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Can't resize partitions on external drive

appleguy123

appleguy123

macrumors 604
Original poster
Apr 1, 2009
6,873
2,589
15 minutes in the future
I have a hard drive with 2 partitions on it. I made these partitions in disk utility. One was for time machine, and one was for my normal files that my macbook air couldn't hold. My new router has a NAS option that doesn't support partitions. I want to delete the backup partition and have a single partition.

To do this, I wanted to delete the backup partition and resize the other partition to the full size of the drive.

When I try to do this, it says "this partition can't be modified." I can't delete or resize a partition.

What am I doing wrong? Is there anyway to fix this?
 
In addition check to make sure the partitioning was originally done with the type GUID not MBR. You can check this using the Option button when partitioning. If it is MBR then you cannot resize.
 
appleguy123 said:
When I try to do this, it says "this partition can't be modified." I can't delete or resize a partition.
Click to expand...

Did you happen to have Time Machine encryption turned on? If so go to the File menu in Disk Util and unlock the partition then try again.

If that does not work, attached the drive then type "diskutil list" (without the quotes) in Terminal and post up the output.
 
MacUser2525 said:
In addition check to make sure the partitioning was originally done with the type GUID not MBR. You can check this using the Option button when partitioning. If it is MBR then you cannot resize.
Click to expand...

Same situation here. So nothing to do with MBR partitions except format them?:(
 
humar said:
Same situation here. So nothing to do with MBR partitions except format them?:(
Click to expand...

I have read you can use tools like iPartition ($$$) to convert without data loss, but have not tried it myself. That is unlikely to be the issue here though. Unless you intentionally went into Disk Uility options and changed to the format the MBR, it would default to GUID.

Can you open Disk Util and select your partition and post a screenshot of that?
 
Weaselboy said:
I have read you can use tools like iPartition ($$$) to convert without data loss, but have not tried it myself. That is unlikely to be the issue here though. Unless you intentionally went into Disk Uility options and changed to the format the MBR, it would default to GUID.

Can you open Disk Util and select your partition and post a screenshot of that?
Click to expand...

I partitioned my disk a long time ago (2 or 3 years) so i can't now remember if i changed from GUID to MBR for some reason (maybe to have a NTFS disk.. but I don't remember why..)
Here's a screen.. and yes.. it's a MBR..
 

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humar said:
I partitioned my disk a long time ago (2 or 3 years) so i can't now remember if i changed from GUID to MBR for some reason (maybe to have a NTFS disk.. but I don't remember why..)
Here's a screen.. and yes.. it's a MBR..
Click to expand...

Yeah... you did put in MBR for some reason and that is the problem. You will need to reformat to GUID if you want to resize and that of course will erase any data on there.
 
Weaselboy said:
Yeah... you did put in MBR for some reason and that is the problem. You will need to reformat to GUID if you want to resize and that of course will erase any data on there.
Click to expand...

Ok.. Thanks for your help. So i need an HD to backup mine before change to GUID.. that's hard..
 
humar said:
Ok.. Thanks for your help. So i need an HD to backup mine before change to GUID.. that's hard..
Click to expand...

Yep... that's a pain for sure. You could try iPartition to noon-desctructivly change it, but I think a new drive would likely cost less. :(
 
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