Merge two partitions on Mac Solved/Closed

Question

Hello,

I have two partitions on my MacBook: HD 1 and HD 2. Now I would like to merge these two into one HD. How can I do this? And what software should I use?

P.S.: I found iPartition, but it's paid...

Thank you for your response.

Configuration: Windows XP Firefox 1.5

GourouFou · Accepted Answer

It worked for me by doing this:
just launch Disk Utility, and then delete the partition that is no longer useful by selecting it and clicking on "-". Then you just need to drag the main partition with the mouse. I did not lose any data in the main partition.

Chris 94 · Answer

Good evening,  Maybe a useless response... Under 10.5, doesn't BootCamp know how to do that?  If that's not it, it's as if I said nothing ;-)  Best regards.

newbiemac · Answer

hi,

I didn't have a bootcamp initially, I partitioned my hard drive into two parts HD1 and HD2; now I want to merge them without losing any data on HD1. That's the context ;))

I appreciate all responses and nothing is useless here at Comment ça marche :^

Sanspseudo · Answer

Hello,

I haven't tested it personally, but during the Leopard presentation, there was a lot of hype about Leopard's ability to do this "live" or "on-the-fly" - and it's true that Boot Camp users do it to remove Windows when they no longer want it, by simply deleting the Boot Camp partition. So we can imagine this being possible with 2 Mac OS partitions.

The Apple discussion forum often says that you just need to launch Disk Utility, and then delete the partition that is no longer needed, for example HD2 in your case, and then simply "stretch" the HD1 partition. The data on the HD2 partition will be lost, but the data on HD1 would be preserved. According to what I've read on the Apple Discussions forum.

As for me, I haven't tested it, and the only "official" information I've been able to find so far is this:
https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT2374
https://support.apple.com/kb/TA27115?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

and also this text from Apple:
"Live resizing of partitions
You may be able to gain disk space without losing a single piece of data. If a volume is low on space, you just need to delete the next volume on the disk and move the endpoint of the volume to the reclaimed space."
excerpt from this page
http://www.apple.com/fr/macosx/features/300.html

So now you know as much as I do... I reiterate, I haven't tested it :-)

Best regards
--
Sanspseudo - Francis
iMac G5 2ghz 2Go - OS 10.5.6

newbiemac · Answer

Thank you Francis, yes the Apple site says it like that, but I'm too scared, because HD1 is the boot disk, it's risky then. If it's that easy, what are other software like iPartition or Drive Genius for? :^

I don't dare to do it :°))

Sanspseudo · Answer

These software programs appeared before the existence of Mac OS 10.5, and other users are not on Leopard. So, these programs can still be useful. But I would be wary of recommending it without a backup. The ideal would be to clone the HD1 partition (or even the HD2 partition as well) onto an external drive and then test. After that, we’ll know for sure. I would do it willingly, but I haven’t partitioned my boot disk, so...
However, I have already read on this same forum about users who deleted their Boot Camp partition without losing the Mac OS partition, so it should be feasible.

But I won't try it either without having first backed up :-), at least for the first attempt
--
Sanspseudo - Francis
iMac G5 2ghz 2Go - OS 10.5.6

newbiemac · Answer

I managed to merge these partitions, of course I backed up my data in advance, because any software of this kind can have bugs... ;)  Thanks a lot.  Problem solved.

dany2or · Answer

What method did you use to achieve it?

Merge two partitions on Mac

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