Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

Add Another Partition To Your Mac

By default, most computers come with one partition and one volume on that partition. Well, in OS X there’s also a recovery partition, but that’s hidden so we’ll pretend like there’s just one. You can create additional volumes, which are useful for a number of different scenarios. The operation of creating partitions usually involves resizing a partition. That can be somewhat dangerous, so make sure to backup your Mac before doing so.

To create an additional partition (and by default an HFS+ filesystem on that partition), first open Disk Utility from /Applications/Utilities.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.21.47 AM

Note that by default, the boot volume is highlighted. You can’t create a partition inside a volume or partition, so click on the name of the disk above that.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.21.52 AM

Here, you can choose to run First Aid, Erase, Mount/Unmount, and Info. Most are unavailable when clicked on a disk, so let’s click on Partition. Doing so shows you each partition on the physical disk.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.21.57 AM

You can click on each partition to see information about the partition. Let’s click on the plus sign (+) to create our new partition.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.22.11 AM

When prompted, provide a name for the partition. You can choose a different format for the partition, but let’s leave that as the default for now. Then enter a size and click on Apply.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.20.00 AM

If you’re taking space away from a partition, the old partition will be resized as a smaller partition, provided that there’s enough free space to do so.

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 11.20.05 AM

 

Once the process is complete, you should see your new volume mount.