Disk Utility allows you to divide a hard drive into multiple partitions. Each partition can use one of the five format types mentioned earlier, or a partition can be left unformatted, as free space for future use.
Partition a Hard Drive
- Launch Disk Utility, located at /Applications/Utilities/.
- Current hard drives and volumes will display in a list pane on the left side of the Disk Utility window.
- Hard drives are listed with somewhat cryptic names, usually made up of the hard drive’s size and the manufacturer’s name and model number. A typical hard drive name is 298 GB WDC WD3200. This indicates a 320 GB Western Digital hard drive, with a model number of WD3200. The name lists the formatted size of the hard drive (in this case, 298 GB), not the raw size of the hard drive (in this case, 320 GB).
- Volume names appear as indented entries just below the hard drive they are associated with. There’s nothing to decipher here; a volume’s name in this list is the same as the name it displays on the Mac desktop or in a Finder window.
- Select the hard drive you wish to partition from the list in Disk Utility.
- Click the ‘Partition’ tab.
- Use the dropdown menu under the Volume Scheme heading to select the number of partitions you wish to create on the selected hard drive.
- Disk Utility will display equal-size partitions to fill the available space on the hard drive.
- Before Disk Utility can create volumes from the partitions you choose, you’ll need to select a name, format, and size for each partition.
