Create two partitions on one hard drive?
Hi
I have an external hard drive I want to use for both PC and Mac.
Can somebody please help me on how to create two partitions on the hard drive, one with Mac extended format and one with NTFS format.
Many thanks
pbmarcano wrote:
Alternatively (my usual approach): Format the Windows partition to FAT then when you bring it to a windows machine, format the partition to NTFS.
No need to format to NTFS, you can convert to NTFS with no destruction of data.
Just format to FAT in Disk Utility, then when accessing the FAT drive in WIndows:
*To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt*
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx
Open Command Prompt. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
*In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs*
For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.
Similar Messages
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Backing up two computers to one hard drive
I've been backing up my iMac using Retrospect Express, onto an external hard drive.
We also have an iBook, which we have not been backing up.
Two questions:
1. Can I back up both computers onto the single external drive I already own? If so, do I need to partition the drive (something I know nothing about)?
2. If I do have to partition, does that mean I lose all the data on my external hard drive?
2. Since I've got Retrospect Express, not Desktop, on my iMac, I need to buy a new backup program. I could upgrade to Retrospect Desktop (quite expensive; and Retrospect seems to be a fading project); or I could buy Chronosync, SuperDuper, or Carbon Copy Cloner for the iBook. Which of these paths would any of you recommend?
imac 15 / ibook g3 12 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
imac 15 / ibook g3 12 Mac OS X (10.3.9)You can backup both computers to the same drive, but you would need to partition the drive first. Partitioning will erase all the data on the drive. You will have to backup both computers anew.
I don't know why you would need to buy a second backup program. Retrospect Express can be used to backup both computers. However, if you wish to replace Retrospect there are some excellent alternatives:
Basic Backup
You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Use Disk Utility to partition the drive. Open DU (Utilities folder.) Select your hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Select the number of partitions from the drop down menu. Use the resizing gadget to size the partitions. You will need each partition to be large enough to store the contents of the drive it will backup. Set the format type to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait for the volumes to mount on your Desktop. -
I've lost the use of Appleworks by upgrading to 10.9.2.
Is it possible to partition the internal hard drive of my MacBook Pro and install an older Mac OS (10.6.8) on the second partition with OS 10.9.2 on the other? I'd like to be able to boot to the older OS when I need Appleworks and few other applications that aren't available on OS 10.9.2.
Any suggestions?
Thank you for your help.Hello again, WZZZ,
Here's an update. I was successful in creating two partitions on my internal drive, and in installing OS 10.6.6 on the second partition, as per your guidence. I now have it up to 10.6.8 with all the security updates and AppleWorks. A great thing.
Some thoughts:
• The partitioning had one hitch; it failed at first. But once I "repaired" the disc with Disc Utility the partitioning went thru.
• The partitioning took a long time in 'resizing the partition.' A few hours I think it was. Lots of progress bar watching.
• If I had it to do again, I'd size the two partitions differently. My original data was occupying about 230 Gb of the 320 Gb disc. I made the new partitions share the space, about 230 and 75Gb. That left very little available space for the main disc. I ought to have put some breathing room in there. As it is, it's an incentive to clean up all those files, especially all those iTunes files. I now have about 10% of available space there and mean to continue deleting.
So, all in all a good project that got me where I wanted to go. Thank you for your help.
Appreciatively,
wallah -
We have created two partitions in removable drive(USB). One of the partition is active and the other is hidden. We are trying to access the hidden partition in Win PE 3.0 environment using WMI. VBScript code snippet used to detect the partitions is given
below:-
SetobjWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:"_&
"{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\"&
strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
SetcolDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery
Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk")
It will return the partition which is active but fails to list the partition which is hidden. The same piece of code was supported on WinPE 2.0I am giving the complete code, may be you are able to understand better. We are using Win32_LogicalDisk to retrieves the complete information of all the drives (like C:, D:) including removable drives.
Function
LocalDriveFound()
strComputer =
SetobjWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:"_
"{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\"&
strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
SetcolDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery
"Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk")
ForEachDiskDrive
IncolDisks
DriveLetter = Left(DiskDrive.Name,1)
DriveType = DiskDrive.DriveType
VolumeName = DiskDrive.VolumeName
WScript.echo Driveletter &
"|"& Drivetype &
"|"&VolumeName
SelectCaseDriveType
Case2 ,3
'Fixed or removable
If(VolumeName=USBVolumeName)
Then
If(DriveLetter<>
"Z")
Then
ChangeDriveLetterWithMountvol DriveLetter,
"Z"
EndIf
bIsLocal=
True
EndIf
If(VolumeName=USBRootName)
Then
If(DriveLetter<>
"Y")
Then
ChangeDriveLetterWithMountvol DriveLetter,
"Y"
EndIf
bIsLocal=
True
EndIf
CaseElse
EndSelect
Next
SetDrives =
Nothing
SetFileSystemObject =
Nothing
End
Function -
Hello everyone, how can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?
