Disk Partitioning Software Recommendation...

[JoelBC]

I am an external drive that has 5 partitions; et's call them 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I want to combine partitions 3 and 4 into 1 partition. Disk Utility - even after spending 1 hour with Apple Level 2 support - does not have this capability (i.e., it will only allow me to combine partition 4 with partition 5).

Looking for recommendations that will allow me to combine partitions 3 and 4.

Thank you.

 

[Cyby-CyberDog]

AFIAK combining two partions is not possible!

What you can do is this: copy the content of partition 5 to a second drive.

Remove partition 5 using Disk Utility.

Increase the size of partition 4 and copy the content of partition 5 from the second drive to partition 4.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
You haven't provided us with details as to which Mac you have, what year it was made, and what version of the OS you're using.
All of this info is important.

Also -- the drive you wish to change -- what FORMAT is it in?
Is it HFS+?
Or is it something else?

There used to be two very useful utility apps for OS X:
- iDefrag
- iPartition

Both were published by a company called Coriolis Systems that has now discontinued them, because changes in the Mac OS and the move from platter-based drives to SSDs has diminished the need for the above apps.

However, some folks may still have a need for them.
Coriolis has graciously made available all previous versions of their software.

You can freely download them from here:

Coriolis Systems

What I would do in your situation.
This assumes the drive to be "UN-partitioned" is HFS+.

First, I would get ANOTHER drive, also HFS+.
Then, I would copy all files from "partition 5" to that drive, to preserve them.
Next, I would find a version of "iPartition" from the Coriolis archive that runs on the Mac I have.
Then, I would use it to delete "partition 5".
Then, I would see if I could "expand" the size of "partition 4" so that it "fills the space" that was previously occupied by "partition 5".
If that worked, I would use iDefrag to "compact" the data existing on partition 4.
Finally, I would copy over the preserved data from the SECOND drive back to partition 4.

Good luck.

 

[JoelBC]

AFIAK combining two partions is not possible!

What you can do is this: copy the content of partition 5 to a second drive.

Remove partition 5 using Disk Utility.

Increase the size of partition 4 and copy the content of partition 5 from the second drive to partition 4.

Appreciate the response, a few things to note:

1, I do NT have a spar drive to copy the material from and then reformat the existing drive.

2. Combining two partition should be possible per my hour conversation with Level 2 Apple Support yesterday but for some reason it was not working. I did Google the top macOS partitioning software but wanted some real world feedback as to which was best, especially since some cost money and this is likely a one and done situation.

Thanks.

 

[JoelBC]

OP:
You haven't provided us with details as to which Mac you have, what year it was made, and what version of the OS you're using.
All of this info is important.

Also -- the drive you wish to change -- what FORMAT is it in?
Is it HFS+?
Or is it something else?

There used to be two very useful utility apps for OS X:
- iDefrag
- iPartition

Both were published by a company called Coriolis Systems that has now discontinued them, because changes in the Mac OS and the move from platter-based drives to SSDs has diminished the need for the above apps.

However, some folks may still have a need for them.
Coriolis has graciously made available all previous versions of their software.

You can freely download them from here:

Coriolis Systems

What I would do in your situation.
This assumes the drive to be "UN-partitioned" is HFS+.

First, I would get ANOTHER drive, also HFS+.
Then, I would copy all files from "partition 5" to that drive, to preserve them.
Next, I would find a version of "iPartition" from the Coriolis archive that runs on the Mac I have.
Then, I would use it to delete "partition 5".
Then, I would see if I could "expand" the size of "partition 4" so that it "fills the space" that was previously occupied by "partition 5".
If that worked, I would use iDefrag to "compact" the data existing on partition 4.
Finally, I would copy over the preserved data from the SECOND drive back to partition 4.

Good luck.

I appreciate the response and note:

1. I have a 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 Max Apple Silicon

2. All Partitions are APFS

3. I will take a look at iPartitions but am guess it is a not go because of the APFS formatting

Appreciate the feedback and suggestions.

 

[Fishrrman]

The Coriolis software won't work on APFS.
Don't even bother.

But again, I would first copy the data from partition 5 elsewhere.
Then try to delete partition 5 with disk utility.
Then see if partition 4 can be "expanded".
If so, then copy back the data.

