Summary :

• Minitool Partition Wizard Free 12
• Minitool Partition Wizard Free Mac
• Minitool Partition Wizard Free Majorgeeks
• Download Minitool Partition Wizard Free
• Minitool Partition Wizard Free Mac Os

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac. MiniTool and Stellar Join Hands to Help Mac Users. Recover permanently deleted files, photos, videos, audio, email, etc. Recover lost data from MacBook Pro/Air, iMac, Mac mini & more. Restore data from internal & external drives like SSD, HDD, SD card, USB etc. MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro (1 PC license/Annual Subscription). MiniTool Mac recovery software is designed for Mac users to recover deleted/lost files from all types of Mac computers and Mac-compatible devices. If you use a Mac, you can install this professional Mac data recovery tool to easily recover data from Mac, external HDD, SSD, USB.

How to resize Bootcamp partition? How do increase Bootcamp partition? How do I reduce Bootcamp partition? Now, this post shows how to effectively and quickly change Bootcamp partition size.

Overview of Bootcamp Partition

A reader had a Windows issue, and didn't know how to solve it. He wrote:

Hi, I’m running Windows in a Boot Camp partition on my Mac computer. When I first configured Boot Camp I underestimated how much I’d use Windows. However, recently I'm quickly running out of space on my Bootcamp partition. How can I expand the size of the Boot Camp partition?

Have you ever run into the same problem?

Do you know how to effectively resize Bootcamp partition?

Do you know how to change the size of Bootcamp partition without data loss?

Do you know whether there are free yet professional tools to help to extend or shrink Bootcamp partition? Now, if you haven’t found a suitable solution, you could read this post to find answers. On the other hand, if you had solved this problem, you might also like this post since it offers effective yet free solutions.

In general, when it comes to talking about resizing Bootcamp partition, these following questions would be asked: what is Bootcamp partition, when need to change Bootcamp partition size, how to increase/ decrease Bootcamp partition effectively. Next, let's answer these problems in detail.

What Is Bootcamp

Boot Camp Assistant is a multi-boot utility included with Apple Inc.'s OS X that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows operating systems on Intel-based Macintosh computers.

The utility guides users through non-destructive disk partitioning (including resizing of an existing HFS+ partition, if necessary) of their hard disk drive and installation of Windows device drivers for the Apple hardware.

Minitool Partition Wizard Free 12

The utility also installs a Windows Control Panel applet for selecting the boot operating system.

In a word, Boot Camp can help partition your hard drive into 2 partitions. One partition will be used by your Mac to run Mac OS X and the other one will be used to run Windows OS.

However, do you know why we have to make a new partition to install Windows? Well, the reason is that Windows and Mac don’t run in the same format. Mac runs on Mac OS X (Journaled), and Windows runs on NTFS.

Partitioning splits your hard drive into 2 separate sections, each with its own format. This means that you can run Windows OS on NTFS and run Mac on Mac OS X (Journaled) on the same hard drive. Of course, this NTFS partition is called Bootcamp partition which is used to install Windows.

You can read How to install Windows using Boot Camp to know details about installing Windows OS on Mac computer.

When Need to Resize Bootcamp Partition

You can firstly specific the size of Bootcamp partition, and then install Windows on it. However, after running Windows, you may find that your Bootcamp partition is running out of space, and you need to increase its size to continue running Windows OS.

Now, the question is: “How to change the size of Bootcamp partition to meet the needs of Windows?”

Well today, I’m going to make it easy for you.

How to Resize Bootcamp Partition

As we know, if you want to resize Mac partition, you can directly turn to the Disk Utility tool, located in /Applications/Utilities. With this tool, you can grow or shrink HFS+ (Mac OS X) partitions on the fly, with the resizing done live regardless of whether the drive is internal or an external drive, or even the boot volume.

However, Disk Utility can not be used to extend or shrink Bootcamp partition since it is Windows NTFS file system partition. So, it is not an easy task to resize Bootcamp partition.

