Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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If you partitioned a hardrive into 2, can you later make it 1 again? I've googled this and can't figure it out still.
Also I want to remove the password protection on it, thanks.
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 8
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 8 |
Yes. Use Apple's Disk Utility to do this. You will lose the data on the drive when you use Disk Utility.
On a Mac since 1984. Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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Yes, Ira, I've gone into DU, don't see a way to ...
Delete the smaller partition, and make the drive whole again..
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
Yes. Use Apple's Disk Utility to do this. You will lose the data on the drive when you use Disk Utility. Will you lose all the data on the drive or only that on the partition you're merging (as I've understood or misunderstood as the case may be)?
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
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Moderator
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16 |
You will lose all the data on the second partition. Disk Utility will warn about this when you attempt to remove a partition.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
— Albert Einstein
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
As I thought; thanks for the confirmation.
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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Thank Joe/ Ira. I go to DU, and select the disk I want to unify. There is + but not a minus. I click on the small pie one nothing happens. I even changed 75gb to 0 gb was apply still greyed out. Here is image. Don't mind erasing everything. [IMG] http://i67.tinypic.com/dlnyc2.png[/IMG]
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 14 |
Don't mind erasing everything. If you don't mind erasing everything, why take the long way to get to one partition? Just use Disk Utility to erase the drive and tell it you want a single partition.
ryck
"What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" The Doobie Brothers
iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2020), 3.8 GHz 8 Core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 2667 MHz DDR4 OS Sonoma 14.4.1 Canon Pixma TR 8520 Printer Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner c/w VueScan software TM on 1TB LaCie USB-C
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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Ryck, yes easy to erase partitions, but I still at loss how to ask it to make 1 partition. Going in circles.
Did you see the screenshot and text I posted. This would see an intuitive easy thing to do, how do you do it?
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
Try dragging the divider within the circle representation, i.e. one of the blue edges...the right-hand edge, I think, and then hitting "Apply".
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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Dragging the divider does not work.
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
Have you tried selecting the "blank" partition, hitting the minus sign, and then hitting "Apply"?
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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The minus sign is always greyed out. Is there an intuitive just "unify partitions" button?
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
The minus sign is always greyed out. Is there an intuitive just "unify partitions" button? I dunno, kevs, I just tried it, and it works for me. Are you booted into the other volume on that drive? If so, that may be your problem. If there's a "unify" button, I've never run across it. More: Don't do anything in Disk Utility other than select that partition and hit minus if it's not grayed out.
Last edited by artie505; 03/20/18 04:01 PM.
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16
Moderator
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Moderator
Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 16 |
First you have to select the partition by clicking on the partition you wish to delete. If the minus sign is greyed out that means you are attempting to delete the first partition on the drive and the first partition on the drive CANNOT be deleted. Select the other partition and the minus sign should no longer be greyed out, but if you delete that partition you will lose all the data on it. Also I want to remove the password protection on it, thanks. I presume you mean you have turned on Filevault for that volume. You will have to do that in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Filevault and you will need an empty volume of the same size to decrypt to and I would encourage doing that first as removing a partition has been known to cause data loss.
Last edited by joemikeb; 03/20/18 04:21 PM. Reason: add new material
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?
— Albert Einstein
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15
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Joined: Aug 2009
Likes: 15 |
Duh! That's what I was overloking...that the first partition is the first one going clockwise.
The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.
In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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OP
Joined: Dec 2009
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Excellent Joe, worked like charm, I'm all set thanks. I don't know why I was only trying to delete the first partition, maybe because it was tiny and it seemed logical.. oh well. (and I did not think that if you can't delete one maybe can delete other)
Not file vault, just disk image password, and it got nuked on on erasure.
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Re: Can get rid of a partition?
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Joined: Aug 2009
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Disk Utility's ability to merge partitions is very hit-or-miss. Sometimes it refuses to do it at all, sometimes it threatens to erase the entire device and all volumes on it, sometimes it threatens to erase one of the volumes, and frequently it claims it can do it and when you try it eventually fails with weird errors. (or stalls / hangs in the attempt)
Disk Utility has become one of the WORST pieces of software inside OS X, for many reasons. I'm often left to dig around in terminal and do what I need to by running Disk Utility from terminal. There, it either works as expected, or fails with an actual useful error message, or at least an error message that is helpful enough to explain why it's failing, what I need to change, or give me a clue as to how I can rethink my process to accomplish my goal. So it's not diskutil, it's Disk Utility (the GUI front-end for diskutil) that I have grown to despise.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
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