 

[bogdanw]

All Partitions are APFS

You can't merge APFS partitions.
Apple's diskutil: "You cannot merge disks into an APFS Physical Store
Instead, you can delete the partitions following the APFS Physical Store by
using "diskutil eraseVolume free n <disk>" for all such partitions, and
then by growing the corresponding APFS Container by its APFS Physical Store
to fill the gap by using "diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1s4 0"

"diskutil mergePartitions [force] format name fromDevice toDevice
Merge two or more partitions on a disk. All data on merged partitions other than the first will be lost. Data on the first partition will be lost as well if the force argument is given."

 

[JoelBC]

But again, I would first copy the data from partition 5 elsewhere.
Then try to delete partition 5 with disk utility.
Then see if partition 4 can be "expanded".
If so, then copy back the data.

I tried this and it did not work...

 

[JoelBC]

You can't merge APFS partitions.
Apple's diskutil: "You cannot merge disks into an APFS Physical Store
Instead, you can delete the partitions following the APFS Physical Store by
using "diskutil eraseVolume free n <disk>" for all such partitions, and
then by growing the corresponding APFS Container by its APFS Physical Store
to fill the gap by using "diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1s4 0"
View attachment 2121727
"diskutil mergePartitions [force] format name fromDevice toDevice
Merge two or more partitions on a disk. All data on merged partitions other than the first will be lost. Data on the first partition will be lost as well if the force argument is given."

I will respectfully disagree as I have successfully merge APFS partitions.

 

[bogdanw]

I will respectfully disagree as I have successfully merge APFS partitions.

How? Partitions or containers/volumes?

 

[JoelBC]

How? Partitions or containers/volumes?

Partitions...I was able to move two side by 500 MB APFS into 1 1,000 MB APFS Volume.

 

[bogdanw]

Partitions...I was able to move two side by 500 MB APFS into 1 1,000 MB APFS Volume.

How? I want to learn.
The above image and the ones below are from a virtual machine, the second disk has five APFS partitions

 

[JoelBC]

How? I want to learn.
The above image and the ones below are from a virtual machine, the second disk has five APFS partitions
View attachment 2121807
View attachment 2121810

Please read teh OP, the problem is that I can only partition 4 to merge with portion 5 where want to do is meter partition 4 with partition...so, it is possible (hence my comment) but it is not flexible enough (i.e., chose which partitions to merge). I hope this helps!!

 

[bogdanw]

Please read teh OP, the problem is that I can only partition 4 to merge with portion 5 where want to do is meter partition 4 with partition...so, it is possible (hence my comment) but it is not flexible enough (i.e., chose which partitions to merge). I hope this helps!!

I’ve read it and I asked how is it possible. Please explain how do you merge two APFS partitions.

By the way, from diskutil mergePartitions:
“Merged partitions are required to be ordered sequentially on disk.
See `diskutil list` for the actual on-disk ordering; BSD slice identifiers
may in certain circumstances not always be in numerical order but the
top-to-bottom order given by diskutil list is always the on-disk order.
Ownership of the affected disk is required.”

 

[Choco Taco]

This sounds astronomically complicated and may conceivably lead to data loss. If it were me, I'd buy a secondary external drive and transfer everything and then start from scratch with the preferred partitioning scheme. It seems like there's a lot of unnecessary risk involved with this. There isn't really any partitioning software on macOS like there is on Windows.

 

[popup]

Hi, this is my first post here.
Years ago I had to split a HDD to two partitions on the fly without any external storage:
1. Shrink the partition to the minimum possible.
2. Create partition two and fill it with data from the first partition
3. Shrink the first partition to the minimum possible
4. Expand partition two and fill it with more data from partition one
5. Shrink partition one to the minimum possible
6. Expand partition two and fill it with more data from partition one
...
It was a Windows installation and I think I used PartedMagic or Norton Partition Magic.

 

[Fishrrman]

For HFS+ drives, iPartition was the "app to use" on the Mac.

But it doesn't work with APFS.
Not much of anything "works" with APFS (because Apple won't release the specs).

OP:
If you REALLY want to fix this:
1. Copy ALL the data from EACH partition to other drives
then
2. ERASE the drive in question and "start over", creating the partition scheme you want
and finally
3. COPY BACK the saved data from earlier partitions to where you want it to go.

 

[JoelBC]

This sounds astronomically complicated and may conceivably lead to data loss. If it were me, I'd buy a secondary external drive and transfer everything and then start from scratch with the preferred partitioning scheme. It seems like there's a lot of unnecessary risk involved with this. There isn't really any partitioning software on macOS like there is on Windows.

