Remove partition and resize

[Manneman32]

Hey... didn't really know where to post. Hopefully you guys will forgive me.

I have installed macOS Monterey on an external ssd with OCLP... hopefully that doesn't matter, the question is not really about that... I think

I did this to avoid having the hassle to replace the internal slow 5400 SATA to an ssd. During the procedure I had to split the external drive into two partitions. Now I have as following:

External:

*Kingston bla bla
Install MacOS Monterey (59gb)
Container Disk3
Macintosh HD External (primary os)

I want to remove the partition "install macOS.... and ad that space to the container disk 3
I have a strange feeling it won't work, due to APFS and stuff. But I really need to ask.

Is there any way?

 

[Bigwaff]

Using Terminal app, post output of diskutil list. Lets see how things are set up.

 

[Manneman32]

It looks like this:

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: GUID_partition_scheme *240.1 GB disk2


1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 209.7 MB disk2s1


2: Apple_HFS ⁨annat⁩ 59.9 GB disk2s2


3: Apple_APFS ⁨Container disk3⁩ 179.9 GB disk2s3





/dev/disk3 (synthesized):


#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER


0: APFS Container Scheme - +179.9 GB disk3


Physical Store disk2s3


1: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD Externa...⁩ 45.1 GB disk3s1


2: APFS Volume ⁨Preboot⁩ 268.9 MB disk3s2


3: APFS Volume ⁨Recovery⁩ 1.1 GB disk3s3


4: APFS Volume ⁨VM⁩ 1.1 GB disk3s4


5: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD External⁩ 18.5 GB disk3s5


6: APFS Snapshot ⁨com.apple.bless.9395...⁩ 18.5 GB disk3s5s1

 

[Manneman32]

It's a small drive, so I would really want it on the "main" Macintosh HD External

It's the "annat" I wanna remove and ad to Macintosh HD External

 

[bogdanw]

Delete a partition & Enlarge a partition on a storage device
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/partition-a-physical-disk-dskutl14027/

 

[Manneman32]

Delete a partition & Enlarge a partition on a storage device
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/partition-a-physical-disk-dskutl14027/

Well... not a storage device. Even if it's a usb-ssd, it's still the system drive

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, even your boot, or system drive, is included with those items referred to as storage devices..

 

[Manneman32]

Yes, even your boot, or system drive, is included with those items referred to as storage devices..

Seems like I'm screwed anyway...

To extend a volume, you must delete the volume that comes after it on the drive and then move the volume's endpoint to the free space. You cannot extend the last volume on a drive.

I want the "annat" gone and the space added to "Macintosh HD External" and according to Apple (the quote above) I cannot do that.

I have reformatted the original partition, that's why the name is different from the OT

Shown here... the option to remove the "annat"-partition is greyed out...

 

[Manneman32]

Can I covert it to APFS and it sorts itself?

 

[DeltaMac]

That would probably not be helpful...
I would suggest backing up that "Macintosh HD External" to another external drive, then erasing this external, then reinstall Monterey (to a single partition, if that's what you want), or just restore your backup to the newly-erased external SSD.
Now that you have experienced some of the "traps" when all you want is to work with another partition temporarily, you may have less problems if you have the primary/boot partition as the first on your drive, and avoid using a temporary volume as the first (or early) partition on your "storage device", that should help if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future.
Good luck. Come back and let us know how it goes for you.

 

[Brian33]

Can I covert it to APFS and it sorts itself?

No, that would just give you another APFS container -- but it wouldn't merge into the existing container.

Like your quote from Apple says, the problem is that the partition you want to get rid of (59.9GB) is ordered before the partition you want to keep/add to (179.9GB). You could delete the big one and merge it into the small one, but not the other way around. At least, that's my understanding.

I don't know of any way to rectify your situation, except what @DeltaMac says. Or live with it.

 

[Fishrrman]

The easiest way:

Get a SECOND external drive -- SSD large enough to hold the contents of the external boot partition.

The problem drive is 256gb?
Too small.
This time, get 512gb or 1tb.
SSD's are cheap these days.

Disconnect the partitioned boot drive and boot from your install media (was it a USB flash drive that you used to install Monterey via OCLP?).

Then, do a full reinstall of Monterey (using OCLP) onto the NEW drive.

When done, connect the old external boot drive.

Now run through setup assistant (on the NEW SSD), and when it asks if you wish to migrate, pick the OLD external drive partition with your stuff on it.

When the migration is done, you should have a new boot SSD with everything on it.

Now it's time to ERASE the old external drive into a single partition.

Use the old drive for a backup afterwards, or additional external storage.