MacOS – How to partition the disk

apfsbootcampdisk-utilitymacospartition

I have a macOS Mojave (10.14.2) and I would like create a 20 GB MS-DOS (FAT) partition on my 128 GB APFS disk.

But Disk Utility constantly gives me an error:

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My Time Machine is turned off:

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My FileVault is turned off:

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I also tried the followings:

  1. tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999999 command to delete snapshots.
  2. First Aid in Disk Utility, then restarted with Command + S and typed /sbin/fsck -fy in terminal. In both cases it said that my disk appears to be OK.
  3. Tried to boot in Safe mode (Command + Shift) then start partitioning.
  4. Tried to restart with Command + R then partition from Disk Utility.

The problem is the same with Boot Camp Assistant, if I try to install Windows 10.

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Why on Earth Apple prevents their users to use another operating system next to macOS? Is this a nefarious business tactics? Because it seems not to have solution at all while having an APFS disk!

Best Answer

Okay I solved the problem. First I created a backup, because everything got erased!

  1. I restarted my MacBook in Recovery mode (Command + R)
  2. Went to the Disk Utility
  3. Clicked on my SSD that was in APFS
  4. Clicked on Erase, and chose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map
  5. After it was done, went back to the previous menu in Recovery mode and clicked to Reinstall Mac OS
  6. I chose the new disk to install macOS (it took me around 30-60 minutes)

After installing macOS you can set your previous Time Machine backups. Finally I'm done, and now it enables me to partition my disk.

The problem was the APFS didn't enabled me to partition, only HFS+.

But be careful: since APFS is now the standard filesystem on Apple devices and if it has some important advantages which is not supported by HFS+ you will be messed up.

Take a look at APFS advantages before you choose.

Although you can reset your disk back to APFS anytime you want, but you might miss the ability of partitioning.

I think if you want to keep your drive as APFS you can purchase an external hard drive (it doesn't cost so much, but indeed needs extra care if you are working with a laptop).

Edit: After I erased my SSD with HFS+, I tried to erased it with APFS once again. (the whole SSD) And this time, it enabled me to partition in APFS. :)

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