Formatting HDs to Mac OS Extended: Does Partition Map Scheme need altering as well?

Most people know that third party hard drives need reformatting to Mac OS Extended before use but nobody seems to mention the Partition Map Scheme which is somewhat hidden away in Disk Utility.
When reformatting a drive is it sufficient to just set it to Mac OS Extended or does the Partition Map Scheme need to be reset to GUID or another of the Apple ones? (I believe GUID has to be used if you want to make the drive bootable . . . but most of the time you don't).
What problems, if any, will arise if the PMS is not altered?

I frequently use FAT for externals, and there are no problems. You are right that GUID is required for booting, but that's about it. If I recall correctly though, a GUID partition map is much more efficient, so whenever I can use it I do.
One thing to note is that Windows XP and prior versions of Windows do not like GUID, and any version of Windows, including current Windows 7, will only see the first partition on a GUID formatted drive.

Similar Messages

Why i can't find the external HDD plugged to airport extreme. i already format it with mac OS extended (journaled)

Why i can't find the external HDD plugged to airport extreme. i already format it with mac OS extended (journaled).
Does only certain branch of HDD can be connected to aireport extreme?
I collect some information and i knew i have to partiion the HDD into Mac OS extended (journaled),
and i did so. Still the usb HDD cannot be found.
The other question is, can i partition the HDD into two sections, one of it is Mac OS extended(journaled) while the other is Fat32?
I want to share Fat32 section with another PC with windows system.
Thanks a lot if you have any suggestions.

I had tried to set up the connection via usinb a powered usb hub as the bridge between external HDD and the airport extreme. i still cannot found the HDD in the "airport utilities".
This is my setting.
1. Set airport extreme as "sharing-single-ip" mode. The wireless network functions correctly.
2. Connect external HDD to MBA. Partition it into single-partition with Mac OS extended (journaled).
3. The HDD can be found if i plugged it directly to my MBA.
4. Connect a powered usb hub to airport extreme.
5. Connect external HDD to the powered usb hub.
6. Open airport utilities.
a. Select "airport extreme" in the sidebar.
b. Change the "Disks" sheet.
7. Cannot find an external Disk
Is there any problem here?
Please help me. Thanks a lot!!

Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).only have one disk to select and my partition map scheme is GUID partition

just bough OSX Mountain Lion, my laptop operating with v10.6.8. Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).only have one disk to select and my partition map scheme is GUID partition table. 24.44gb disk available.

Verify your computer can run Mountain Lion:
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Open Disk Utility and verify the drive is partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. If it is then do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Now try installing Mountain Lion.

Partition Map Schemes: HFS+ and FAT32 partitions with OSX and Windows

OK so I know this question has been practically beaten to death, but I keep finding conflicting information. I am using a 2011 MacBook Pro, on which I will set up Windows through Boot Camp. I recently purchased a 750 GB WD external hard drive to use with time machine for a backup on my Mac. However, I also need to be able to use part of this for Windows files. SO.. I intend to use the HFS+ partition for the the Mac (500GB) and create a FAT 32 partition (250GB) to use for backing up windows files (using it for solely computer modeling and need to be able to transfer/share files with Mac users who use Parallels as well as copying to PC desktops). My question is what to use as the partition map scheme. I have heard that when using these two partition types, a Master Boot Record is needed (so Windows can recognize the FAT32 partition) and also that a GUID partition map is required for use with time machine, meaning windows would no longer be able to read the FAT32 partition. Is there a way to reconcile this? Either using Time Machine with HFS+ partition that is set to MBR or uisng FAT32 on Windows with a GUID partition map? Also if I were to use Parallels (with a GUID setup) instead of Boot Camp, could that be the way to save the windows files to the FAT32 Partition and avoid problems with Time Machine not working with MBR? Thanks for any expertise, as I have heard that both setups that I have mentioned both will work and both will not work. Any experience with a similar situation?

