Increase Macintosh HD partition

[blackfang]

Hello,
Can somebody help me with a simple legit solution in which i can increase my OS partition? (without formatting the HDD and restoring)
Apparently i've got the Recovery HD between two partitions, and dunno what should i do, i don't wanna break my mac. (i've attached a screenshot)

Please help

 

[simonsi]

You see the shaded bottom right corner of each partition box? Use the one on the Documents partition to drag it to reduce that partitions size, then you should be able to drag the Macintosh' partition to increase it as required.

DU will warn you which partitions it will be resizing and should advise you no data will be lost but I would still take a complete backup of the whole machine first.

 

[blackfang]

Mate thanks for the reply,
but thats why i added a print screen with the terminal volumes list, because i cannot increase the size at the OS partition , even if i make the other one smaller, that's why i asked for help
I found this as an issue on the internet because the Recovery partition is between my Macintosh HD and Documents HD, but i couldn't find the exact solution (besides formatting all my drive and restoring it after i increased its size). I even went into recovery mode and couldn't increase the size.
I even tried to check if i got "diskutil corestorage list" and i don't.
Some help please

 

[Bruno09]

You have the right diagnosis.

You cannot increase your Mac OS partition because of the Recovery partition.

The solution is to clone your current two partitions to and external drive (=two clones), then boot up from the OS clone, erase the internal drive and re-partition it.

Then reverse clone the clones to the internal drive.

(I wonder why you have an OS and a Documents partition ? This is useless)

 

[0x100]

Don't partition your drive from disk utility from your disk, it'll be slow. Do it from another computer instead.

----------

You have the right diagnosis.

You cannot increase your Mac OS partition because of the Recovery partition.

The solution is to clone your current two partitions to and external drive (=two clones), then boot up from the OS clone, erase the internal drive and re-partition it.

Then reverse clone the clones to the internal drive.

(I wonder why you have an OS and a Documents partition ? This is useless)

Windows can't read HFS+ if I remember correctly. That could be a good reason. When I was doing some multi boot things on a PC I made a 10 gig FAT32 partition so it could be used by both of my os.

 

[Bruno09]

Windows can't read HFS+ if I remember correctly.

What are you smoking ?

There is no Windows computer here.

 

[0x100]

What are you smoking ?

There is no Windows computer here.

Ok, then it makes no sense at all.

 

[simonsi]

Mate thanks for the reply,
but thats why i added a print screen with the terminal volumes list, because i cannot increase the size at the OS partition , even if i make the other one smaller, that's why i asked for help
I found this as an issue on the internet because the Recovery partition is between my Macintosh HD and Documents HD, but i couldn't find the exact solution (besides formatting all my drive and restoring it after i increased its size). I even went into recovery mode and couldn't increase the size.
I even tried to check if i got "diskutil corestorage list" and i don't.
Some help please

So the drag slider on the OS partition will let you decrease but not increase?

If you can't blow away the Recovery partition on its own then I think you are stuck with backing up and repartitioning the drive.

If you can remove the Recovery partition on its own, that should let you do what you want, you could then use CCC to add the Recovery partition back in.

Either way you'll need a backup first so perhaps easier to just repartition the whole drive and restore.

 

[blackfang]

(I wonder why you have an OS and a Documents partition ? This is useless)

I know it quite is, but in my theory, i am keeping all my work documents + extra important stuff in that partition, so that in any chance i want to reformat with a different version of OS in the future i will just fresh install it in the Macintosh HD, that saving me all the copying and pasting my documents back and forth .
It's quite uncommon for mac users to do that right? (i just transitioned from windows a month ago with my new MBPR 15 )

So the drag slider on the OS partition will let you decrease but not increase?

If you can't blow away the Recovery partition on its own then I think you are stuck with backing up and repartitioning the drive.

If you can remove the Recovery partition on its own, that should let you do what you want, you could then use CCC to add the Recovery partition back in.

Either way you'll need a backup first so perhaps easier to just repartition the whole drive and restore.

I might do that! Sound like a good plan, i got CCC. Cheers Simonsi

Thank you everybody for you quick replies !
Best forum

 

[simonsi]

I might do that! Sound like a good plan, i got CCC. Cheers Simonsi

Thank you everybody for you quick replies !
Best forum

Cool, if you do CCC will notice there is no Recovery partition on the 2nd clone attempt back, so copy it once, go to copy again and it will ask if you want to create the Recovery Partition.

 

[blackfang]

Cool, if you do CCC will notice there is no Recovery partition on the 2nd clone attempt back, so copy it once, go to copy again and it will ask if you want to create the Recovery Partition.

Oh i see, so need to backup the Macintosh HD twice so CCC will ask me to backup also the recovery partition. Good to know!
I got an external 2TB HDD which i use just for Time Machine, Can i partition it so i can make that partition for cloning? (from what i know CCC formats the partition that is selected so that it's bootable, don't wanna loose all those backups from time machine)

 

[simonsi]

Oh i see, so need to backup the Macintosh HD twice so CCC will ask me to backup also the recovery partition. Good to know!
I got an external 2TB HDD which i use just for Time Machine, Can i partition it so i can make that partition for cloning? (from what i know CCC formats the partition that is selected so that it's bootable, don't wanna loose all those backups from time machine)

Not quite, one copy away will be fine, its the copy back, the second time CCC will recognise it as bootable and check the Recovery partition and find it isn't there so give you the option.

So copy away both partitions
Format drive
create your partitions
copy OSX back with CCC
copy OSX back again - then it will create the Recovery partition for you
copy other stuff to other partition with CCC