I can't add a second partition to my internal Fusion Drive

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Level 1

28 points

I can't add a second partition to my internal Fusion Drive

I just got a new 27" iMac with a 1TB Fusion Drive. I'm trying to add a second small partition (around 60GB) on the internal 1TB spinning drive. I have had this kind of setup for a decade on my previous macs. I use the second partitioned drive with "Ignore ownership on this volume" checked. This works much better than the default Shared folder OS X gives because ownership is ignore.

I first add a second partition using Disk Utility and resize it to 60GB. I then press the Apply button and get an error message:

Partition failed

Partition failed with the error:

The target disk is too small for this operation. I have over 500GB of free space.

I have done this on so many Macs in almost all the OS X versions and never had this problem.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion, 1TB Fusion Drive

Posted on Apr 27, 2013 4:44 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,207 points

Apr 28, 2013 12:05 PM in response to Mike Retondo

Hi Mike, does a smaller one work?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5446

Oh, are you booted from the Restore Partition when trying this?

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Answer 2

Mike Retondo Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 29, 2013 11:06 AM in response to BDAqua

I tried the smallest it would let me and also around half the size. I'm NOT booted from the Restore Partition. I'm booted from the normal boot partition and logged into my account.

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Answer 3

Mike Retondo Author

Level 1

28 points

Apr 29, 2013 11:13 AM in response to BDAqua

From your link I found the following info. It seams that I can create one partition. It doesn't mention anything about the restore partition. So does the restore partition count as the one? That doesn't seam to make sense to me since ML puts the restore partition automatically and yet still allows for a Boot Camp partition.

Can I add a partition to the hard disk with Fusion Drive?
Using Disk Utility, you can add one partition to the hard disk on Fusion Drive. Once you add the partition, the "plus" symbol in Disk Utility to add additional partitions will be grayed out. You cannot partition the Flash storage.

If I create a hard disk partition is it part of Fusion Drive?
The additional partition is not part of Fusion Drive. The new partition is a separate volume that is physically located on the hard disk drive.

Can I add a Windows partition?
You can create one additional partition on the hard disk with Fusion Drive. You can create either a Mac OS X partition or a Windows partition.

If creating a Windows partition, use Boot Camp Assistant to create it, not Disk Utility. From the Go menu, chooseUtilities. Then, double-click Boot Camp Assistant and follow the onscreen instructions. For more information on Boot Camp see the Boot Camp support page.

Note: Boot Camp Assistant in OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 and earlier does not support 3TB hard driveconfigurations. Update to to OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.3 or later to use the 3TB configurations.

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