Wow. Thanks for the extremely quick responses. Just for a few points of clarification.. I'm a complete newb at backing up strategies.
Steve, you would recommend to not backup files from my Mac OSX and files from Windows (also on my Mac) on the same drive, correct?
I appreciate the strategy of using it only as a backup, that makes quite a bit of sense. However, if I want to only backup my OSX files, and also store (solely as backup copies) say, a number of computer models (Rhino, Revit, etc.) that were created in Windows programs (not needing to store the entire Windows disk), would it not make sense to store these on the same drive in a different partition, creating the need for two different partition formats? And if I were to do this, maybe I should use NTFS instead of FAT32 (and reformat to GUID since that seems to be a standard for Apple and Windows 7 recognizes it..?) to keep them completely separate since the computer model files cannot be opened unless running the Windows programs.
How do you use your drive with HFS+ and NTFS if not for backups? I will not need to access the HFS+ backup files in Windows, nor need to access files from an NTFS partition in OSX, so that seems to simplify things in that, at least at the moment, I will not need any Paragon software.
Currently my drive is partitioned as HFS+ and FAT32 as MBR, with the HFS+ partition set up with Time Machine. It appears to be successful, I see my files in Mac HD -> "users" and all my docs, desktop items, etc. are listed. Seems that there is in fact no limit on TM's use of MBR maps, or else it is way above 160GB.
Third, are you using CarbonCopyClone in place of Time Machine or in addition to it? If in addition would it create the bit-wise clone on the same HFS+ partition as TM is backing up to? Or a separate drive? I'd like to only have one external that I am backing up to for simplicity's sake. I've never used TM before, so this is all new to me. Also, I suppose I have been missing the distinction between storing copies of files, and making a complete backup of a disk image... just now realizing the difference. Thanks so much.

2 Different Partition Map Scheme's for one external hard drive

Is it possible to have one external hard drive with 2 different Partition Map Scheme's?
One of them will be used to externally boot tiger on a powerpc, and the other for use on my macbook pro?

And this drive is currently not partitioned I take it ?
You need to make a backup of the data on the drive then partition it, the first partition must be set under Disc Utility / Partition / Options as Mac GUI Bootable so it installs the drivers, then install Tiger onto the first partition and move your current data back onto the second one.
You will then be able to Boot Tiger on the older PowerBook by holding down 'option' at start up, if you just have it connected to the MacBook Pro and start up normally then it will appear as two volumes on your Desktop, the Tiger Boot Volume and your Data Volume.

Can a portable USB 3.0 HDD be partitioned and formatted FAT32 and Mac OS Extended?

I wish to use a portable HDD on a Windows laptop and also my iMac.
I realise that if I format it as FAT32 it will work on both.
Unfortunately I also need it to work with Final Cut Pro X . . . but FCP X can only recognise Mac OS Extended drives.
So will I be aple to split it into 2 partitions with one formatted as FAT32 and the other Mac OS Extended?

For what it is worth, I have an internal drive that is formatted thusly:
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Lion                    531.2 GB   disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS TimeS                   369.0 GB   disk2s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data FILES                   99.4 GB    disk2s4
When I boot into Windows 7, which is on still another drive, it recognizes the FAT 32 partition fine, as does Mac OS, and both can read and write to the partition. It has been awhile since I set this up, as I recall I may have had to reformat the FAT 32 partition from Windows (originally formatted it in Disk Utility). Sometimes Windows just doesn't like the format as done by the Mac. Anyway, the point is that it is not the first partition. You might try fiddling around with the new drive and see if it really makes any difference. Also I can boot Lion from that drive if I want, because it is GUID Partition Table.

Disk Utilty - Reformating Windows-formated drive to MAC OS Extended Format

Can a drive previously formatted as Windows FAT32 or NFTS subsequently be reformatted to the MAC OS Extended format, via OS X Panther Disk Utility's Erase and/or Partition options?
If so, is it straightforward to do, or are there any potential pitfalls?

Hello! Yes, it should work fine to use disk utility to format the drive to HFS+. Tom

HT5096 Format required is Mac OS Extended (Case sensitive and Journaled)

In step 4 of this article, the disk must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case sensitive and Journaled) or the system won't copy Backups.backupdb.

Really why not just check the box that says ignore ownership on the volume.

