Disk Utility is Mac’s version of Window’s Disk Management tool. It basically helps with formatting, erasing and partitioning drives; verifies them and fixes disk permissions; and is a really easy-to-use CD/DVD image tool.

Because Disk Utility can verify and repair disk permissions, it is therefore a troubleshooting tool as well. If you find that your Mac is acting weird, the absolute first thing to do is launch Disk Utility and repair your disk permissions. Most of the time, this will eradicate the issue at hand.

But what we are looking at right now is how to create a partition on your HD. The partitioning of a hard drive on a Mac OS X computer offers you the ability to have multiple spaces for backing up your computer files along with the flexibility of running different operating systems such as Windows, Linux and even other instillation’s of the Mac OS.

Launch Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities) and select select the disk you wish to partition from the available disks connected to your Mac in the left-hand window. Select the Partition Tab at the top

Select the pop-up button, just under the “Volume Scheme” preferences in “Disk Utility,” and select the number of partitions for your disk. Hold the mouse down and drag to select the number of partitions. The partitions will automatically represent an equal amount of divided disk space.

 

Make adjustments to partition by dragging on the “Re-size Bars” under and in between each partition of your hard disk, if you wish to create custom sized partitions.

Click on the “Options” button just below the Volume Scheme window to select formatting options of your new partitions. Select “GUID Partition Table” if you are using the disk for an Intel based Mac, “Apple Partition Map” for a Power PC processor based Mac or “Master Boot Record” if you will be installing a Windows Operating System or sharing the disk with a Windows based computer. Click “OK” when finished.

Click the “Apply” button in the bottom right corner of the “Disk Utility” window. Then click the click the “OK” button in the pop-up warning window that appears on top of the “Disk Utility” window to re-format and partition your drive. Warning: Clicking the “OK” button will reformat your drive and erase all data from the disk.