Help with partitioning an external drive

I've never done this, so am not sure how it works. I have an external drive (250 gb) that I use with SuperDuper to back up my Mac. Now I have decided I also want to keep a separate iTunes library on this drive. Apparently, so that SuperDuper doesn't erase the new iTunes library, the drive will need to be partitioned.
So. . . I will use Disk Utility to partition that drive into two and call each section something different? Will each section then look like a different drive (for instance, in SuperDuper)?
Are there any tricks or tips I should know before running Disk Utility's partition application?
I have searched the forum for info on this, but most of the people seemed to have at least basic knowledge of how it works, so didn't get much help there. I want to ask before I go and erase the drive.
Thanks in advance!
Chris
Powerbook G4; Intel iMac 20inch Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Powerbook G4; Intel iMac 20inch Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Disk Utility offers following partition schemes:
GUID -> Intel Mac
Apple Partition Map (APM) -> PPC Mac
Master Boot Record (MBR) -> PC
My apology for referring APM as PPC in my previous post. Native partition scheme (GUID for Intel Mac and APM for PPC Mac) must be used in order to install Mac OS X in the partition as startup disk, it allows booting as well as firmware update. If partition must be shared between Intel Mac and PPC Mac, then only APM scheme can be used since both Mac platforms are able to access APM partition but only PPC Mac can boot from this type of partition.
Since I have only one Intel Mac and booting from external storage is necessary for maintenance (full defragmentation) and repair (in case when internal drive has crashed), I use only GUID scheme for iMac's internal drive and Firewire external drive. Super Duper is used to mirror exactly internal drive to external drive regularly. The only time I have to perform file transfer between PPC Mac and Intel Mac with external drive was during hardware upgrade as follows:
iBook G4 -> iMac G5 -> iMac CoreDuo -> iMac Core2Duo
Thus the decision for partition scheme of external drive depends on whether you have to boot Mac OS X from external drive (no in your case but highly recommeded for emergency plan) and whether sharing of external drive between your PowerBook G4 and iMac CoreDuo is desirable. I assume you will select APM scheme for your purpose since booting Mac OS X from external drive is not required.
Use of very old Master Boot Record (MBR) scheme will turn the external drive into PC drive completely. Unless this drive must be accessed in Windows environment as conventional PC drive for some PC disk utilities (these old utilities can't work with new GUID scheme), use of this non-native scheme for Mac OS X is not advisable.
Hopefully above information will help you in partitioning external drive. Since you do not have to preserve content of this external drive, why not go ahead and experiment with new partitions to see whether they serve your purpose ? Disk partitioning without writing zero or any random patterns on whole disk takes only few seconds. But it is a good idea to write zero (shortest time required) across whole disk surface to ensure that bad disk blocks are masked off to prevent future access and possible crash.
iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz / 1GB RAM / 250GB HD / 20" LCD Mac OS X (10.4.9) Firewire RAID, iPod nano

Similar Messages

Help with re formating external drive

Help,
I can not figure this out. I have a yellow exclamation point on my xternal drive in imovie and was told i needed to reformat it to HFS + journaled. It is currently Afat. I have been told to erase it and change the format which I have done but I don't think it has worked. I have partioned it but I don't know what and how to do it. I really don't know how to use disk utility.
Help please.
I have a western digital external hard drive. Thanks.

See the built-in Help.
Try One Partition with Mac OS Extended (HFS+) Journaled format. If you have trouble doing this yourself, maybe find a local Apple Store or Apple/Mac User Group and have someone help you. Or date a computer geek for a week, get him to do it, then dump him.
If you have already gone through the process, what is happening now that makes you think that the drive is not working properly? Does iMovie still complain about the drive format? Can you actually copy data to the drive and it works as expected? What does Apple System Profiler report about the drive? (under the Apple Menu, select About this Mac, then click the More Info button, expand the little triangles to show info about hardware and volumes, etc.)
(Not sure if this is an issue, not sure if I should even mention it, but Western Digital drives don't always seem to work that great with the Mac, hard to say if that's anything related to your issues, just search the forums for WD or Western Digital to see what other user experiences have been. I'm sure there may be some who are really happy with them too. You might be able to store photo/movie data on the drive just fine, but you might not be able to boot the Mac OS X from it, for example.)

