the new partition.
Would that Work????
IF so, anything I should Know?
Thanks!

Sorry, I just remembered to post the follow up:
I successfully was able to use winclone (http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone) - Thank you very much "Sausage King of Chicago"
Their is one minor caveat. In order to successfully resize the partition, the windows drive MUST be formatted for NTFS (not fat32. Type:
"CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS"
in the windows Command prompt program. (of course, substitute your local disk's drive letter for "C" - mine was "F"
Command prompt will say that it can not reformat the drive, because it would have to dismount the local disk, so it will schedule a boot time re-format. Windows will have to restart twice (for me anyways) in order to reformat, so make sure you hold down option as the computer is restarting.
Once this is done, check to make sure that Windows XP is still working properly, then boot back into OSX.
Once in OSX, use winclone to Image your Bootcamp partition. Save it as a file to the desktop.
When done, remove your Bootcamp partition from the computer (making sure that the image file is still safe!!!) using Boot Camp Assistant.
Now repair your Macintosh HD using disk utility (repair disk). My disk needed so much repair that it told me to start up with my Leopard installer disk, and repair the disk from its disk utility.
Now you are ready to use Boot Camp Assistant to set up a new LARGER bootcamp partition. When you are done, don't go ahead and install windows, instead, dbl click on the image file you made, and when winclone opens, restore it into your new, bigger bootcamp partition. It should work.
Same Windows computer- much more free space!
Thanks for your advice

My Macintosh HD partition is damaged and the disk utility failed to repair it

I cannot boot anymore after I tried to repair the disk with Disk Utility after my Mac became very slow.
This is the second time it happened to me in a week with the same symptoms. When I try to boot, I see a gray screen and the computer just stops
When I use the recovery partition, the disk utility fails to repair the disk, stopping after failing to fix the catalog file.
I started to use TM to backup my data after erasing the disk and reinstalling Mountain Lion but I wonder if my hard drive is damaged because the same problem happened twice. (Thanks TM for keeping my data safe this time)
Any advice or ways to fix that once and for all ?
PS : The worst is that i can still boot with Bootcamp to Windows, not very useful though

rpignard wrote:
Any advice or ways to fix that once and for all ?
Since your Recovery HD and Windows partition work fine, the problem is located in your Macintosh HD partition and I very highly suspect it's bad/failing sectors that's to blame for your troubles.
This can sometimes occur if the computer was moved while the hard drive was in operation, else sectors fail all by themselves, or if the drive is having mechanical issues, which you problem will continue no matter what you do.
This time when you use Recovery > Disk Utility to erase the Macintosh HD partition, use the middle secure erase option, not the far left or right options (the right will work also just take a really long time)
What your doing is with the middle secure erase option is called a "Zero" write, which Disk Utility will write 0's over all the bits in that partition. When it's done it will read it back for confirmation and when it does so, any bits that are failing will be mapped off by the drive. Hopefully this will resolve the issue without needing a drive replacement.
Once that is completed, reinstall OS X from Recovery, any programs from original sources, files only from backup and your problems hopefully should disappear.
What happens is if your data gets corrupted on the boot drive by failing sectors, it gets transfered to TimeMachine (or to bootable clones) and when you restore your right back to square one. So it's important to rule out that possibility with original installs of OS X and third party programs.
If your problems continue, then it's possibly a problem with third party at boot kernel extension files, (and the catalog problem was yet another one) so to solve this you need to make sure all your third party software is updated and works with your current OS X version.
A trick is, if you get gray screen at boot time, is to hold the Shift Key while booting the computer, this will disable a lot of things and allow you to fix the third party software issue.
What I suggest you do is have multiple backup systems, including hold option key bootable clones, this way if your TM drive gets corrupted you can go back in time to a saved state on the clone, restore that and then your files from the TM drive.
Most commonly used backup methods

After resizing a disc partition using disk utilities, I can no longer boot windows. HELP! what is the best thing that I can do to fix this

Bare with me as Im no computer genius but ... This afternoon I wanted to create more disc space on my Windows partition as I am using CAD software and wanted to free up as much space as possible. So, I went into disk utility and reduced the size of the Mac partition, then clicked apply.
When I came to reboot the computer to use windows the windows OS, the option to use windows was no longer there.
After looking at some online forums, I've found that most people suggest reformatting the hard drive and re-installing mac OS and also windows from back up data.
Is there no easier way for which I will not lose any data? Please help! I really need to use Windows ASAP!

The only apps I know of that can backup a Windows partition and or resize a windows parttition on a Mac so you don't have to go through the wipeing out, resizing and reinstall is WinClone for backing it up and WinTune (I think that is the name) for resizing a Windows partition on a Mac.
Once you create a Windows partition, install Windows in that partition, you can't fool around with any partition on your drive with either Windows Disk Management or OS X Disk Utility and expect Windows to boot.
The only thing you can try is to run Boot Camp Assistant.app again and remove the Windows partition and then run it again to create a larger partition and then reinstall Windows. Once you remove the windows partition put all the space back into the OS X partition and start fresh.

Macintosh HD Partition Split?

Hardware is new iMac 27" with Retina Display, and 3TB Fusion Drive.
Installed Windows 7 using Boot Camp Assistant. No errors were encountered during the install.
Here is the resulting Partition Map from Disk Utility:
Note that the Macintosh HD Partition is split into two sections with the Boot Camp in the middle. The sizes of the partitions in order from top to bottom are: 2.08 TB, 120 GB, 801.44 GB.
The other anomaly is that when booting with the [option] key you are presented with 4 choices. They are 3 identical Macintosh HD disks followed by 1 Windows disk. I have tried booting from all of them and they all work.
So my question is, "What's going on here?" I have a call in to Apple Support and waiting for them to get back to me. If I get an answer, I'll post it for your consideration.

Loner T wrote:
... uses a Hybrid MBR which is limited to four (4) partitions and a 2TB (2.2Tib) upper space limit. A 3TB Fusion drive is split three ways to work around this limit.
The disk can be partitioned using just GPT for W8.1 and an EFI installation can also address this three-way split.
What is a "Hybrid MBR"? Please explain "GPT" and if there is any reason to address this split. The Apple support person told me that this does not affect any performance issues with the system.
Thanks for your comments! I recall you helped me with installing Windows on my MacPro last year.

Problems Resizing "Macintosh HD" Partition

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