Q: Changing size of two partitions
Hi,
I have 3 partitions on my computer. Let's call them A, B and C with A = primary boot, B and C are just data. I wanna make partion B 50GB smaller and partition C 50GB bigger without losing any data (given that there is at least 50GB free space on B of course). I seams as if this is not possible within MacOS (you can make a partition smaller, but never bigger, you cannot redistribute the free space). There are a lot of posts on this topic, although I could not find an answer to my question, because most people ask for how to make the primary boot partition bigger which is a bit trickier. But how can you change a non-boot partition in Snow Leopard? Is it even possible without any 3rd-party software? If not what is the your most trusfull application?
I have 3 partitions on my computer. Let's call them A, B and C with A = primary boot, B and C are just data. I wanna make partion B 50GB smaller and partition C 50GB bigger without losing any data (given that there is at least 50GB free space on B of course). I seams as if this is not possible within MacOS (you can make a partition smaller, but never bigger, you cannot redistribute the free space). There are a lot of posts on this topic, although I could not find an answer to my question, because most people ask for how to make the primary boot partition bigger which is a bit trickier. But how can you change a non-boot partition in Snow Leopard? Is it even possible without any 3rd-party software? If not what is the your most trusfull application?
MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.5), 2.0 GB RAM
Posted on Feb 1, 2011 3:08 AM
by R C-R,Solvedanswer
You can freely resize partitions using Apple's provided Disk Utility application but it cannot move the +start of a partition+. IOW, Disk Utility can't move the starting point of your partition C "up" into the space made available by making partition B smaller.
There are third party utilities that in effect can do this, but they actually involve moving all the partition's files from one part of the disk to another so for safety's sake all of them strongly recommend making a backup of all the partitions on the drive beforehand. That's because changing the drive's partition scheme data & moving around so much data on it cannot be made 100% bulletproof so there is always some small but non-zero chance that the process will fail & you will be left with a drive that must be reformatted to again become useable, making all its previous data unrecoverable by normal means.
Because of this need to back up everything (which is true whether or not you want to repartition anything), & because these utilities are relatively expensive, I think it is usually simpler & better to invest in a backup drive, clone the partition(s) that you want to move to it as needed, delete those cloned partition(s) on the original drive, create new one(s) with the sizes you want, & then clone back the original content from the backup clone(s).
So for example, you could resize partition B smaller, clone partition C to your backup drive, delete C from the original drive, create a new partition C starting at the end point of B, & clone the backup of C back to it.
There are third party utilities that in effect can do this, but they actually involve moving all the partition's files from one part of the disk to another so for safety's sake all of them strongly recommend making a backup of all the partitions on the drive beforehand. That's because changing the drive's partition scheme data & moving around so much data on it cannot be made 100% bulletproof so there is always some small but non-zero chance that the process will fail & you will be left with a drive that must be reformatted to again become useable, making all its previous data unrecoverable by normal means.
Because of this need to back up everything (which is true whether or not you want to repartition anything), & because these utilities are relatively expensive, I think it is usually simpler & better to invest in a backup drive, clone the partition(s) that you want to move to it as needed, delete those cloned partition(s) on the original drive, create new one(s) with the sizes you want, & then clone back the original content from the backup clone(s).
So for example, you could resize partition B smaller, clone partition C to your backup drive, delete C from the original drive, create a new partition C starting at the end point of B, & clone the backup of C back to it.
Posted on Feb 1, 2011 4:23 AM