Help with partitioning ext firewire drive to use for storage/image backups

I just ordered a 2tb external hard drive. Want to put at least 1tb of the space for normal access file storage and use between 500gb and 750gb (probably the latter if I upgrade internal drive) for image clones to use for emergency boots. Software maybe Super Duper? Anyway, will get pre-formatted drive tomorrow and need to make it happen quick.
Would I delete whatever partition comes on it and put 2 new ones on? One for file storage and one for clone images? Or can I even just use one big 2tb partition? Want to make regular clone images for emergency booting and expand my file storage at same time. Probably use something lIke Carbon Copy Cloner(?) or Super Duper for images and maybe do some Time Machine backups?

Yes, you can do it that way. Again, it is recommended that TM have its own partition.
It sounds like you have two 2TB HDs. Why not put three partitions on one, put the 750GB of data on one partition, and you have two more partitions to clone to (I would alternate each time).
Then you have the other 2TB HD for TM. It's recommended that you have a volume at least double the size of the amount of data you're backing up (3x or more would be even better), so that would be great.
Obviously you can do what you want, but starting out from the beginning like you are, why not do it "right?" It's the "foundation," and the better that is, the better luck you're likely to have with the structure built on top of it (your backups).

Where can I get help with partitioning my hard drive? I have a "non-genuine" version of windows that I need to replace but I have not a clue how to go about doing that.

I love my mac, but I unfortunately have to also run windows because of engineering software. I bought windows 7 at my campus computre store and one year later my computer is telling me that my software is "non-genuine." I need to fix this asap, but my computer store refuses to do anything because a year has passed. Microsoft wont help because I have a Mac.
My question is, where can I go to find someone who can help me uninstall the "non-genuine" windows 7 and replace it with a functional one?
Im allowed a free download of windows 7 because I'm still a student, but I have no clue how to go about uninstalling and reinstalling windows.
Thanks a bunch.

Hello,
This kind of question is best asked in the Windows Forums, however I've had some succession with a similar issue myself.
Non-Genuine Windows means that it can't authenticate your copy of Windows.
It's not a problem, all your need is a genuine product key code. Provided you don't have different version of Windows 7 installed to the one you are buying (for example windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 business) Then you can use the new key code.
Click on the Start Button and type: CMD (into the 'Search programs and files' field in the Start Menu)
The Start Menu will show 'CMD.exe',
Right-click the CMD.exe file and select Run As Administrator.
In the CMD window, type: slmgr.vbs -ipk <type your product key here>
To activate windows after changing the key, type: slmgr.vbs -ato
It should now accept the new key code and you will need to be connected to the Internet to authenticate.
If by chance the windows 7 types are different (One is Home premium say and the other is Business) then you will need to uninstall that copy of Windows 7 and install the new one. If your using BootCamp then you will need to go into BootCamp under system preferences and remove that copy of Windows (delete it)
Then create a new setup with your new Windows 7 disk.
For me I had the same type of windows, changing the product code worked. Saved me the bother of having to reinstall Windows again and it was all genuine.
Best of luck

Windows and OS-X partitions on external drive

Has anyone had any experience/problems with partitioning an external drive for OS-X and Windows?
How about 3 partitons: HFS+, FAT32, NTFS. Or is that pushing my luck too far?
I just received a new LaCie, primarily for backing up Vista Ult 64-bit, but if I can also use it for XP and OS-X that would be great.
Any information will be most appreciated.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Moonlight Mac wrote:
I've used an external USB2 drive to boot XP, but it is a very dicy process, and not really worth it in the end. You can slipstream USB boot support into the XP installer, but when you are done, you won't have virtual memory support (no pagefile). It also requires that the internal drive be removed during installation (if XP sees an internal drive, it will insist on attempting to use it for a pagefile.)
I've done the same with a 4GB flash memory card... but booting was hit or miss.
I've partitioned my internal into 2 HFS and 1 NTFS partition, and that works very well when combined with MacDrive on the PC side. I'd stick with using the external as just a backup device or for OSX (works best with firewire.)
I am not looking to boot XP although that would be nice, but simply to create a backup on the drive. I use Norton Ghost, which does allow a boot, or sorts, into the backup in order to restore a system.
But more, I was interested in an NTSF partition for Vista on this MBP. I have not used Vista's built-in backup program so I don't know how it works, but my thoughts were to partition the 500GB into multiple partitions and use them for XP, Leopard and Vista and a CCC clone of my two Leopard OSs.
Say, 3 HFS partitions for clones and storage, 1 FAT32 for XP and 1 NTFS for Vista, making 5 in all.
The 2 HFS partitions are probably easy. It was the other two, FAT32 and NTFS that I was concerned with.
I guess I will plug it in and use DU and see what happens. I have never used DU for NTFS or FAT32 on an external drive.
As long as the drive is empty, I have nothing to lose and lots of experience to gain, right?

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music?

