You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Unable to partition an external SSD in Mac OS Extended format

I have erased and formatted my external SSD in Mac OS Extended format however 'partition' remains greyed out. HFS+ appears successful. Am trying to partition this drive 50:50, half for Time Machine and will reformat the other half ExFAT for sharing files across mac/pc machines.



iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 2, 2021 5:43 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 2, 2021 5:50 AM

The problem may have to do with the installed system. High Sierra is more forgiving than Catalina and Big Sur on SSDs.


Use the View menu -> Show all devices on Disk Utility to make sure you are partitioning the top most device, and not a subdevice.

2 replies

Aug 2, 2021 10:04 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for the tip on "View menu -> Show all devices on Disk Utility to make sure you are partitioning the top most device, and not a subdevice."


After reformatting the top most device into GUID Partition Map, I was able to create a partition for Time Machine and reformat half the second half of the drive in ExFAT.



Unable to partition an external SSD in Mac OS Extended format

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