Disk utility won't let me increase partitions

[markpatterson]

Hi,

I am putting my photos on a Maxtor with 500 GB. I initially just allocated an 80 GB partition when I wasn't sure how I was going to use it, with another back up partition. Now that 80 GB partition is too small.

So I have tried Disk Utility, which seems to let me grow the current partition or format the free space. But there is no way to apply the changes I specify.

My screenshot looks like this:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/pattersonmark/DU10_4.png
but a friend I was skyping with mentioned an Apply button on his Disk Utility:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/pattersonmark/DU10_5.png
where I have a scary Partition button which promises to wipe out all my data.

How can I make more of my Maxtor usable?

TIA

Mark

 

[JeffCGD]

By the look of your screen shots, you are running Mac OSX 10.4.x (Tiger), while your friend is running Mac OSX 10.5.x (Leopard). Only Disc Utility in Leopard supports dynamic volume resizing (ie: without reformating); Disc Utility in Tiger does not.