When you attach a storage disk to a Mac with the purpose of erasing or repartitioning it, you'll be presented with the option of selecting one of the three available partition maps: GUID Partition Map, Master Boot Record, and Apple Partition Map. In this article we will explain what a partition scheme is and which one to pick when formatting a drive.
What Is a Partition?
The fixed-sized subset of a disk drive treated as an individual unit by the operating system (in our case macOS) is defined as a partition. On every drive there are multiple partitions, and for this you will need a partition table or partition map – maintained by the operating system – to detail the status of the partitions.
Create a partition/volume. In Acronis Disk Director, you need to select the partition/volume, disk or unallocated space you want to work on before the operations become available. Make your selection at the bottom of the screen, and that will launch a user-friendly management wizard. To create a new partition. Click on 'Create or remove a Windows partition' option and hit 'Continue' button. Then select a hard drive on your Mac for disk partition. Next, confirm the size of the partition for running Windows OS. At last, hit the Partition button and that is done.
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GUID Partition Map
This is a standard for the layout of the partition table on a storage disk using globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). As part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard, GUID is a bootable standard for systems with EFI firmware such as macOS. Non-Intel Macs won't support this bootable standard, hence the only option available to them is the Apple Partition Map (APM).
Apple Partition Map
Used on disks formatted for use with 68k and PowerPC Macs, the Apple Partition Map is the scheme that defines how the data is organized. Starting with OS X Tiger, both APM and GUID partitions can be used for accessing volumes, but PowerPC-based Macs can only boot from APM disks. While Intel-based Macs generally boot from a GUID Partition Table, they are all able to start the operating system from APM and Master Boot Record (MBR) using the BIOS-Emulation called EFI-CSM.
Master Boot Record
Introduced by IBM in 1983 to support the 10MB hard disk, the Master Boot Record is a type of boot sector developed for use with IBM PC systems. It is currently used for Windows partitions formatted as MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT.
Choosing a Partition Map
Now you know which partitioning map is which, the next time you insert an external drive or want to partition the built-in storage disk of the Mac, it will be easier to choose between the available options.
When formatting or erasing a volume with Disk Utility, you'll see a format menu prompt asking you to choose from:
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
- MS-DOS (FAT)
- ExFAT
- APFS (macOS High Sierra's new file system)
- APFS (Encrypted)
- APFS (Case-sensitive)
- APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted).
Used on disks formatted for use with 68k and PowerPC Macs, the Apple Partition Map is the scheme that defines how the data is organized. Starting with OS X Tiger, both APM and GUID partitions can be used for accessing volumes, but PowerPC-based Macs can only boot from APM disks. While Intel-based Macs generally boot from a GUID Partition Table, they are all able to start the operating system from APM and Master Boot Record (MBR) using the BIOS-Emulation called EFI-CSM.
Master Boot Record
Introduced by IBM in 1983 to support the 10MB hard disk, the Master Boot Record is a type of boot sector developed for use with IBM PC systems. It is currently used for Windows partitions formatted as MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT.
Choosing a Partition Map
Now you know which partitioning map is which, the next time you insert an external drive or want to partition the built-in storage disk of the Mac, it will be easier to choose between the available options.
When formatting or erasing a volume with Disk Utility, you'll see a format menu prompt asking you to choose from:
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
- MS-DOS (FAT)
- ExFAT
- APFS (macOS High Sierra's new file system)
- APFS (Encrypted)
- APFS (Case-sensitive)
- APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted).
Be aware that APFS is compatible only with macOS High Sierra and higher, so earlier versions of OS X or macOS won't mount an APFS volume. If you want maximum reach, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the right choice.
Below the file system format, the Disk Utility dialog box will list another contextual menu, the partition map scheme, which gives you another great tool to create targeted volumes. If you are looking to format a disk that will be shared with Windows users, the MBR scheme and MS-DOS (FAT) are the best choices. For drives used with Intel-based Macs only, the GUID Partition Map should the option to go for.
If you don't see the partition map scheme option, it is likely because Disk Utility doesn't list all volumes. This will prohibit Disk Utility from erasing the disk and show you an error message. To address this issue, you should click on the View button located in the top-left side of the Disk Utility dialog box and select 'Show All Volumes'. From that point on, Disk Utility will ask for your partition map preference, and the formatting process will be smoother.
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Whether you are a Mac user or Windows, having more than one hard disk partition is always recommended. That's because if you ever end up messing the macOS, you can have your important files saved on the second partition. You can quickly restore the macOS without losing any data. It hardly takes a few minutes to create a hard drive partition on Mac.
There is a built-in application on Mac called 'Disk Utility,' but there are also some third-party partition manager apps that make the task a lot easier. Besides that, if you have Time Machine backup enabled, you have to keep it safe. You can attach an external HDD and create an exclusive partition for Time Machine backups. Even if you end up a corrupted Mac, you can restore it as new and then use your Time Machine backup to get things back.
Anyways, if you are new to this partitioning thing, follow this tutorial to partition a hard drive on mac.
How to Create a Hard Disk Partition in MacOS
Note: If you are creating a partition of your primary hard drive on Mac, make sure you close all other application. It is not mandatory but recommended for safety reasons.
Step #1. Open Disk Utility app on your Mac. You can either use the Launchpad from Dock or Spotlight search to find it.
Mac Os Disk Partition Tool
Step #2. Now click on the Hard Drive from the left menu and then click on Partition at the top.
Note that you have to click on Hard Drive and not the partitions if you have any.
Step #3. Your drive will be displayed as a pie chart on the left. Right below the pie chart, there's a '+' Click on it.
Step #4. At the next screen, name the partition if you wish to and then, enter the size of the partition. Make sure you keep enough space for the macOS and not shrink it too small. Now click on 'Apply' at the bottom-right.
Step #5. At the pop-up, click on 'Partition.' You'll get one more pop-up, click on 'Continue.'
That's it. The partitioning process will begin immediately. As said earlier, make sure you have closed all your apps to make sure there is no data loss or corruption issue.
The process of partitioning may take some time depending on the size of the partition. Also, your Mac may become unresponsive, don't panic. After the process is completed, you can click 'Done' and head over to Finder app to check the newly created partition.
Wrapping up
Partitions are a great way to keep your data organized. But a thing to note here is that the boot partition should have at least 100GB of space to store cache files. Even though the Mac doesn't use that much of the space, but it surely affects the performance of your PC experience.
Partition Hard Drive Mac Os
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What partition structure you have set on your Mac? And why? Share your recommendations for other users by commenting below.
The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.
Disk Partition Software Mac Free
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