Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.

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Level 1

8 points

Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.

I have an old mac with High Sierra and I tried adding a new partition. In Disk Utility it would allow me only to add a 23GB partition but I have 180GB of free space. I read online about diskutil cs such as https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/144010/cant-create-partition-on-free-space-with-disk-utility however if i do diskutil cs list i get

No CoreStorage logical volume groups found.

Also i do not see the Recovery partition. Can someone guide me through what else I can try to fix the problem?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Oct 5, 2023 2:27 PM

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Answer 1

TheLittles

Level 10

197,075 points

Oct 7, 2023 1:30 AM in response to bizmate

bizmate Said:

"Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.: [...]No CoreStorage logical volume groups found.[...]"

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Troubleshooting "No CoreStorage logical volume groups found.":

Run First Aid on the Hard Drive:

Boot in to Recovery Mode
Select: Disk Utility
Select: each hard drive
Click: First Aid button
See the Results

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Answer 2

ku4hx

Level 7

23,610 points

Oct 6, 2023 4:47 AM in response to bizmate

Here is what you do: Partition a physical disk in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

But be very careful and make sure you understand what the verbiage is telling you and what the image shows. It's quite easy to mess up. I suggest you learn on a blank external HDD first before you start on the main drive.

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Answer 3

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 11:02 AM in response to bizmate

I can see both the "U" partition and the "Macintosh HD" are mounted. However, once they are mounted my understanding is that I cannot do any resizing or any operation to achieve what I want.

The current OS takes about 69GB and of the 250 GB I would like to create two other partitions, so even if i leave about 80GB to the mac OS i would like to

reduce the space the current partition takes
Expand partition U to 160GB, then add another

As you can see as soon as I press the partition option I cannot modify the Machintosh Partition and reduce it to 80GB as shown here. The Apply button is dimmed.

Can you suggest a sequence of steps on how to do this safely? I cannot resize or change anything either from mounting or unmounting partitions.

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Answer 4

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 10:17 AM in response to TheLittles

I can see both the "U" partition and the "Macintosh HD" are mounted. However, once they are mounted my understanding is that I cannot do any resizing or any operation to achieve what I want.

The current OS takes about 69GB and of the 250 GB I would like to create two other partitions, so even if i leave about 80GB to the mac OS i would like to

reduce the space the current partition takes
Expand partition U to 160GB, then add another

As you can see as soon as I press the partition option I cannot modify the Machintosh Partition and reduce it to 80GB as shown here. The Apply button is dimmed.

Can you suggest a sequence of steps on how to do this safely?

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Answer 5

TheLittles

Level 10

197,075 points

Oct 7, 2023 2:18 AM in response to bizmate

bizmate Said:

"Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.: I did that and have no errors....Whats next?"

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Thank you for the followup reply.

Mount the Drive:

Seems you have yet to mount the drive. So, tap Mount for each drive. See this that fixes all of this. The Mount button is shown on both photos you've provided: Far-right of the middle buttons.

Screenshot:

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Answer 6

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 1:13 AM in response to ku4hx

I tried Disk Utility already as I mentioned on my post and I had indeed also taken a look at this article. However disk utility is still limiting the size of the partition I create again despite having plenty of free disk space.

I do not want to install windows but I want to install linux on this Mac and I want to use more than just 23GB of the 250GB disk.

I also tried to reboot into recovery mode and use disk utility from there however the partition is still limited when I used this method.

Unfortunately apple does programmed obsolescence of old Macs so I want to try if the same machine actually works better if I put linux on it.

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Answer 7

TheLittles

Level 10

197,075 points

Oct 7, 2023 2:33 AM in response to bizmate

bizmate Said:

"Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.: I cannot mount the drive but I see that the partition U is mounted and the Container Disk 2 is unmounted. Should all the partitions be unmounted first?"

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Mount:

They should all be mounted. So, try mounting all of them and then see it is all works. If that does not work, then unmount them all and then mount them all.

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Answer 8

ku4hx

Level 7

23,610 points

Oct 7, 2023 4:14 AM in response to bizmate

"Unfortunately apple does programmed obsolescence of old Macs ... "

----

That's absurd. If you have proof of that please show your proof and official documentation.

Apple advances technology at their prescribed pace ... you can either keep up or not. Totally your choice.

Do you really want tech to stagnate? That's what you're advocating. Imagine if Bessemer had not moved on with the invention of steel, we'd all be driving cast iron automobiles.

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Answer 9

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 9:44 AM in response to ku4hx

"official" right... my old Ipads are all not working, apps do not run on them anymore and no OS updates. I cannot upgrade the OS in this Mac and for absolutely no reason it just does not run well at all.

With linux I am still running machines from 2008 and no fuss but also I can easily partition with gparted or similar. It is impossible to do it on this mac somehow. Just pressing mount or unmount takes ages even in recovery mode.

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Answer 10

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 2:13 AM in response to TheLittles

I did that and have no errors....

Whats next?

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Answer 11

bizmate Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 7, 2023 2:29 AM in response to TheLittles

I cannot mount the drive but I see that the partition U is mounted and the Container Disk 2 is unmounted. Should all the partitions be unmounted first?

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Creating a partition is limited to about 23GB when I have 180GB free disk space.

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