Agreed, this is likely teh route I will go. I don't want to spend the money on a second drive just for this purse but I do have a number of older and unfortunately slower drives that I could use for this purpose. It will take a while to complete but at least it will be safe (i.e., no data lost)!

 

[JoelBC]

Hi, this is my first post here.
Years ago I had to split a HDD to two partitions on the fly without any external storage:
1. Shrink the partition to the minimum possible.
2. Create partition two and fill it with data from the first partition
3. Shrink the first partition to the minimum possible
4. Expand partition two and fill it with more data from partition one
5. Shrink partition one to the minimum possible
6. Expand partition two and fill it with more data from partition one
...
It was a Windows installation and I think I used PartedMagic or Norton Partition Magic.

Agreed the challenge is that there is very limited macOS software that works with APFS!

 

[JoelBC]

For HFS+ drives, iPartition was the "app to use" on the Mac.

But it doesn't work with APFS.
Not much of anything "works" with APFS (because Apple won't release the specs).

OP:
If you REALLY want to fix this:
1. Copy ALL the data from EACH partition to other drives
then
2. ERASE the drive in question and "start over", creating the partition scheme you want
and finally
3. COPY BACK the saved data from earlier partitions to where you want it to go.

Agree, not much of anything for APFS. I am actually thinking of reformatting the drive as HFS+ so that should this problem arise again, there are good tools available (i.e., iPartition).

Agree on the process and as noted this is likely the process I will follow as there are no other options and it is safe.

Much thanks!

 

[bogdanw]

@JoelBC Still waiting for you to share the merge instructions you received from "Apple Level 2 support"

2. Combining two partition should be possible per my hour conversation with Level 2 Apple Support yesterday but for some reason it was not working.

 

[JoelBC]

@JoelBC Still waiting for you to share the merge instructions you received from "Apple Level 2 support"

Just working on something but will post a video shortly...the problem, as I previously described is I can only merge partitions 4 and 5, I cannot merge partitions 3 and 4 which is what I want to do!

 

[Nygaard]

Agreed, this is likely teh route I will go. I don't want to spend the money on a second drive just for this purse but I do have a number of older and unfortunately slower drives that I could use for this purpose. It will take a while to complete but at least it will be safe (i.e., no data lost)!

How much would you pay to recover the data if you lost it? Maybe the repartition job gets botched, or the drive is silently corrupting your data, or it fails due to old age, or you spill coffee on it, or your house catches on fire. If you care about your data, back it up, and keep it backed up on (at least) one other separate, reliable drive (disk, tape, etc). Ideally, you'd also have another backup in a different physical location using different storage medium. If you don't care about your data, wipe the drive and repartition it from scratch.

Regardless, the easy and surefire way to resolve any partition problem is like @Fishrrman said: wipe the drive, repartition, and restore. Trying to resize or merge partitions/filesystems is a risky business and, in my experience, typically doesn't work out. Even if it does, the abused filesystems may be sub-optimally formatted and cause performance/other issues down the road.

 

[chabig]

Agreed, this is likely teh route I will go. I don't want to spend the money on a second drive just for this...

Maybe you can find a friend who will loan you a drive while you take care of the first. Also, there really is no reason to partition APFS drives. You should use Volumes instead to keep data separate. Had you formatted the drive as APFS, with one Container holding five volumes, you wouldn't be in this predicament. (I'm sorry this sounds preachy. It's not my intent.)

 

[JoelBC]

How much would you pay to recover the data if you lost it? Maybe the repartition job gets botched, or the drive is silently corrupting your data, or it fails due to old age, or you spill coffee on it, or your house catches on fire. If you care about your data, back it up, and keep it backed up on (at least) one other separate, reliable drive (disk, tape, etc). Ideally, you'd also have another backup in a different physical location using different storage medium. If you don't care about your data, wipe the drive and repartition it from scratch.

Regardless, the easy and surefire way to resolve any partition problem is like @Fishrrman said: wipe the drive, repartition, and restore. Trying to resize or merge partitions/filesystems is a risky business and, in my experience, typically doesn't work out. Even if it does, the abused filesystems may be sub-optimally formatted and cause performance/other issues down the road.

Agreed and have actually decided to purchase a new drive. It appears part of the spacing problem I have is related to he use of 2.5" 5400rpm which are / can be problematic with APFS. Will pick up something more suited to the task.