When a given partition is selected (shown in blue), its Name, Format, and Size, can be altered to the right. Partitions will be added at the end of the disk. To add partitions, click the + button beneath the pie. The disk’s partitions are shown in a pie-chart, going clockwise in terms of physical position on the disk (confusingly the first partition, previously called Blank, has been renamed Two). A window of options will appear, showing your current partition map. I have the drive itself ( not its one partition “Blank”) selected in the sidebar.Ĥ) Click the Partition button in the top bar. Any drives not appearing in the sidebar cannot be edited by Disk Utility.ģ) Select the disk (not its sub-heading partitions) to be formatted in the sidebar, and make sure its information is shown in the main pane.Īny changes made in the main pane will be applied to the disk selected in the sidebar, so make sure you have the correct one selected before each step.Īs you can see from the image in Step 2, I have an empty Western Digital hard drive which I am going to add a partition to. Try disconnecting and reconnecting it if necessary. If you can’t find it there, make sure it’s working, connected to power, and plugged into a compatible port. The main pane to the right shows information about the drive which you currently have selected in the left-hand column.Ģ) Locate the disk you want to work with in the left-hand sidebar. The sidebar on the left shows your connected drives, with their partitions in subheadings beneath them.

How to partition a hard drive on a Macġ) Launch Disk Utility from /Applications/Utilities, or via Spotlight. Whilst adding new partitions should not normally erase anything, check what you’re doing at each stage and have any critical data backed up first.

If you’ve ever needed to add an extra partition to an external hard drive, then look no further! This guide goes through how to add a partition to an existing drive on macOS, using its built-in program, Disk Utility.īefore we go any further, remember that reformatting drives and so forth is a process that goes hand in hand with wiping them.

Partitioning mac drive for windows