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Resizing partitions with Big Sur

I have a 5k late-2014 iMac running Big Sur with a 5TB USB external drive with 3 partitions (Mac OS ext. journaled). I need to resize or remove one partition to give me more room on the other two. However, Disk Utility says none of the partitions can be resized. Why?


iMac 27″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Sep 25, 2021 8:34 PM

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Posted on Sep 25, 2021 8:46 PM

If all three partitions are macOS HFS+ Journaled file systems and between the 3 partitions they take up the entirety of the disk capacity then you need to shrink one partition at the beginning or end of the disk to create free space then you can grow the one or two partitions into that free space. To clarify, it works best when modifying the first partition or the last partition but trying to change a partition in the middle is difficult.


Would need to see your partition view in Disk Utility, take a screenshot of the partition pie-chart and attach in a reply.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 25, 2021 8:46 PM in response to Darrall Cutting

If all three partitions are macOS HFS+ Journaled file systems and between the 3 partitions they take up the entirety of the disk capacity then you need to shrink one partition at the beginning or end of the disk to create free space then you can grow the one or two partitions into that free space. To clarify, it works best when modifying the first partition or the last partition but trying to change a partition in the middle is difficult.


Would need to see your partition view in Disk Utility, take a screenshot of the partition pie-chart and attach in a reply.


Resizing partitions with Big Sur

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