Can I partition a drive in Disk Utility without erasing files?

Hello,
According to the third screenshot, I have the option of partitioning an external drive without losing files already on it, but when I try to do so, I only get a message indicating that it will erase the disk: http://osxdaily.com/2009/11/20/resize-partitions-in-mac-os-x-with-disk-utility/
I backuped my internal drive with Time Machine and I would now like to partition it so that only one half is for Time Machine purposes. If it's possible to do that without starting from scratch, if I decide later to eliminate that partition, would that require losing any files?
Thanks.

You may find your answer here. Have a look around.
http://pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

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Can I REPAIR my External Hard Drive in Disk Utility without losing all of the Data?

So, here's the story...
A while back, I made the mistake of throwing my TM backups in the Trash folder. They were "stuck" there in my External Trash FOREVER until I finally decided to do something about it. I read a few forums that gave instructions on how to delete those volumes through Manually through a series of prompts in TERMINAL. This process actually WORKED and removed the files from the trash, HOWEVER, now the Disk isn't mounting properly. After running "Verify Disk" in Disk Utility, It's telling me that the disk needs to be repaired.
Fearing that my disk may be wiped completely, I thought I'd transfer all the files over to another HD and Repair the Problematic Disk just to be safe.
But When I try to copy the files over to another drive with ample space, it gives the message "The operation can’t be completed because the selection contains both backup items and non-backup items."
I am now at a cross roads, because I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE ALL OF THE DATA ON THIS DRIVE!!!! What do I do??

Hi,
If it is not mounting properly but you can "grab" something in an effort to Transfer it, what are you seeing ?
Can you limit it to different files/folders ?
Other than that I would try Carbon Copy Cloner (you can Try before your Buy sort of thing)
Use this to Create the Backup of the drive.
Then repair drive.
8:07 pm Wednesday; January 1, 2014
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Can't partition free space using Disk Utility

So something went wrong when I tried to bootcamp.
Now the situation is following:
1) I can't install Windows using USB stick, it says that the free space is in GPT;
2) I can't partition the free space with Disk Utility, tryied it also with recovery mode, the apply button is clickable and active, but it does nothing, it just stays like so and when I exit from Disk Utility it asks if I want to quit without applying but it doesn't work.
So basically I have wasted 20GB of space and can't do anything with it.
I don't want to format the hole disk, are there any other workarounds without need to reinstall OSX?
I have MacBook Pro 13" Retina (late 2013), 128GB SSD, 8GB ram.

markov-mac:~ markov$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         100.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *100.0 GB   disk1
markov-mac:~ markov$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 0F0D9268-58FC-4832-8FCB-4A11FB5675F6
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         100335546368 B (100.3 GB)
    Free Space:   15724544 B (15.7 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 9B8968BE-CE97-4A66-B5B3-31B4EB87E21F
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     100335546368 B (100.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family B29C277A-660B-41C4-8F5C-A1C5FB01B60F
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 6736784D-A946-4EBF-BBA2-BC7DDC6C4EDE
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          99999997952 B (100.0 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
markov-mac:~ markov$ mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
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How can I sync my devices to new PC without erasing files?

Ok, I've seen similar posts, so I'm guessing that this may be a stupid question, but I want to ask again according to my specific situation.
I have an iPhone 4S, an iPad 2, and an iPad Air. I had the first two synced on my laptop (which died last year)..but I manually manage my music, movies, etc. I bought a new desktop PC and I have no problem connecting to it, transferring purchases, syncing app updates, manually adding music and movies, etc. Life as usual. However, if I go to the device window and select one of the tabs like Movies and then click 'Sync Movies', then it gives me a warning saying that my device is synced with another computer and everything must be deleted to sync with this new PC and I'm give the option to 'Erase and sync'.
Well, I have no problem whatsoever by just manually managing files as it is - it ONLY seems to affect the auto sync for movies and music. And I have hundreds of apps and songs on my devices....plus, I always lose saved data on games and such whenever I restore from backup, so I don't want to have to go through the trouble of erasing and resyncing with the new computer.... But if I ever wanted to turn on the auto sync option for movies or music, is there a way to avoid erasing everything?
Also, my new iPad Air has never been synced with my old laptop. It's only been synced to the new one. But it gives me the exact same message (I guess because when I first bought it and did initial setup, I chose to load the backup from iCloud using the backup from my iPad 2). But this device itself has NEVER actually been synced with the old PC, so why should I be getting that message?
So, I'm sure my question is exactly the same as hundreds of others, so I apologize for redundancy, but any info would be appreciated.

iPhone is designed to sync with one computer only. If you sync with another, it will wipe all your iPhone content and sync with whatever is on the new computer.
Read this
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive

IMac Finder cannot see external hard drive but Disk Utility can

I have a WD external hard drive and it has been attached to my iMac for a year or two. About two months ago I upgraded to Lion 10.7.5 and hard drive still worked. Then suddenly about a week ago the iMac no longer sees the external hard drive in Finder.
I have connected the hard drive to the iMac with different USB cables and into different ports and it makes no difference so deduce there is no issues with the cables or the ports. I have connected the hard drive to an old Macbook and it can see the harddrive and read some of the info but I really need the hard drive attached to the iMac as I store all my music and photos on the external hard drive.
I read another thread and someone asked if you can see the hard drive in Disk Utility. I tried this and Disk Utility can see the hard drive.
What does this mean? Any suggestions as to how to get the iMac to see the hard drive so I can access the data on it?
I dont really know how Disk Utility works therefore if that is any help to me.
thanks

Open the Finder.
From the Finder menu bar click Finder > Preferences then select the General tab.
Make sure: External disks is selected.

Using 1TB MyBook for TimeMachine - Can I Partition The Drive?

Hi,
I've just purchased a 1TB external hardrive that I've connected to my router.
My Mac has instantly recognised it and I'd like to start using it for Time Machine backups.
However, I'd also like to use some of the space to directly copy over music / movies / files etc that I can then share over the network with my other macs.
I'm guessing I need to partition the drive but Disk Utility can't see the drive and the browser based preferences for the drive don't seem to throw up any clues either.
One thing I've noticed is that under the Shared tab in a Finder window there are 2 apparent drives:
MyBookWorld (which has a standard sort of folder structure)
MyBookWorld-Backup (which is the drive name Time Machine recognises)
Would it be the case that TM will create the back up (around 200GB) and the remaining space will still be available to the 'MyBookWorld' shared drive until such a time that both those drives above meet in the middle?...
Has anyone else done this or does anyone know how to do this?
Thanks in advance!

I've just purchased a 1TB external hardrive that I've connected to my router.
My Mac has instantly recognised it and I'd like to start using it for Time Machine backups.
Note that this is not officially supported and I've heard some reports of this being unstable. If you do this, make sure you have alternate backups - which, of course, you should anyway. See my [Mac Backup Guide|http://www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/backups> for more on this.
However, I'd also like to use some of the space to directly copy over music / movies / files etc that I can then share over the network with my other macs.
You certainly can partition it, though you'll have to remove it from your router and connect it directly to your Mac to do so, I believe. Note that your backup partition needs to be at least 2-3 times the size of what you're backing up. Also note that you should not try to back up anything from the other partition(s) onto the backup partition... a backup stored on the same physical drive as the source is no backup at all. If the drive fails, all is lost.

HT1175 I have a third generation Time Capsule can I partition the drive?

I am setting up Time Capsule and Time Machine for the first time and it would be nice if I could partition the external drive for two Mac's.
Is this possible?

Is this possible?
In theory yes. But, you would have to open up the Time Capsule case, pull the hard drive, install it in a separate enclosure, partition the drive using Disk Utility on your Mac, then re-install the drive again.
This is a ton of work, and not easy.....not to mention that it will void the warranty, if in effect.
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Can't use or fix external hard drive in Disk Utility or Terminal

I have a 1TB Toshiba external USB drive that I was using for Time Machine and other storage. A couple of weeks ago I accidentally unplugged it when it was in the "Preparing Backup" stage of Time Machine.
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When I run the repair on the physical drive in Disk Utility, it says everything is fine but when I run it on the partition within the drive, I get the message, "Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
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Any suggestions to simply make it usable. I don't care about the data on it, I just want to be able to clean it and start again OR access the data.
Thanks!

Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and try to partition the drive. If you can't, it's not working (or perhaps the cable is damaged.)

Problem partitioning external hard drive with Disk Utility

I'm trying to create a new partition in disk utility in an external hard drive using disk utility and every time I click Apply it says that "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and can't continue. Quit and relaunch Disk Utility". It is a 3TB hard disk and I already created the first partition of 2 TB, and when I click the + symbol to add a 1 TB partition and click Apply is when the error shows up. I have restart the mac, unplugged the hard disk but the error still shows up. Anyone has any idea??? Thanks for your help in advance
David

I solved this issue. I was able to create the partition with the format MS-DOS and then I erased it to the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Now it is working OK. Hope this help someone

How can I erase My hard drive. Disk utility only gives me the option of erase free space. I have 27in iMac with Lion and 12 gb ram.

How can I erase my hard drive? Disk utility only gives me the option to erase free space.
Thanks for any assistance.

Drive Preparation for Lion
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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4. Quit DU to return to the main menu.
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I am using disk utility's restore to clone a hard drive to an external drive but it is taking forever (telling me 3 days) and the cancel button won't work. Can I just close disk utility without risking data loss or drive problems? Force quit? Anyone have experience with this?
- George

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- George

Can I use Disk Utility to erase Apple TV hard drive?

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Retired Engineer wrote:
Disk Utility does not display the recovery partition in 10.7.1. I don't remember seeing it in 10.7.0 either.
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Can I partition a drive in Disk Utility without erasing files?

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