How do I partition my external hard drive without losing data?

How do I partition my external hard drive without losing the data already on it? I've been using it with Time Machine on my old computer, but want to use it as a regular drag-and-drop type back up on my new computer. Is there any way to basically split the hard drive so I can still access the Time Machine backups on my old computer, but also be able to use it with my new mac? Thanks!

If you reformat the drive all data is lost.
The only way to save the data is to copy it somewhere else during the reformat.
Drag & drop will not backup things correctly.
I suggest you set up partition for each Mac and then point Time Machine to each of the partition for each of the Macs.

Similar Messages

  • How do i reformat a case sensitive external hard drive without losing data

    I know there are a lot of posts about this, and i have spent hours trying to find a soloution / understand what people have responded to others, but i can't work this out.
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    I have a WD My Passport for Mac (let's call it HD2) that backs up my Mac Book Pro.
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    My laptop was really slow and full so i went to Genius bar, they sold me the Buffalo HD and they moved my itunes to it and set it up so it now has my itunes. I used this disk to run two TM Backups before i realised the drive was nearly full, so i bought the WD My Passport HD2.
    I now use WD My Passprt HD2 for TM.
    I want to MOVE the backups on HD1 to My Passport HD2 as there is lots of space on it. I also want to move my itunes library from HD2 as a back up.
    But i can't!!!
    After reading for hours, apparently this is because my HD1 is case sensitive, journaled. And it needs to be Journaled to work with TM/OSX or something very confusing. I have read lots of threads about re-formatting / partitioning and all things that are way over my head. But the one thing i do understand is if i reformat HD1, it erases the data.
    This is NOT an option as it holds my WHOLE itunes. The Itunes is WAY too big to drag onto my mac book pro and then move it over to HD2 and make that my itunes folder.
    HOW THE **** ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BACK UP THE CASE SENSITIVE DRIVE BEFORE REFORMATTING IT IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FIT BACK ON YOUR COMPUTER? Surely that's the whole point of having an external drive... to back up AND give you more space?
    I'm so mad that the apple store did this to me... they should know that case sensitve wouldn't work with a passport... that i would have problems. UGh.
    I have options to move the files from HD1 as i have HD2 and HD3 and then also the completely unused HD4... but i can't move anything anywhere due to this case sensitive nightmare.
    Someone PLEASE HELP ME.
    thanks.

    Hi Kappy,
    Just wondering if you had any advice for my situation . . .
    My time machine backup was backing up to a drive that was "Mac OS X Enteded Journaled, Case Sensitive."  I had no idea what this meant, or that it would even cause issues.
    I took my computer to the Apple store yesterday, and they wiped it clean.  When they tried to restore it from the Time Machine backup drive, it would not work.  Their guess is that Time Machine cannot restore from a drive that is "case sensitive."
    Any thoughts on how I can convert my time machine backup data from a "case sensitive" state, to a "non-case sensitive" state?  I've tried to just drag and drop the files from the case sensitive formatted drive to a new drive that I have that is formatted non case sensitive, but I get the following error message:
    "The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a backup"
    I just really want my data back - I thought TimeMachine was the way to go (and was supposed to work) but unfortunately it is not.
    Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,

  • How can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

    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.
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    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.

  • How can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

    how can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
    It's impossible to format a hard drive without losing the data. One thing you can do before formatting is to copy the files from the external drive to your internal drive, and then, format the external drive. After formatting, copy the files to the external drive again, and everything will be as before formatting it

  • If I donwload e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need a special hard drive?

    If I download e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need to know anything special?

    I just looked into this as I was moving my iPad to a new computer for synching.  With no thanks to Kobo for any really useful information on their help site (this discussion was the most useful info I found), I think the following may address your issue with respect to Kobo.
    1. There is not easy or official way to back up Kobo books from your iPad.
    2. Kobo keep track of your personal library.  Go to the Kobo website (Kobo.com) and sign in to your account.  On the very top line is "My Library".  That contains (or at least Kobo says it does) everything you have ever bought from Kobo.  Kobo say that you may download any of this content to other devices you own at no charge.
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    While I do not like the idea that I cannot create a backup on my main computer, it is probably safer in the long run that there is a backup at Kobo.  After all, I could lose all my equipment in a fire or something, and then personal  backups would be of little use.

  • How can I partition an external hard drive with data in it? When I select the drive, the partition option is grayed out.

    I am having a problem partitioning an external hard drive with data in it. 
    When I select the partition, everything is grayed out.  I can't add a a partition for some reason.  When I asked this question to other people, they told me to select my partition "io" to do it from there.
    As you can see, I can't seem to partition it form there either.  I ran the Verify Disk utility but the volume came out okay.
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    Luis

    Select the main hard drive entry (topmost one.) Click on the Partition tab. Shrink the existing partition by grabbing the sizing gadget in the bottom right corner and pushing up until you free up enough space for your second partition. Be sure you do not shrink to less than the space currently occupied by your files. Click on the Add[+] button to create a new partition in the free space. Click on the Apply button and wait until the partitioning is completed.

  • How can I partition my external hard drive into NTFC and Mac OS Extended Journaled?

    I brought a 1tb external hard drive from Western Digital. It currently have one partition which is Mac OS X (Journaled). I want to have two partition, one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and one NTFC for Windows. When I try to choose 2 partition and choose a partition type, I only get the following choices:
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    2. Mac OS X Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled)
    3. MS-DOS (FAT)
    4. ExFAT
    5. Free Space
    I don't want to use MS-DOS (FAT) because I am limited to only 32gb of space and I need plenty of space for Windows files.