According to Apple: “If your Windows partition is too small, back up the information on it, delete it, create a larger partition, and then reinstall Windows.” Details are shown here.

Traditional Method: Delete Bootcamp Partition, then Create a New Large One

Step 1: Back up all the information on your Windows partition.

Step 2: Delete Windows from your Mac.

• Start up your Mac in OS X.
• Open Disk Utility. (To access the Disk Utility in Mac OS X, just press Command+Space to open Spotlight search, type Disk Utility, and press Enter. You can also click the Launchpad icon on your dock, click the Other folder, and click Disk Utility.)
• Select the Windows disk, click Erase, choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, and then click the Erase button. (picture is below)

Step 3: Shrink Mac partition to release more free space.

Step 4: Create a new large Windows partition in the free space.

• Select the drive.
• Select the Partition tab
• Click + to add a partition

Step 5: Restore the information you backed up.

On the other hand, with the development of software technology, some software (like Camptune X, Winclone) can help you to resize Bootcamp Partition. And, each tool has its advantages.

To be specific, those familiar with Winclone are aware that with its help you can create a larger Bootcamp partition without losing your original Windows data.

The process involves creating an image of the partition for safe keeping, deleting the original Bootcamp partition with Disk Utility, creating a new, more expansive partition, and then moving the data from the imaged partition to the new one with WinClone.

Although this method is capable enough to enlarge your Bootcamp partition size, you have to delete Windows at first.

Now, you might be wondering:

“Is it possible to resize Bootcamp partition without deleting Windows?”

The answer is positive!

Alternatively: Resize Bootcamp Partition without Deleting Windows

According to a survey, MiniTool Partition Wizard, a piece of free yet professional partitioning software, proves to be an excellent tool for increasing/shrinking Bootcamp partition without deleting Windows. Next, let’s see the detailed steps.

A step-by-step guide to increasing the size of Bootcamp partition

Step 1: Backup all your files (optional but strongly recommended).

Step 2: Use Disk Utility to shrink your Mac partition to release some unallocated space as much as you need to add to the Bootcamp partition.

• Open Disk Utility app from /Applications/Utilities/.
• From the left side of the app, select the hard drive you want to partition.
• On the “Partition” tab, drag the separator bar up and down to resize your hard drive partition. (Alternatively, select the partition you want to resize. Enter size value in GB in Size box.)
• Click the “Apply” button to resize the partition.

Step 3: Set Boot camp as Boot Disk and restart the Mac.

• Turn on or restart your Mac.
• Immediately press and hold the Option key. After a few seconds, the Startup Manager appears. If you don't see the volume you want to use, wait a few moments for Startup Manager to finish scanning connected drives.
• Use your mouse or trackpad, or left and right arrow keys to select the volume (Boot Camp) you want to use.
• Double-click or press the Return key to start up your Mac from the volume you selected.

Step 4: Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free edition from its official website, install it on your computer according to prompts and then launch it to get its main interface.

Step 5: Select the Bootcamp partition and then click “Extend Partition” from the left action panel.

Step 6: Choose the unallocated space from the Take Free Space from and then drag the sliding button to decide how much free space to take. After getting desired space, click “OK” button to go back to the main interface of this free partitioning software.

Step 7: At this time, click “Apply” button on the top left corner and tap “Yes” to apply the change.

You will be asked to restart your computer to apply the task since the Bootcamp partition is being used now by Windows. Now, just please choose “Restart now,” and MiniTool Partition Wizard will automatically finish rest of pending jobs.

After all operations done, you have finished increasing the size of Bootcamp partition without deleting Windows.

Video tutorial for resizing your Bootcamp partition without deleting Windows disk partitioning

In addition to extending partition without data loss, MiniTool Partition Wizard can also help to shrink the size of Bootcamp partition. But, how do I reduce the size of a bootcamp partition? Keep reading to find details!

A step-by-step guide to shrinking the size of Bootcamp partition

Step 1: Set Bootcamp as Boot Disk and restart the Mac.

Step 2: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard in Windows.

