Disk Utility - Add, Delete, and Resize Existing Volumes

By Tom Nelson, About.com Guide

In addition to adding volumes, Disk Utility can also delete existing volumes. When you delete an existing volume, its associated data will be lost, but the space the volume occupied will be freed up. You can use this new free space to increase the size of the next volume up.

Remove an Existing Volume

1. Launch Disk Utility, located at /Applications/Utilities/.
   
   
2. 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 a generic disk icon, followed by the drive’s size, make, and model. Volumes are listed below their associated hard drive.
   
   
3. Select the hard drive associated with the volume you wish to expand.
   
   
4. Click the ‘Partition’ tab.
   
   
5. Select the existing volume you wish to delete.
   
   
6. Click the ‘-’ (minus or delete) button.
   
   
7. Disk Utility will display a confirmation sheet listing how the volumes will be changed.
   
   
8. Click the ‘Remove’ button.

Disk Utility will make the changes to the hard drive. Once the volume is removed, you can expand the volume immediately above it by simply dragging its resize corner. For more info, see the ‘Resize Existing Volumes’ topic in this guide.

Previous

• Disk Utility - What You Need to Know About Modifying Existing Volumes
• Disk Utility - Definitions of Partitioning Terms
• Disk Utility - Resize an Existing Volume
• Disk Utility - Add a New Volume
• Disk Utility - Delete Existing Volumes
• Disk Utility - Use Your Modified Volumes

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