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Recently I got a Mac mini with OS X 10.7 installed. Right now it has one 500GB hard disk.

What I want to know is wheather we can partition the hard disk like on Windows. I would like to save my working files in a separate partition so that if I need to re-install (clean install) the operating system on the Mac, my working files stay intact.

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    No need to capitalize Mac: is not an acronym
    – Matteo
    Jan 3, 2012 at 10:37
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    You can reinstall the Mac OS without having the need to restore your installed applications and home folder. If you're new to Mac, you should really check out Time Machine for backups.
    – gentmatt
    Jan 3, 2012 at 12:21
  • Really good advice ^ don't bother going through the hassle of 2 partitions
    – Alexander
    Jan 3, 2012 at 19:33

1 Answer 1

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Disks can be partitioned without any problem: just open Disk Utility, select the disk and choose "Partition" on the right.

You will be able to resize your partition and create an additional one.

enter image description here

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    You can't use Disk Utility to non-destructively partition/resize the partitions of the drive you're booted from. You'll need to boot from a backup or a Lion install disk before you can resize your system's main drive.
    – Vickash
    Jan 3, 2012 at 14:47
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    On the contrary, i do it all the time, as long as u have space at the end of a partition.
    – Alexander
    Jan 3, 2012 at 19:32
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    Wow, you're right. I've been wasting time booting from a startup disk. Seeing all the other options grayed out made me think resizing wasn't available. Thanks.
    – Vickash
    Jan 3, 2012 at 19:50

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