Minitool Partition Wizard Free Mac

Step 3: Select the Bootcamp partition and then click “Move/Resize” in the toolbar or “Move/Resize Partition” from the left Actions and Wizards.

Step 4: Change the length of partition handle to resize partition. After getting desired partition size, click “OK” to go back to the main interface.

Step 5: Click “Apply” button on the top left corner to apply the very change.

However, here we also want to share another tool, MiniTool Mac Data Recovery, for you since you cannot ensure absolute data security all the time. For instance, you may accidentally delete some data and empty the Trash, format/delete your hard drive partition by mistake, and more.

Mac Data Recovery

Now, lots of Mac users choose to run Windows on their Mac with Boot Camp assistance. However, no matter how wonderful an OS is, Mac data loss caused by various reasons happens more and more frequently.

Therefore, Mac lost data recovery has become a big problem annoying many computer users, especially some users have not backed up their data with Time Machine. (Note; you can use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac. )

Fortunately, MiniTool Mac Data recovery, developed by famous data recovery solution providers based in Canada, can help to recover data that have been lost in a variety of ways like accidental deletion, partition formatting, etc.

Also, this tool offers wizard-based operation and simple interface, so even a new user can easily handle this Mac data recovery software to recover lost photos, music, videos, emails, documents, and other types of data. What's more, its operations are read-only, so you can use it to recover lost Mac data without affecting the original data.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article would help to change the size of Bootcamp partition.

If you have any other suggestions about how to resize Bootcamp partition, please leave it in the following comments below. Thanks in advance!

Like this post on how to extend Bootcamp partition as well as how to reduce Bootcamp partition? Share it with more friends.

Summary :

How much do you know about APFS vs Mac OS Extended? Which Mac file system should you choose? How to format hard drive for Mac? If you have similar questions on your mind, please read this page carefully to find answers; the main differences between APFS and Mac OS Extended file system and several ways to format a hard drive (internal/external) on Mac will be introduced.

Mac (formerly known as Macintosh) refers to the personal computers that are designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. MacOS is one of the most popular operating systems in the world; it’s the main competitor of Windows.

Common Mac file system includes:

• APFS (Apple File System): the default file system used in macOS 10.13 and later versions.
• Mac OS Extended: the file system used in macOS 10.12 and earlier versions.
• FAT (MS-DOS) and exFAT: the system systems that are supported by both Mac & Windows.

The following content first discusses on APFS vs Mac OS Extended; after that, it will tell you how to format a hard drive for Mac in several different ways.

Part 1: Introduction to APFS and Mac OS Extended

In this part, I’ll first introduce APFS and Mac OS extended to you. Then, I’ll compare these two file systems used on Mac for you in brief. You may ask what are the differences between APFS and Mac OS Extended, right?

APFS vs Mac OS Extended

APFS or Mac OS Extended, which one should you choose?

• APFS refers to Apple File System, which is a proprietary file system used by Mac devices running macOS 10.13 or later. APFS is a better choice for solid state and flash drives.
• Mac OS Extended is a journaling file system used by macOS 10.12 or earlier. Mac OS Extended is a better for mechanical drives, or drives used on older macOS.

What Is APFS Format

APFS (the full name is Apple File System) is a proprietary file system released by Apple Inc. It can be used on different devices running macOS High Sierra (10.13) and later, iOS 10.3 and later, all versions of iPadOS, watchOS 3.2 and later, or tvOS 10.2 and later. APFS is a new file system which was originally designed by Mac to fix core problems of Mac OS Extended.

What Is Mac OS Extended

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) also known as HFS+, HFS Plus or HFS Extended, is actually a journaling file system released by Apple Inc. It was released in 1998 to replace HFS (Hierarchical File System, also known as Mac OS Standard or HFS Standard), which is the previous primary file system in Apple computers.

Two main advantages of HFS+ when compare to HFS are:

• It gives support to much larger files.
• It uses Unicode for naming items.

