How to Partition a Hard Drive or SSD on Mac

Partitions are a great way to organize your digital storage space by splitting a single physical drive into many digital ones. Disk partitions also come in handy when you want to install multiple Operating Systems on your Mac or PC.

However, if you are new to Mac, you may have trouble partitioning a hard drive or SSD on a Mac. For what it’s worth, you can choose between a few options. In this guide, we will share with you a few different ways to partition a hard drive or SSD on a Mac, including built-in and third-party methods.

Related: Disk Partition Management: Merging, Extending, Adding Partitions and More

Things to Know Before Partitioning

Before you start, keep these points in mind:

• Apple Silicon limitations: On Macs with M1, M2, M3, or M4 chips, partitioning is supported, but third-party partitioning tools are limited compared to macOS’s built-in Disk Utility. Some disk utilities (like GParted or advanced Linux partitioners) are impractical on Apple Silicon because they require custom boot configurations.
• Keep Macintosh HD untouched: Avoid resizing or modifying your main startup partition unless you know exactly what you’re doing. For testing Linux or other OS installations, use an external drive or virtualization instead of touching Macintosh HD.
• Prefer APFS volumes over partitions: In macOS, you can create new APFS volumes inside the existing container. Volumes dynamically share space, making them more flexible than fixed partitions. Use partitions only if you need completely different file systems (like ExFAT or NTFS).
• Cross-platform considerations: To share a drive between macOS and Windows, use ExFAT or NTFS (with helper tools). For Linux compatibility, ExFAT or FAT32 can help, but partitions may be necessary.

If your goal is just file organization on Mac, folders are simpler. If you want to run Linux or Windows, virtualization (Parallels Desktop, UTM, or VMware Fusion) is often easier than native partitioning on Apple Silicon.

Method #1 Step-by-Step Guide to Partitioning Using Disk Utility

Disk Utility is macOS’s built-in tool for managing drives. It works reliably on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

1. First, you need to open Disk Utility on your Mac. It will automatically list all connected disks on the sidebar. The list would include both Internal and External drives.
2. You can select the drive that you want to partition and click the Partition button on the top-right side of the window.
   
   
3. The upcoming pop-up window allows you to manage the partitions on the disk. You can use the pie chart to understand the current organization of the disk. You can now use the + button on the left side to create a new partition.
   
   
4. If the SSD/hard drive uses the APFS system, macOS will ask you to pick one of the two options: Add Partition and Add Volume. To keep things simple, a partition is an internal division, and the drive will appear as a single device on a Mac. However, you can add a new volume to the device, and it will show as two devices.
   
   
5. Using the next interface, you can choose the name, format, and size for the partition. As you might already know, macOS will dynamically choose a suitable size for the partition. However, you can make changes as you wish.
   
   
6. You can now click Apply and wait for macOS to complete the partitioning process. Once this is done, a new partition will be created on your Mac.

Keep in mind that partitions do not affect the way you see the drive. Even when a drive has many partitions, it will be shown as a single removable device. If you want to split the drive into two separate device entries, you must create multiple volumes.

Method #2 Using Third-party Partition Management Tools

Disk Utility is good for most cases, but it has limitations, particularly for managing NTFS or setting up Windows/Linux-friendly partitions. While third-party options on Mac are more restricted than on Windows, they can help:

Here is how you can use third-party utilities to overcome these limitations.

• iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: Enables full read/write support for NTFS volumes on macOS. Useful for formatting drives to NTFS for Windows, though it doesn’t do complex repartitioning.
• EaseUS Partition Master (Mac version): Works better than iBoysoft if you also need to resize, create, or format partitions beyond NTFS support. On Apple Silicon, most operations are limited by macOS security, but it can still streamline creating cross-platform partitions (ExFAT/NTFS).
• Paragon NTFS for Mac: Another stable option for NTFS write access and formatting. Not primarily a partition manager, but fast and reliable for cross-platform drives.
• GParted (advanced users only): Open-source tool for repartitioning, but not practical for Apple Silicon Macs. It can be used on Intel Macs that support booting from Linux USBs. On Apple Silicon, virtualization (via UTM) may be needed to run GParted indirectly.

Use these tools mainly if you’re preparing a drive for a Windows or Linux system outside of macOS.

Common Problems & Troubleshooting

Here are a few issues you may come across while partitioning a hard drive or SSD on your Mac.

• You might come across Partition Failed errors once in a while. It may happen if another application is actively using the disk. You can solve the problem by formatting the disk.
• Sometimes, Disk Utility may show partition options as greyed out, not allowing you to click on them. In these cases, you likely have an encrypted drive.
• Not all options from Disk Utility are available on all file systems. For instance, APFS works great with all features, whereas exFAT doesn’t.

Alternatives to Partitioning

Depending on why you feel like partitioning in the first place, you can consider some alternatives. Here are a few:

• You can always rely on folders and directories to keep your storage organized. This process is simpler and does not pose further risks, either.
• To run operating systems other than macOS on your Mac, you can try options like VirtualBox or Parallels Desktop. These options are pretty powerful these days.
• You can also rely on partition manager tools for easy access to features like resizing and backup. Keep in mind that most of them are available only for Intel-based Macs.

Conclusion

Partitioning isn’t always necessary, but it can be helpful when sharing drives between Mac, Windows, and Linux. For most Mac users, APFS volumes or virtualization tools are safer and more flexible.

For example, I use a USB drive for Time Machine backups. At work, I also need the same drive on a Windows PC. By creating a separate ExFAT partition, I can use part of the drive on Windows without disturbing my Mac backups.

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