Software to...

[JonB]

...Merge two partitions into one. Both have data on, but I can lose the data on one of the partitions, the other however I can't. Is this even possible?

Thanks

Jon

 

[Will_3rd]

Disk Utility might be able to do this for you. Not sure about not losing data.

 

[Beepcake]

You can use diskutil from terminal to resize partitions, so if you don't mind murdering one you can delete it and resize the other. The gui might let you do it in Leopard.. it lets me resize on the fly with some disks but not others.

 

[Sic]

On one hand, I'd say use diskutil in Terminal. On the other hand, I'd say backup everything as it's quite likely to mess up, as with any partition resizing without formatting.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Boot off the OS disk, and do it with disk utility

You probably WILL lose data, so make a backup.

 

[JonB]

Yeah I know I can re-size / delete with disk utility. I was asking if it is possible to do so without losing data on one of the partitions!

 

[electric ant]

Don't think it's possible, I think you're gonna have to back up one of the partitions at least.

 

[JonB]

Yeah, I don't mind that it will wipe one of the partitions, I just don't want it to wipe both partitions. Is this possible?

 

[Sic]

surely you can tell from what's been said already that it's likely that you'll lose the data on both partitions. If it's that urgent, can't you steal space on someone else's drive for a while?

 

[JonB]

surely you can tell from what's been said already that it's likely that you'll lose the data on both partitions. If it's that urgent, can't you steal space on someone else's drive for a while?

Not really, I've had conflicting answers. I guess it's probably not going to be easy though, if it is possible, so stealing someone else's drive was my next port of call!

 

[Logan09]

surely you can tell from what's been said already that it's likely that you'll lose the data on both partitions. If it's that urgent, can't you steal space on someone else's drive for a while?

You shouldn't lose data on BOTH partitions. If you delete the partition you don't need and run disk utility (you may need to run it from the OSX install disc) you should be able to resize the remaining partition without losing any data on your main partition.

It's the same as when you decide to get rid of a bootcamp partition, it will let you resize your current partition to the full size of the disk without losing data. So barring a system crash or the like while it's resizing your partition you'll be fine.

 

[Sic]

well, last time I resized one partition it didn't work so i ended up having to format the whole disk and starting again, so I was commenting based on my experience

 

[gumbald]

Always make backups before tampering with partitions. I never use them these days due to bad experiences in the past... Therefore if you're backing everything up, it won't matter how you do it