Part 2: Which Is Better, APFS or Mac OS Extended

APFS vs HFS+ vs HFS:

APFS file system was announced in June 2016 to replace HFS+ (also known as HFS Plus or Mac OS Extended); the latter was used on all Mac computers as the primary file system since 1998 to replace the previous HFS.

Choose APFS for SSDs & Flash Storage Devices

When compared to Mac OS extended, APFS has been optimized a lot in terms of encryption, so it’s more suitable for flash and solid-state drive storage. APFS becomes the default file system for both for SSDs (Solid State Drives) and flash drives.

• In 2016, APFS was first released by Apple to replace Mac OS Extended (the previous default file system on Mac); it carries all sorts of benefits you can found in Mac OS Extended.
• A partial specification for APFS was published by Apple in September 2018 to allow the read-only access to APFS drive on even unencrypted and non-Fusion storage devices.

But don’t worry, you can still use the APFS on mechanical and hybrid drives.

To gain quality but free USB data recovery service, you should use MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition; this post tells you how to recover USB data.

There are two main highlights in APFS.

1^st: fast speed. Copying and pasting a folder on APFS drive can be finished in an instant since the file system points to basically the same data twice.

• There are huge improvements in metadata so that many actions can be performed quickly; for example, confirming how much space the target file/folder takes up on an APFS drive.
• The reliability is also improved a lot. Users don't encounter corrupted files as often as they used to.

2^nd: reverse compatibility. If you are running 2016’s macOS Sierra or the later versions of macOS, congratulations, you have both read and write access to APFS, HFS +, and HFS file system. However, for users who run an older Mac (or a Windows operating system), they are not allowed to write to APFS-formatted drives.

Pros & Cons of APFS

Main advantages of APFS:

• It’s able to create point-in-time snapshots for users.
• APFS allows users to encrypt the full disk by using a single or multi-key so as to enhance the security.
• The checksums are used to ensure the integrity of metadata.
• It creates new records, instead of overwriting the existing ones, in order to avoid metadata corruption; the records may be corrupted because of system crash or other reasons.
• The storage management of APFS is more efficient than HFS+, resulting in helping users get additional free space.
• Users don't need to write changes twice by choosing APFS over HFS+; this will increase the system performance on some devices.
• The clones or multiple copies of the same file are allowed; it will only store the changes as deltas. This helps to reduce storage space greatly when users copy files, make revisions, or do other things.
• The APFS drive is generally more stable and reliable than the previous HFS+ or HFS drive.

Main disadvantages of APFS:

• Compression is not allowed on an APFS drive.
• It gives no support to the Fusion drives.
• The NVRAM (Non-volatile Random-access Memory) can’t be used even for data storage.
• The Checksums used are only available for ensuring integrity of metadata (that of user data can’t be guaranteed).
• You can only access the encrypted volumes from another other computer which runs macOS High Sierra.
• The biggest disadvantage of all seems to be: APFS wasn’t compatible with Time Machine for a long time in the past. Users of older Mac versions are told to make backups on Mac OS Extended drive unless they use a third-party backup tool rather than the built-in Time Machine.

Choose Mac OS Extended Journaled for Mechanical Hard Disks

Mac OS Extended (HFS+) is the default file system for all Macs from 1998 to 2017, until the new APFS replace it. Till now, it’s still the default file system for both mechanical and hybrid hard drives. You should keep it unchanged while you install the macOS or format external hard drive Mac. The HFS+ is a better choice than APFS on even current mechanical and hybrid hard drives.

Besides, you should definitely choose Mac OS Extended when you reformat external hard drive Mac considering that it may be used on older Macs running El Capitan or earlier versions of macOS. As you know, the new APFS file system is not compatible with these old macOS versions.

Pros & Cons of HFS+

Minitool Partition Wizard Free Majorgeeks

Main advantages of HFS+:

• It gives support to the Fusion drives (which can’t be supported by APFS).
• It gives support to all versions of Mac OS X and macOS.
• You can encrypt volumes and then access them from any version of Mac OS X and macOS.