...or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
(Secondary question: would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder)

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music? or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
I see no good reason to create a separate partition unless you're backing up with Time Machine. TM prefers to have it's own volume, so in that case partitioning would probably be a good idea.
would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder.
No, probably not. As long as you're not getting the drive too full - opinions vary but about 20GB remaining should be plenty for most uses - you probably won't see any overall change in performance just from moving the iTunes content.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Why did my event library stopped showing my partitions and external drives?

The event library stopped recognizing my computer partitions and my external hardrive. It looks like all events are available, just not organized by partitions and drives. The partitions and external drive still show up in the project library.

I don't see anything like what you mentioned... " having a folder at the root level that emulates a camera, a folder with a name like DCIM or Private." Here are the windows showing the files on the user/HD, the tutorial image and the external drive. You can see the Final Cut Folders in each. In the past, I would see each of these in the Event Library so I could create a new event wherever I want to store it. I have also included a screen shot of FCPX showing the Project Library. It still shows the various devices, as I am used to seeing in the Event Library.

Time Machine and partition on external drive

Planning to buy a big external drive, but, is it possible to partition the external drive and make TM work on one ?

Absolutely, in fact it is recommended to give TM its own partition. Use the first partition of the drive (that's the one that ends up at the top of the list in Disk Utility).
Make sure the partition is double, if not three times, the size of what you will be backing up.
Note that you have the option (Sys Prefs-TM-Options) to exclude drives and folders from backups. This may save a lot of space and is useful for the applications folder (as you likely have that stuff on CD/DVD), for music (if you have it on CDs), the downloads folder etc; see [this page|http://www.ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine -backups] for more ideas on what to exclude so as not to backup unnecessary stuff. Also, if you work with scratch disks (in Photoshop or video applications, for instance), exclude them as well as that's just unnecessary.
/p

Basic Question: How to partition an external drive and then set up TM?

Hi. I am going to be using an external hard drive (Western Digital - 640GB) on my MacBook for the first time and I think that I'd like to partition it so that part of it is for Time Machine and part of it can be used to just manually drag and drop my files (like any other USB external drive).
1. How to I partition the external drive for Mac?
2. If I insert my drive (not yet partitioned) in my MacBook for the first time and the MacBook automatically asks me if I want to use it for Time Machine, I'm assuming that I need to say "no" so that I can first partition it, right? If yes, then after partitioning it how do I set up the one partition for Time Machine?
3. If I have 640 GB external hard drive space and my MacBook has about 100GB of space, how much of the 640 should I allocate for Time Machine?
Thanks! Happy New Year!

coffeecoffee wrote:
Hi. I am going to be using an external hard drive (Western Digital - 640GB) on my MacBook for the first time and I think that I'd like to partition it so that part of it is for Time Machine and part of it can be used to just manually drag and drop my files (like any other USB external drive).
1. How to I partition the external drive for Mac?
select the whole drive (the model, not the name) in disk utility and click on the partition tab. set the number of partitions. set the partition scheme to GUID in options. set the format to mac os extended journaled. hit apply.
2. If I insert my drive (not yet partitioned) in my MacBook for the first time and the MacBook automatically asks me if I want to use it for Time Machine, I'm assuming that I need to say "no" so that I can first partition it, right? If yes, then after partitioning it how do I set up the one partition for Time Machine?
in system preferences->Time machine.
also see TM 101 for basic usage instructions.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
3. If I have 640 GB external hard drive space and my MacBook has about 100GB of space, how much of the 640 should I allocate for Time Machine?
it depends on your computing habits but it's generally recommended to have TM drive to be at least 2-3 times bigger than the total amount of data you are backing up.
Thanks! Happy New Year!

Macs or mac mini work with blu ray external drives even XL DISC CAPACITIES

macs or mac mini work with blu ray external drives (BURNERS) even XL DISC CAPACITIES like 128GB?

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2881

If i partition an external drive do i need to erase it?

Hi,
I partitioned an external drive without erasing it first.
Do I need to erase it now that it has been partitioned?
I don't think so.

When you partition a drive all data will be lost whether you erase it or not

Are you having problems with the Lacie external drive after upgrading to the new operating system

Are you having problems with the Lacie external drive after upgrading to OS X Mavericks?

