Disk Utility unable to resize partition

I have an external 4 TB drive with two 2 TB partitions, A and B. I want to resize the partitions so that I have one 3 TB partition and one 1 TB partition.


When I try to use the Disk Utility GUI to accomplish this, it shows me I actually have three partitions:


Partition A (2 TB) – "You can not remove the first volume on the disk."

Partition B (2 TB) – "You cannot remove this volume because the previous volume cannot be resized."

Free space (516 MB)


When I try to (in a single action) remove the free space, then remove Partition B, then add a new 1 TB partition and resize Partition A to 3 TB, I get the following error:


"Running operation 1 of 4: Remove “--”…

An internal error has occurred and the disk for one of the specified operations could not be found. This may be a temporary issue, try again.

Operation failed…"


Similarly, when I just try to remove the free space and Partition B, I get the same error (now when "Running operation 1 of 2").


Any suggestions on what I can do? The result of running "diskutil list" with both partitions mounted is shown below. ("Dan's Carbon Copy Clone" is Partition A and "Data Dump" is Partition B, though I am amenable to deleting whichever partition is required as they are currently exact duplicates of each other.) Thanks in advance.



/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER
  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            *1.0 TB   disk0
  1:            EFI EFI           209.7 MB  disk0s1
  2:         Apple_APFS Container disk1     920.0 GB  disk0s2
  3:    Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP        80.3 GB  disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER
  0:   APFS Container Scheme -           +920.0 GB  disk1
                 Physical Store disk0s2
  1:        APFS Volume Neutrino        730.4 GB  disk1s1
  2:        APFS Volume Preboot         24.0 MB  disk1s2
  3:        APFS Volume Recovery        519.0 MB  disk1s3
  4:        APFS Volume VM           4.3 GB   disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER
  0:   GUID_partition_scheme            *4.0 TB   disk2
  1:            EFI EFI           209.7 MB  disk2s1
  2:         Apple_HFS Dan's Carbon Copy Clone 2.0 TB   disk2s2
  3:     Apple_CoreStorage Dan's Carbon Copy Clone 2.0 TB   disk2s3
  4:         Apple_Boot Boot OS X        134.2 MB  disk2s4

/dev/disk3 (external, virtual):
  #:            TYPE NAME          SIZE    IDENTIFIER
  0:         Apple_HFS Data Dump       +2.0 TB   disk3
                 Logical Volume on disk2s3
                 [disk ID]
                 Unlocked Encrypted

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Aug 1, 2020 1:29 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 4, 2020 9:49 AM

Problem solved. I'm not sure whether all of the following steps were required, but here is what I did:

1) Changed Partition B to an unencrypted partition. Disk Utility deleted it and then recreated it without encryption.

2) Deleted the free space and Partition B. Unlike before, this now worked.

3) Created a new Partition B, allocating the appropriate amount of space.

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 4, 2020 9:49 AM in response to Bysmuth

Problem solved. I'm not sure whether all of the following steps were required, but here is what I did:

1) Changed Partition B to an unencrypted partition. Disk Utility deleted it and then recreated it without encryption.

2) Deleted the free space and Partition B. Unlike before, this now worked.

3) Created a new Partition B, allocating the appropriate amount of space.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Disk Utility unable to resize partition

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.