Main disadvantages of HFS+:

• There’s no point-in-time snapshot for users.
• The nanosecond standard is not used for Timestamps.
• The native file support for other file systems is too limited.
• The support to Mac OS Extended will be stopped on February 6, 2040.
• No checksum is used for metadata integrity or user data integrity.
• You can’t have concurrent access to the file system by a process.

Please ask yourself the following questions when you choose between APFS and Mac OS Extended:

• Are you formatting the internal disk or the external hard drive on your Mac?
• Which macOS are you running? Do you prepare to install macOS High Sierra or later?
• Is the Time Machine backup or bootable installer included in your daily schedule?
• Are you preparing to use the disk on another Mac or even Windows computer?

Bonus Tip: Choose exFAT for Hard Drives Used on Both Mac & Windows

Though the file system of main system drive on Mac is confined to APFS and Mac OS Extended, you can still consider exFAT (or the older FAT) when you format an external hard drive on Mac.

The most obvious benefit of using exFAT is that it can work with both Windows and macOS computers (you have both read and write access to the exFAT drive). Although there are solutions to read Mac formatted drive on Windows or read a Windows formatted drive on Mac, formatting drives to exFAT is still a convenient thing and an economical choice.

Part 3: How to Format Hard Drive for Mac

Users shouldn’t reformat the disk that built-in Mac causally unless they have special needs and they are professional enough. So this part will focus on how to format external hard drive for Mac by using the snap-in tool: Disk Utility (it can be used to format & manage both internal and external hard drives as well as disk images).

How to format an external hard drive for Mac? Please follow this guide.

Step 1: open Disk Utility on your Mac.

Go to the Applications -> select Utilities folder -> double click on Disk Utility.

Step 2: choose View -> Show All Devices.

Please click on the View icon in the upper left corner of Disk Utility window. After that, please select Show All Devices from the drop-down list.

Step 3: erase/wipe the target disk.

Please connect the external hard disk in advance and make sure it’s appeared on Mac. Then, select the disk that you want to format from the left sidebar. After that, you should click on the Erase button in the right pane.

Download Minitool Partition Wizard Free

1. Give the disk a Name (the maximum length is 11 characters).
2. Select a proper file Format.
3. Choose a proper Scheme.
4. Click on the Security Options to choose how you'd like the drive to be formatted (optional).
5. Click on the Erase button.
6. Wait for the process to be finished.
7. Click on the blue Done button to close the window.

Minitool Partition Wizard Free Mac Os

You can now start to use the formatted disk. Please click here to know how to format a disk for Windows computers in Disk Utility on Mac.

The file formats available for you to choose are:

• APFS
• APFS (Encrypted)
• APFS (Case-sensitive)
• APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted)
• Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
• Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
• Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
• Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
• MS-DOS (FAT)
• ExFAT

Click here to know more about the differences between these file formats.

That’s how to reformat a disk on Mac by using Disk Utility (the steps to reformat MacBook Pro are the same). Of course, there are also many third-party tools you can download to format the disk on your Mac.

How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac

Data recovery from mac formatted external hard drive:

1. Download Stellar Data Recovery for Mac.
2. Follow the wizard to install it properly.
3. Launch the software right after installation.
4. Make sure the formatted drive is connected to your Mac.
5. Define the file type that you want to recover; you can select all types by enabling Recover Everything.
6. Click on the Next button to continue.
7. Choose the formatted disk/drive and click on the Scan button (enable Deep Scan to find more files).
8. Wait until the scan is finished.
9. Browse the scan results and choose what you want to recover.
10. Click on the Recover button and select a safe place to store the recovered data.

Extended reading:

Final Thoughts

Both APFS and Mac OS Extended are popular file systems supported by Mac computers. If you don't know which one is more suitable for you, please read part 1 and part 2 carefully (the advantages & disadvantages of these two Mac file systems are included). Part 3 teaches you how to format a hard drive for Mac by using the snap-in Disk Utility; besides, it offers an easy method for recovering data from a formatted drive on Mac. Hope this can help you decide which one to choose: APFS or Mac OS Extended, and prevent your important data from getting lost.