OK. Start with:
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Click on the Erase tab in DU's main window. Select one of the two partitions, preferably the first one, change the Format type: to MSDOS then click on the Erase button. -
In Final Cut Pro I was trying to move an Event Library from one hard drive to another as explained in the Help section. After doing so, I received a message that my event is already open with the same identifier as the new one I just created on the new disk. It says the second document cannot be opened and to move one of these documents out of your Final Cut Events folder. It also says to avoid this problem, copy events from within Final Cut Pro, but that is what I did in the first place. What should I do to avoid the double opening conflict?
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Sounds like the source drive is formatted as case sensitive and the destination drive is not. The preferred format for OS X is case insensitive unless there is a compelling reason to go case sensitive.
Why can't you change the filename? Is it because the source drive is having problems? If so is this happening with only one or two or a few files? If so the best thing would be to copy those over individually and then rename them on the destination drive.
If it is more then you can do manually and you can't change the name on the source you will have to reformat the destination as case sensitive.
Btw this group is for discussion of the Support Communities itself, you;d do better posting to Lion group. I'll see if a host will move it. -
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Shouldn't the disk preparation and data be consistent across these different interfaces? I would think so. My biggest concern is that if I had a failure in the Thunderbolt setup (assuming the drive itself does not fail), then I can't access my data. This is not a very comfortable situation.
I'm assuming I've overlooked a very basic detail. Appreciate any steer to solve this problem.
Thanks,
RobThanks for that, I recently ran into the same problem. I even chatted with Seagate tech support and they didn't know the answer.
My situation is a bit different from you. I bought the 3 TB Thunderbolt version of the drive directly and then purchased a USB 3 adaptor seperately. You see, I still own a 3 year old Macbook Pro that doesn't come with a Thunderbolt port. I was looking to upgade to a MacBook Air later. I thought that I might as well buy the TB version now.
In anycase, my old MacBook Pro won't see the drive when I use the USB3 adaptor. I get the same exact error message as you did. I can't really test it on Thunderbolt since I don't have one. I'm going to go install the Thunderbolt drivers now and hopefully, it will recognize the drive afterwards. I'll let you know what happens.
BTW, I was thinking of reformatting the drive with NTFS so that I can use the drive on PCs. My mac has the NTFS drivers loaded so it's no problem. I hope this won't screw up the Thunderbolt connection later when I do get the Macbook Air? -
Why might I want to "partition" my external hard drive?
A) I purchased an external hard drive simply as an insurance measure. Should I consider partitioning it? Can you provide an everyday-type example where it would come in handy? If I partition, does making "one" partition mean that I've made two volumes?
B) How do I actually back up my documents to the external drive? Do I drag the file or folder to the hard drive icon?
Thank you!!!
iBook Mac OS X (10.4.3) G4DDDS - There are different reasons for a hard drive. I bought my second hard drive because not only is it, at 128 Gb, almost twice as big as my startup drive (the one that contains the operating system), but it frees up my other hard drive from doing extra work while running OS X and applications.
To really boil it down, imagine a diner where the chef is the waiter, too. Now, using my two hard drives the way I do, it's like getting a waiter so that the chef doesn't do all the work. Download a video file to one hard drive means the hard drive with the operating system and applications on it doesn't have to continually go back to writing the video file when it's not being asked to do other things.
To answer your questions:
A) Partitioning is good for a couple of common reasons: you have a PC and a Mac you use and you want part of the drive to be accessible on one computer. Maybe you have kids and you want their stuff on a totally different volume.
For each partition, you have a volume. If you have your operating system on a hard drive, there are actually other partitions (ever heard of the boot partition?) but they are hidden and generally are of no concern to the average user.
The partitioning is done in Disk Utility and as far as I know, involves reformatting the drive (so it would be safe to assume you cannot save other data on there while creating a partition at the same time)
B) When you attach a drive, your system will mount it. (loading the volume(s)) it'll appear on your desktop like any other hard drive (usually with an icon to represent how it's connected) and yes, you just drag files over.
Plug in the Firewire or USB cable, THEN turn on the power, and ALWAYS eject the volumes completely before unplugging the drive. -
Can I have both Lion and Snow Leopard on One Hard Drive?
My problem is I need to run a PowerPC game on Lion which Lion no longer supports. So i thought i could download Snow Leopard back to my Mac and partiition my hard drive in the process as that is the only way i know of to have both Lion and Snow Leopard. I went through the Boot Camp Asistant process and it seems it will only partition Windows 7 to my Mac when i need Snow Leopard. If anyone has any idea how to help me have both Lion and Snow Leopard at the same time on just one hard drive or figure out how to run the PowerPC programs on my Mac (if there is a way around it). The help will be well appreciated!
How To Run Snow Leopard On A New Mac
This does not apply to new Mac Minis or MacBook Airs. When newer models are introduced that also require Lion for hardware support, the techniques described below will no longer work with the possible exception of using Parallels 7.
