Merge “free space” with Mac OS Volume

betadisk-utilitypartitionssd

Let me tell the story from the beginning: I installed Big Sur on an unsupported Mac using guidelines at Medium. In the guide it was stated that I should create a separate partition for Big Sur, and shouldn't install it on my current one. I had my SSD Called "Macintosh SSD" and later I created a partition named "Macintosh SSD Big Sur" of size 40GBs. After installation I wanted to clear the "Macintosh SSD" of size 80GBs(with old MacOS) and merge it with the new "Macintosh SSD Big Sur".

This is what I initially had after formatting partition with the old MacOS

So, I used the command sudo diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk3 after which I had (free space) in /dev/disk1

I want to extend that 39.6GB partition which free space of 80,1GB but all the commands I googled do not work:((
Could you please guide me on what I should do now?
Thank you in advance!

Best Answer

Your free space is before your disk2. The start position of a partition is fixed, and you can only resize the partition by changing the end position. You should back up your data, erase the disk as one partition and restore from backup.

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Disk1 is a "virtual device" which resides in disk0s2 (the Apple_CoreStorage Volume Group which actually contains a FileVault volume). You have only one 'physical device' indeed.

Disk0s5 is probably an old Bootcamp installation.

The clean way (get rid of the 2 Recovery HDs):

Make a complete Time Machine backup of Macintosh HD.
Start to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R

Start Terminal and enter following command at the Terminal prompt:
diskutil cs list. The output will look like this:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 5B8350BF-20EF-4199-82E6-129EFF19E9EB
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         319640592384 B (319.4 GB)
    Free Space:   6111232 B (6.1 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 907FCDE2-0C62-4951-A39E-36F19244FDB7
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     319640592384 B (319.4 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 2FA7892F-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7BF42B7B-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          319282155520 B (319.0 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Copy the Logical Volume Group (LVG) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVG should be the first UUID listed and it’s the one you want to delete.
Next, run the following command: diskutil cs delete UUID
In the above example: diskutil cs delete 5B8350BF-20EF-4199-82E6-129EFF19E9EB
This will delete your CoreStorage volume and reformat it as an unencrypted HFS+ volume. Quit Terminal
In the now opening window choose Disk Utility and erase/partition the internal drive.

Choose your physical device in the left pane enter a name and format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If this isn't possible partition your physical device: 1 Partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) click the Options... button and choose GUID Partition Table enter OK and Apply. Quit Disk Utility.
Plug in your Time Machine backup drive.
Start Restore from Time Machine Backup and recover your old system

The dirty and risky way (no Time Machine backup):

Turn off File Vault 2. This may take several hours.
Use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the Windows installation. If this doesn't work continue with a reboot:
Start to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R
In the now opening window choose Disk Utility
Remove disk0s5 by choosing it and clicking on -
Try also to remove Recovery HD
Try to expand Macintosh HD to full size

If the last two steps don't work give me a comment

MacBook Pro – Identifying SSD and Hard Drive Partitions

If you consider SSDs being hard drives then you have an SSD and a hard drive on your MBP. It's still only one device with ~500 GB disk space.

The main partition of your SSD is encrypted with FileVault2. While enabling FV2 the main partition is transformed to CoreStorage which is an LVM - an additional layer between physical disk and file system. The resulting Logical Volume is shown as an additional disk in Disk Utility/diskutil info.

A common partition layout looks like this:

disk0 (500.1 GB) → disk0s1 (209.7 MB) EFI
                 ↘︎ disk0s2 (499.4 GB) Macintosh HD
                 ↘︎ disk0s3 (650.0 MB) Recovery HD

disk0s2 (Macintosh HD) is mounted to root (/)

After converting the disk to CoreStorage, disk0s2 is converted to a Physical Volume which sets up a Logical Volume Group. The existing file system on disk0s2 is shrunk a bit, converted to a Logical Volume and encrypted:

disk0 (500.1 GB) → disk0s1 (209.7 MB) EFI
                 ↘︎ disk0s2 (499.4 GB) LVG/PV → disk1    (499.05 GB) LV/Macintosh HD
                                             ↘︎ metadata (~370 MB)
                 ↘︎ disk0s3 (650.0 MB) Recovery HD

Now disk1 (~disk0s2) is mounted to root (/).

So disk1 is almost congruent to disk0s2 (except some 100 MB at the end of disk0s2 which is used for metadata and isn't encrypted).

CoreStorage is not limited to encrypt volumes as FileVault2 "container". Every regular volume can be converted to a CS LVG/PV/LV. Apple uses it to create Fusion Drives and SSDs are usually partitioned/formatted as CoreStorage volumes.

Best Answer

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MacBook Pro – Identifying SSD and Hard Drive Partitions

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