Delete partition from external hard drive

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Delete partition from external hard drive

I use Macbook Air 2014 on OS X El Capitan with external hard drive. Current OS is pretty old, but for my basic needs it works fine. Some time ago I had to use modern software so I decided to install the new OS on my external hard drive.

There were 3 partitions created: 200 Gb for Time Machine, 230 Gb for file storage and 70 Gb for Big Sur OS.

Since then I didn't use Big Sur, so now I want to free that partition. The idea is to leave 2 partitions: 200 Gb for Time Machine and 300 Gb for file storage.

I have erased this 70 Gb partition, however the partition itself is not deletable. What I'm trying to do - open disk utility tool, choose the external drive, then "Split into partitions". Then I want to click 'minus' button for this partition, but the button is grayed out.

Any ideas?

MacBook Air 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 2, 2024 1:01 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

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Feb 13, 2024 7:08 AM in response to ilyahimself

Thanks, which drive/partition are you booted from in those pics?

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Answer 2

Feb 16, 2024 4:16 AM in response to ilyahimself

I don't believe you can delete the first partition so you might be stuck with 5.5Gb first partition.

To get around this you will probably have to copy the data from the two partitions you want to keep to another hard drive. Reformat the drive afresh and make the smallest first partition you can plus however many more partitions you want. If you want to delete partitions again you won't need to delete the first one as using little space.

Copying time machine data isn't easy. I did that with SuperDuper recently, it took 16 hours for ~400GB.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

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Feb 2, 2024 6:12 AM in response to ilyahimself

So, clicking o that Partition in the Pie view doesn't ungray the minus sign?

Can you grab the edge of that slice & drag it smaller?

What format is that drive?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

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Feb 14, 2024 3:31 PM in response to ilyahimself

Hmmm, does it show Mount , or Unmount when attempting this?

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Answer 5

ilyahimself Author

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Feb 13, 2024 5:41 AM in response to BDAqua

Here it is.

How this partition looks like.

Its behaviour when I drag it. Can't set below 5.582 GB either by dragging or entering value directly into "Size" field.

First Aid tool says everything is fine.

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Answer 6

ilyahimself Author

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Feb 13, 2024 12:07 AM in response to BDAqua

Right. Choosing any other partition, the minus button is available. For this one - it's unavailable.

I can grab it with the edge and drag, but when it comes to ~5.582 Gb, it just doesn't allow me to go further.

All partitions are OS X Extended journaled, including this one. But previously this partition was some kind of APFS container for Big-Sur.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

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Feb 13, 2024 4:00 AM in response to ilyahimself

Can you provide a screen shot?

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Answer 8

ilyahimself Author

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Feb 14, 2024 2:02 PM in response to BDAqua

The screenshots were taken from my main system - OS X El Capitan on internal SSD. This partition was formatted from El Capitan as well.

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Answer 9

ilyahimself Author

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Feb 18, 2024 1:05 AM in response to BDAqua

The drive is connected to MacBook via USB when I try to change partition. I guess that means that it is mounted.

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Answer 10

ilyahimself Author

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Feb 18, 2024 1:14 AM in response to Need_help_give_help

Thank you for the advice. I guess erasing / reformatting the whole drive will help. I just hoped there would be a smarter solution to heal this partition.

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Delete partition from external hard drive

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