What has to be done:
Create a new partition on the hard drive.
Get a clone of a 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system. Put the cloned Snow Leopard system onto the new partition.
Step One: Create a new partition on the hard drive
To resize the drive and create a new partition do the following:
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.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Step Two: Obtain a clone of a Snow Leopard system:
You will need access to a Mac already running Snow Leopard. You will need a 16 GB USB flash drive or an external hard drive to which you can clone the Snow Leopard system from the Mac that has Snow Leopard installed. Alternatives are:
Option One:
Install a new Snow Leopard system onto a USB flash drive. Boot the Mac used for installing with the USB flash drive. Update the flash drive system to 10.6.8 using the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard. Verify that you can boot the Mac with the USB flash drive.
Take the USB flash drive to your new Mac and try booting from it. If it works then clone the system from the flash drive to the newly made partition:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the USB flash drive.
Option Two:
If you have a large enough external drive you can erase and use, then it would be easier to just clone the entire Snow Leopard system from the source Mac computer to the external drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external drive. Source means the Snow Leopard Mac's internal drive.
After cloning verify that it will boot the source Mac. If so then take the external drive to your new Mac boot with it. If all is well then restore the clone to the new partition on your new Mac:
Restore the clone using Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new partition on the internal drive. Source means the external drive.
If the above seems too daunting then you might consider running Snow Leopard inside an emulator such as Parallels 7. You are permitted to install a single copy of Snow Leopard inside a virtual machine. You will need to first purchase a copy of Parallels 7 and install it on your new Mac. Create a new virtual machine configured for Mac OS X. You may then install Snow Leopard in the virtual machine then download Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 and update to 10.6.8. Be sure to include Rosetta in your initial Snow Leopard installation. Rosetta is not installed by default rather it's an optional install. -
I keep my iTunes library on an external hard drive 4TB. It's full. Can I use more than one hard drive to keep my library on? Like two 4TB next to each other.
Create a concatenated disk set
Increase storage space with a concatenated RAID set (also called “Just a Bunch of Disks” or JBOD). If you need one large disk, but you have only several smaller disks, you can create a concatenated disk set to use several small disks as one large disk.
Open Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.
Select one of the disks that you want in the set, and then click RAID.
Click Add (+), and type a name for the RAID set.
Choose a format from the Format pop-up menu. Usually you’ll choose the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Choose Concatenated Disk Set from the RAID Type pop-up menu.
Drag the disks you want to add to the set to the list on the right.
Click Create.
Exerpt from:
Disk Utility 12.x: Create a RAID set - Apple - Support
Note that the biggest CON to concatenated RAID configurations is vulnerability to volume failure. If either disk fails, the whole volume fails. If you choose this option, I would highly recommend backing up your music to a cloud service. There are very cheap per GB/storage, and some of the most reputable actually offer unlimited storage:
Five Best Cloud Storage Providers - Lifehacker -
HT201250 What does it mean to "partition" an external hard drive? Is it something that I want to do?
What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive? Is it something I want to do? How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one? I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon. I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive? I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!
Whoa! Slow donw. TRhere's a lot here. I would suggest you buy a good book on computers in general or macs in particular, one is "OSX the missing manual".
What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive?
It means you take one large drive and make it into more than one volume. This means that it might show up as 2,3 or 4 inde[pendenmt drives. Each one could have, for example, a different operating system on it. Its a good thing to do if you want to use a drive for several purposes
Is it something I want to do?
beats me, you didnt way what you're trying to accomplish. Sorta like sking "should i turn left?" Depends on where you want to go.
How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one?
See advice n book above. Copy them in finder. Copy them in unix. Use a backup or sync utility. No different from Windows in that respect.
I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon.
Hook it up. Run disk utility. Partition 1 or more partions. GUID map. Format each partition Mac OS extended, Journaled. for more, read book, above. Seriously - we could give you more tips, but you really should learn enough to be comnfident.
I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive?
I have no idea what you are asking.
I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!
What kind of memory and why? RTAM? Hard drive space? Explain. By the time you are done explaining, i suspect you will have ansered your own question.
Good luck,
Have you read the PDF manual for your cmputer?
Have you used a search engine to look for info, for example, in two seconds i got this from google and wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning
Grant -
Partitioning an external hard drive for Mac and PC
I want to partition an external hard drive (3TB) into 3 even partitions. I want to use one for PC storage, one for Mac storage and the last for Mac backup. Is this possible and how do I do it?
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Re-partition the drive to create the three partitions. The one you wish to use on a PC you should format MSDOS (FAT).
When you connect the drive to your PC it should have no problem reading the partition set up for a PC. Now while on the PC you may wish to consider reformatting that partition using ExFAT (if supported on your PC.) This format is more compatible with both OS X and NTSF supporting long file names and other FAT filesystem irregularities.
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