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I can't seem to make my Mac partition utilize the full 500 GB that I have available. It only uses 243.47 GB.

It looks like my hard drive is somehow split into 2 sections:

enter image description here

Any ideas on how I can get it to utilize the full 500GB?

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1 Answer

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Disk utility can't grow partition boundaries upwards. If the free space and partition were reversed, with the free space below the partition, then you could expand the partition into it.

One workaround is to boot with the OS X DVD, use Disk Utility to create a partition image on a USB drive, then write that image back to the free space. Once you've verified that it works and runs, delete the bottom partition, and then expand the new top partition into the free space below.

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You might even be able to get away with cloning the partition to the top of the drive, verify, then delete lower and expand if you don't have an external drive handy. – CajunLuke Apr 4 '12 at 18:45
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@CajunLuke That would certainly be faster. I personally like to security of knowing that I've got a full backup on something other than the drive I'm fiddling with before I write partition changes. Disk utility has never failed me, though, so it's probably overkill. – Adam Davis Apr 4 '12 at 18:47

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