HT201250 reformat FAT-formatted drive in Mac OS Extended

I am using an external disc to backup my whole Mac, using Time Machine. I want to include in the back-up another external hard dirk INTENSO where I am already saving lots of pictures. Time Machine tells me that I can not include it in the back-ups because it is formatted for Windows (FAT32).
How can I format it for Mac? I know I would delete all the existing files so I need to make firstly a copy of them. THANKS

Open Disk Utility, and follow the sequence in the pictures below. Please note that step 2 is in the last picture.

Ext Firewire: Booting Mac OS(extended) and still having a FAT32 part.

Hello-
Anyone have any tricks to be able to partition a drive: 1 Fat32 and the other Extended/Journaled, that will enable someone to load OS X on the extended journal and still have the Fat32?
I've tried a bunch of different utilities on both the mac and PeeC, but am not able to do this... Here is what I've found:
- If I partition the drive in 2, I am forced to choose PC or Mac boot
- If I choose Mac boot, I am able to load os X, but can't format the 2nd partition FAT32
- If I choose PC boot, I am not able to load os X, but can create both an extended and FAT32 partitian.
Any tricks to get around this? Thanks.
PBG4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) Acronis Disk Director on the PC, Disk utilities on the mac
PBG4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

This hint appeared at MacOSXHints.com and pretty much explains how it can be done. There may be additional coverage at the site, but this one popped up quickly.
A drive must be formatted as one MS-DOS partition by default. If you format the drive MS-DOS you cannot also create an HFS partition without some sort of trick as referenced above.
Of course you can format the drive Mac OS Extended and partition it to your hearts content. Then use Windows software like MacDrive to enable reading and writing Mac disks on the PC.
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Boot Camp won't partition my disc because it says I need to reformat as a single mac os extended (journaled) even though it already is.

I'm trying to partition my Macbook Pro early 2011 with Boot Camp Assistant so I can run Windows 7, however when I tell it to create the partition I get an error that says:
"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. ... Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."
Problem is, my Macbook is already a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled)! Any idea of what I should do to get around this? Do I have to wipe and restore my files? I'm using Boot Camp 4.0.1

Kappy wrote:
The problem:
You are asking for more contiguous space than is available on the drive.
The drive is highly fragmented.
Here's what you need to do:
Request a smaller Windows partition. If that isn't feasible then do the following:
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
       external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
       mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
       drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
       failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
       reported on external drives. Otherwise, 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
       (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
       GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
       until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
       it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
      the Source entry field.
6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
I've come across this problem myself, so I attempted this procedure, although I receive an input/output error when trying restore my internal hdd to my external. I have never a problem with either. Could I instead create an image using DU and save it to the external drive then extract that image to my internal drive later? If so, is there any additional steps I need to take?

Using TM with Drobo on Airport Extr - what format? HFS+ or Mac OS Extended?

I have a Drobo that I used to connect directly to my iMac, which was in HFS+ format. I've recently purchased an Airport Extreme, to which I want to attach my Drobo so it can be used as a shared USB drive for all my other Macs. When I redirect Time Machine to the Drobo that is now attached to the Airport Extreme, an error pops up that says, "The backup volume is not in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."
Do I need to reformat my Drobo to Mac OS Extended or is there some workaround? What should I do?
Thanks!