See here for everyone discussing the issue you are having:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475136?tstart=0

Need some help with backing up external hard drive using Time Machine

Hi all, I'm trying to work out the best way to back up multiple iPhoto libraries using Time Machine.
At the moment I have got an iMac and Macbook Pro, both of which have an iPhoto library (with different content). Currently these are not backed up at all. So what I want to do is back both up to an NAS drive, which I know is straightforward.
What I also want to do is create one iPhoto library on an external hard drive that I can use with my MBP, and then delete the iPhoto library on my MBP to free up some hard drive space (it's running slower and slower and I'm hoping that this might help it run quicker).
So, as I want to have the library on two seperate drives in case one fails, what I want to know is whether I could use Time Machine to back up my external hard drive as well as the internal drive of my MBP? Also, would I need to have the external drive connected at all times for Time Machine to "see" it?
I hope that makes sense, all I seem to be doing currently is going round and round and can't work out whether what I want to do is possible or not.
Thanks in advance

If I understand your goal correctly, you're considering using Time Machine as external storage, and it doesn't work that way. Time Machine keeps around what it can, and older stuff gets flushed as the storage available to Time Machine reaches its lower threshold due to the addition of newer stuff. When the older stuff gets flushed is not predictable.
It is possible to have several Time Machine backups aimed at the same target (this can be done with Apple Time Capsule, for instance), though you might want to partition the disks to ensure that the intended amount of storage is available. Different NAS drives have different features here.
NAS is only as fast as your network connection, and that's almost always much slower than the in-box I/O connections; a local disk will be far faster than a NAS disk, just because of the bottleneck that is wired gigabit Ethernet, and most WiFi is slower and sometimes far slower than wired gigabit Ethernet. FWIW.
If your MacBook Pro is old enough and you have $$ but aren't in a position to spend $$$$$ on a newer model, then consider an in-place drive upgrade.
If your network connection is fast enough to transfer the amount of data you're dealing with in a reasonable time, there are also hosted storage options.
You can use a NAS drive as storage independent of Time Machine, and relocate stuff there. (You'll still want to have backups of that data, as NAS drives — even NAS with RAID — can still lose files, become corrupted or otherwise ruin your data day.
As for your performance, keeping about 10% or so free on the disks is the local preference, but it's worth reviewing the performance of the whole system — Performance Monitor, Console.app, etc — to see if there's something else going on, or if your system load and personal performance expectations are exceeding what your MacBook Pro can provide.

Can't move a project to external drive. Followed Apple's help instructions. Is it because I partitioned the external drive?

When I drag the project to the external drive in the event library, it does not lock on. Thus, options for Move Project or Move Project and Events don't show up.The WD external drive has been formatted correctly. It has 2 partitions, one for Time Machine, one for saving files and folders.

zarathu wrote:
You don't say if you are using iMovie 11. The only way to move a project is to have '11.
And then you have to save it as an Archive. You can move the archive. You can also save it as a disk image but that will be a completed document.
If there is no"Archive Project" in your file menu, you are out of luck.
The issue here is that the iMovie 11 Help files are incorrect (see below).
It is actually very simple to move a project and all its associated components to an external drive.
You have to do it however in the Project Library and not mix it with the Event Library as the help files suggest.
Type in External Drive into iMovie Help and read through the results.
Best, Z.

HELP I partitioned an external hard drive by mistake - how to undo???

HELP HELP HELP
I just bought a new WD 1TB hard drive (so now I have two) and wanted to partition in (1 partition) but by my stupid mistake I had chosen the wrong hard drive - so now about 1TB worth of music and films and photos (my entire iTunes and iPhoto library is gone - and do not have a back up). I did the partition with Disk Utility.
Is there anyway to get it back???
Kenneth
PS. Will order a time machine after submitting this question
PPS. Running the latest Apple software etc

Kenneth the Dane wrote:
HELP HELP HELP
OUCH OUCH OUCH
+*Stop using the drive immediately+* to stop further loss due to files being overwritten.
You need specialized +Data Recovery+ software, or a service that performs the function. It's not cheap, and there are no guarantees.
The app mentioned here most often is +Data Rescue 3,+ but I haven't used it myself, so can't recommend it over any of the others.
Some of these have a free "trial mode," that will tell you if there's anything to be recovered, and perhaps recover a single file. For more, you have to pay the $$.
You'll also need another drive to receive anything it can recover.
PS. Will order a time machine after submitting this question
You already have +Time Machine.+ It's part of OSX Leopard and Snow Leopard. It can back up to an external drive, or a Time Capsule (Apple hardware - combination of wireless router and hard drive), or a shared drive on another Mac.
When you get to it, you might want to review these:
Time Machine Tutorial
Time Machine 101
How to back up and restore your files
Time Machine Features
Apple - Support - Mac OSX v10.5 Leopard Time Machine
and perhaps browse the Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum.
Look for apps or services under +Data Recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

Help with partitioning an external drive

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