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Can't partition OS drive

SDAVE

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 16, 2007
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I'm on Tahoe with a 2019 Mac Pro and want to create a second partition on the 4TB OS drive so I can install Sequoia (as a 2TB partition). For some reason in Tahoe I am unable to do it in Disk Utility. I do not want to wipe off Tahoe because there's too many important setings/files on it.

Any help appreciated.
 
SDAVE said:
For some reason in Tahoe I am unable to do it in Disk Utility.
Click to expand...
You're going to have to be more specific. Does it give you an error? Is it grayed out? Not enough space? etc.

Are you doing this in the OS? Recovery mode?
 
!!! said:
You're going to have to be more specific. Does it give you an error? Is it grayed out? Not enough space? etc.

Are you doing this in the OS? Recovery mode?
Click to expand...

I am trying to install macOS Sequoia on a new partition so that I can move stuff over from Tahoe and then get rid of Tahoe. It's going to take a while to do this and I can't restore from Time Machine since it has a Tahoe backup on it and macOS won't allow you to restore from a new OS version onto old.

FreakinEurekan said:
Don't try to Partition.

Create a second Volume for Sequoia.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I looked into that, but unfortunately it's just a volume. I wanted a clean partition to keep it separate from Tahoe because I want to remove Tahoe when everything is moved over (I have to manually restore not just files, but also a lot of plugins which will take a long time for me to move stuff over) and I want to have Tahoe still working in production while I do this over several days.

Maybe what I do is once Sequoia is in a good place and I'm happy with it, I will make a new Time Machine backup on a fresh drive, and then completely wipe the OS drive, and then restore it? What do you think?

Also I will try what you recommended today, should I create the new volume in the Container or under Macintosh HD volume (see screenshot)?

Screenshot 2026-01-30 at 6.00.53 PM.png

Also worried about Preboot not being the Sequoia version, hence why I was thinking of doing this > fresh Time Machine backup > wipe OS drive completely from terminal > install Sequoia again > restore from Time Machine.

Most likely I will never upgrade to Tahoe on this Mac Pro, I really doubt Apple will ever make it a good version for Intel. I'll die on the Sequoia hill on this machine I guess. It runs like hot garbage on Tahoe, I can't get any work done.


EDIT:

Made a new 2TB volume under Container to install Sequoia. Does this look ok to you?

Screenshot 2026-01-30 at 6.05.01 PM.png
 
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SDAVE said:
Thanks for this, I looked into that, but unfortunately it's just a volume. I wanted a clean partition to keep it separate from Tahoe because I want to remove Tahoe when everything is moved over (I have to manually restore not just files, but also a lot of plugins which will take a long time for me to move stuff over) and I want to have Tahoe still working in production while I do this over several days.

Maybe what I do is once Sequoia is in a good place and I'm happy with it, I will make a new Time Machine backup on a fresh drive, and then completely wipe the OS drive, and then restore it? What do you think?
Click to expand...
A new Volume is EXACTLY what you want. The volumes are functionally separate, either can be deleted at any time. You can boot to either, and you can access either volume regardless of which you’ve booted if you want to.

I do this for Beta every year. I create a Volume, install the new beta, use Migration Assistant to migrate data from the old volume, and “test” the beta. If the testing goes well, I eventually delete the old volume and continue on. If it does not, I either just leave the Beta volume until such point as updates allow me to delete the old one; or, sometimes I delete the Beta volume outright and “try again later.”

Also note you CAN access the opposite volume - but you don’t HAVE to. If you want to keep them totally separate, with no cross-contamination possible, that’s simple to do.

There is literally zero benefit to a “partition” over a volume, unless you need a different format (i.e. for Linux or Windows). There are PLENTY of advantages to a Volume though.
 
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A volume will do what you want more easily. If you add a partition to install Sequoia, you'll be unable to expand that partition into the space where the Tahoe partition was because you can't shift the new Sequoia partition to be the first partition on the disk. Making a new volume eliminates this issue altogether; you just delete the Tahoe volume and you'll have all that space available for Sequoia immediately.
 
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Thanks both, going to go ahead with it. I hate Tahoe with a passion, it's completely unusable and most likely will never get good even by the end cycle for the EOL Intel machines that we paid a lot of money.
 
Ok went ahead and did this, so happy with Sequoia. Going to take a few weeks to see if all is good after moving stuff over including plugins and files from "Application Support" (certain apps I have very customized so need them) if all ok, then I will wipe Tahoe completely.

So glad I did this, Tahoe can go to hell. I am going to disable the software update notification through terminal to never see it again.
 
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