disc utility question

3mors

3mors

HampCake Studios
is there a way to format a partition with disc utility without erasing the whole disc?
i have a 2-partitions disc: one hfs+ and one free space, i've tried to format the free space in hfs+ using the "partition tab" but obviously disc utility erase the content of the whole disc. the problem is that the free space is not selectable from the left menu.
thanks.
 
Depends on which computer you're on, I guess. I've heard that on intel Macs, you _can_, but I'd have to read up on exactly how to. How did you end up with the empty space in the first place? ;)
 
i'm on macbook pro 17
don't ask why i have a disc with free space, it's a long long story ;)
 
Hm... Are you booting from the installation DVD or another harddrive? My _guess_ is that only the newest version of Disk Utility actually has the enhanced options for partitioning and combining partitions without losing data. But I can't try too much, because I don't want to mess with my data. So worst case: Clone the drive, repartition and clone back...
 
There are one or two programs that will let you resize/create/delete partitions without completely erasing the disk. Do a search for "partition" on versiontracker.com and you'll find a few options.

I hear iPartition is decent:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23828

I don't know if any of these are Universal Binaries yet, so you may have to use them on one of your PowerPC machines.
 
yes, it's true, but i'd like to know if disc utility does it without any third-party app, that is: am i stupid ('cause i don't know how to use disc utility) or is disc utility stupid ('cause it doesn't let me do it)?
 
You can erase and / or format any partiton of a multiple partitioned hard disk drive, hdd, without any affect to the other partitions.

01. Launch (run, open) 'Disk Utility' ('/Applications/Utilities/' folder).
02. In the left side list, locate and click on the indented partition you want to erase / format. Do not click on the hdd's icon - just the specific partition of the hdd.
03. Click on the 'Erase' tab.
04. Perform the desired actions - format and / or rename the partition, 'Erase Free Space...', 'Erase', etc.
05. Quit 'Disk Utility'.
 
the problem is that on the left side list there's no "indented partition" referred to the free space, it simply doesn't appear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top