Hi,   On top of what Gomath has suggested, I also have another idea:   1. assuming that your current data on HDFS is /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=2 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=3 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=4 ....   and you want it to become:   /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=1/columnB=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=2/columnB=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=3//columnB=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=4/columnB=1 ...   2. create a new table that has the same columns, but with extra partition columnB, assuming that you will create under HDFS in /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename   3. you can create a new directory with below structure:   /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=2 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=3 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=4 ...   4. create the top level partition directories for the new table   hadoop fs -mkdir /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=1 hadoop fs -mkdir /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=2 hadoop fs -mkdir /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=3 hadoop fs -mkdir /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=4 5. and then MOVE data from old table into new table's partition:   hadoop fs -mv /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=1 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=1/columnB=1 hadoop fs -mv /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=2 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=2/columnB=1 hadoop fs -mv /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=3 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=3/columnB=1 hadoop fs -mv /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/tablename/columnA=4 /user/hive/wareshouse/dbname/new_tablename/columnA=4/columnB=1 ....   What's the value for columnB you will decide, since it is a new partition.   6. get back to hive and then run below command:   MSCK REPAIR TABLE dbname.new_tablename;   This will help to recover all the missing partitions   7. Run:   SELECT * FROM dbname.new_tablename    to confirm if data is correct.   This way, you do not need to duplicate any data on HDFS.   Hope above helps. ... View more