John C Lin wrote:
Any other thoughts out there? Pondini? You seem like one of the resident experts.
That's a bit overstated, I'm afraid. I've never used a Drobo (directly attached or not) or any network drive with TM. About all I can say is, some folks with directly-attached Drobos seem to get it to work well, others don't. Some of the network hardware/software seems to work sometimes, sometimes not. Many that had worked fine in Leopard no longer work in Snow Leopard, apparently because of some changes or new features Apple started using that aren't supported by all NAS devices.
One thing to keep in mind is, although they never say it explicitly, Apple designed TM with novice to intermediate users in mind. Folks who've never used any sort of backup app at all, and won't unless it's very simple and easy. Thus the automatic deletion of the oldest backups, for example, so users don't have to manage the space themselves. While it will work in some fairly heavy-duty and complex situations, it's just not designed as an "enterprise class" app.
I'm pretty thoroughly confused right now, so I'm basically trying to figure out what the best options are for me. I have 3 computers (two with Snow Leopard, one with Leopard), one Airport Extreme, one Drobo, and of course Time Machine. Should/can I use my Drobo (dechamp suggests that the NetGear product is worth looking at)? If so, should I connect it to one computer to share or get a Droboshare device to share via ethernet (I've already eliminated the possibility of attaching my Drobo to the Airport Extreme)?
Since you've already got it, I'd be inclined to try it connected to the iMac; back the iMac up to it directly, and the others via sharing. In that case, partition it if you can (I've heard Drobos can't be partitioned), so at least the iMac has it's own, exclusive space (see #4 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum). If you can partition it, you may or may not want to make separate partitions for the drives being backed-up separately.
#4 in the FAQ Tip applies mostly to Macs being backed-up directly; for backups in a sparse bundle, you can simply delete the sparse bundle if you have or want to delete all of them.
Or try it attached to the Airport. If it works, it works, at least for now.
Also, I understand from previous posts that when TM accesses a network device it creates a sparsebundle instead of the regular backupd
Correct. The Backups.backupdb folder is inside the sparse bundle, which doesn't sound like a big difference, but it is. The sparse bundle has it's own *Partition Map Scheme* (APM) and Format (Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled)) which you can't change.
- is that an issue at all? (I originally had my Drobo attached to one computer and am now sharing it from another computer - does that mean that the backupd files from the previous computer are now useless and can be erased since TM created sparsebundle once I started sharing that drive over the network from another computer?)
They're not useless, as you can still access and restore from them via the +*Browse ...+* option (see #17 in the FAQ Tip), but the old and new sets are completely separate. Also, TM won't delete the oldest of the old ones when it needs room for new backups. You get to do that yourself, either by deleting the Backups.backupdb folder (emptying the trash will take a very long time), or one-by one via TM (see #12 in the FAQ Tip).

How to format external drive to MAC OS Extended w/ MBR scheme?

Hello all,
I have a Maxtor 1TB drive that I would like to format to MAC OS Extended (Journaled) but also using a Master Boot Record partition map scheme.
Every time I try using the Disk Utility, I get a partition error. It will only let me partition using a GUID scheme, however the XBox360 that I also connect my drive to requires a MBR scheme.
I have another another Maxtor drive formatted in this manor, so I can't quite understand why I keep receiving this error!
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks
Message was edited by: Gio_vanni

Not doable. AFAIK, your choices are APM, GPT, and MBR. Additionally, HFS+ isn't available for windoze's MBR; only MS-DOS or FAT-32.

Bootcamp 5 + 3TB HD: The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume

Hi all,
I installed a brand new 3TB Seagate Barracuda HD in my iMac late 2009 after read that apple provides a patch to use 3TB discs with bootcamp with 10.8.3.
I tried to install windows in my 3TB disc 4 o 5 times, reinstalling from scratch, formatting the disc from terminal, etc... I tried everything and I keep getting the same message: The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows.
The disc has a single 3TB Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition, but bootcamp keep saying that is not... and doesn't allows me to install windows. I read a lot of discussions here and other communities but as I said, none solution worked for me.
Any of you could manage to fix this issue?? Is Apple aware of that problem?
Any idea will be welcome!
Ivan

Hi,
Anybody in the forum have managed to use bootcamp with a 3Tb disc?? or get any answer from Apple...
Regards,
Ivan

Bought new Hitachi HD can't install Mac osx there is no destination drive and i already formatted to mac os extended journaled

So i tried upgrading my hard drive to a new hitachi HD and when i tried using the mac osx dvd it doesn't find the hard drive in the destination page. i formatted it to mac os extended journaled with 1 partition and nothing i'm stuck.... here is a picture of the disk utility page i took a screenshot of.... please help

"i tried upgrading my hard drive to a new hitachi HD"
Your havnt said what your trying to do so your posts are very confusing
with this new drive do you want to:
install the operating system on the new drive
format the drive to use it as storage
create a standby bootable drive
something else entirely
Your screen shots show you have an internel drive and three other drives
The drive you have erased is an external USB connected drive - youv erased and partitioned the drive and it shows it is working OK
what do you want to do now?
if the idea is to replace your original systen drive with this new drive youv bought the wrong kind of drive it should have been an internal drive
but you need to explain wahat as the drive shows it functioning correctly

Formatting HDs to Mac OS Extended: Does Partition Map Scheme need altering as well?

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