    Assuming that  entire drive is GUID and you keep the existing journaled partition.
    Make a second partition that is exFAT (more storage ability than FAT) using DU.
    Then mount the drive on a Windows 7 and reformat that exFAT as NTFS.  But remember that Mac can read and write exFAT natively, but cannot write NTFS without special software.  Perhaps exFAT is what you want.
    But more the the point: is the journaled partition used as a backup device?  If it is, I would leave that drive alone as a backup drive and use a second device for "data only" sharing between types.

  • How Do I partition an external hard drive using disk utility?

    I have a 500 GB external hard drive that I want to set up so that half the space is for Time Machine backup and the other half as a simple flash drive that will be compatible with all types of computer operating systems?

    A terrible idea. Never use a backup drive for anything but a backup drive. Get another drive for experimenting.
    You can partition an external drive no differently than an internal drive.
    Drive Preparation
    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 desired from the drop down. 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. 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.
    Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

  • Partition ext hard drive without losing data

    I have just bought my first MacBook. I have an external hard drive with data on backed up from a windows PC and from reading posts see that I cannot transfer files FROM  my mac onto this drive as it is not formatted for use with a mac, although can transfer FROM the ext drive TO the mac.
    Can I partition it to make a part for the mac and keep the other part for windows use WITHOUT losing any of the data already on there? I was hoping to use this drive to back up the mac using time machine.
    Any replies appreciated in a simple form as I'm not that technical!
    Thanks

    Stress Test wrote:
    On the fly formatting from NTFS to FAT32 is not possible without loosing data.
    Not true. I have converted drives from FAT32 to NTFS, and vis versa, all while preserving the data on the drive. There is a number of ways to do it on a Windows machine. What I don't know is if there is the same software available for doing on a Mac. Since the OP mentions a WinPC, he might still have that capability himself. The one note of caution is that on an NTFS drive, you want to make sure that there are no individual files you want tot keep that are larger than FAT32 can support (4 GB). Here is one solution.

  • Is it possible to rename an external hard drive without losing links to my media?

    Hello all. I am new to Apple and FCP, so I may be going about this all wrong. I have a new Mac Pro, OS X version 10.9.5, running FCPX version 10.1.3. I have copied all of my data from a 1T external hard drive to a new 4T external hard drive, but FCPX doesn't recognize my media files unless I rename the new drive to that of the old one. The problem is I want to continue using the old one. Is there an easy way to relink my files and keep the original name of the new drive?
    Thanks.

    douglas57 wrote:
    I just spent 4 months editing a feature length documentary and I only understand about 10% of FCP. Only thing we can do is keep plugging away.
    Good luck...
    I've been using Final Cut Pro (pre-X) since v1.0 and I only ever used about 29% of the capabilities. However, most of the lesser functions slapped onto Ye Olde FCP were lame, unfinished, niche-focused or broken.

  • Reformatting External Hard Drive Without Losing Files

    I recently switched from a crashed HP to a Macbook and am trying to reformat my external hard drive, but it looks like every option requires me to delete the files on my hard drive. Is there a way to avoid this? I'm a fitness instructor and ALL of my music is on the hard drive...
    Thank you!!

    Why are you reformatting the drive?  Is it formatted in NTFS for Windows?  If so, the Mac can read the files off the drive, which is what you'll need to do.  Reformatting is a destructive process, so if you want the drive in a different format (such as Mac OS Extended) you will need to copy the files off to another location temporarily and then bring them back once the drive is reformatted.  Since the Mac can read the old drive, an external drive formatted Mac OS Extended could be attached as well and the files moved over.
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    If you will need to use the drive on both Windows and Mac machines the one "common" format is FAT32.  That has its own issues (including a hard and fast 4GB maximum file size) but either OS will read and write the drive without complaint.

  • How do I partition an external hard drive?

    I have recently purchased a Buffalo 1TB hard drive. I now want to partition it so I have 400GB for  TimeMachine backup, 100GB for transferring 'stuff' between my Mac and my husband's Windows desktop, and 500GB  for storing iPhoto pictures. How do I go about partitioning the drive and what considerations are there? I have a MAcBook Pro running Lion. Thanks!

    400GB is very little for a TM backup -- a rule of thumb is a minimum of twice the capacity of the drive you're backing up. So unless your internal drive is only 200GB or less, 400GB isn't enough for TM.
    In addition, consider that if you store your iPhoto library on an external drive because it's too big for your internal, you also need to maintain an up-to-date backup of the iPhoto library on a *second* external drive. If you don't, and the external drive fails, your pictures will be gone. In most cases, it's a better strategy to upgrade your internal drive to whatever capacity will hold everything you want to save, instead of spreading your primary storage over multiple discs and having to have multiple backup discs. You're much less likely to leave irreplaceable data un-backed-up if you don't have to remember which backups are where and when they were last updated. A 1TB internal drive, a 2TB external TM backup drive, and a 32GB flash drive for data transfer might serve your needs considerably better than what you've planned.

  • Partitioning an external Hard Drive without disturbing existing files.

    I would like to partition my lacie external HD and have read that I can do this without disturbing files I have already on there. When I look at the partitions in disk utility it doesn't indicate where these files are so how do I know how much to partition and if I am safe to do this?

    That will be true only if you are affecting UNALLOCATED DISK SPACE to a new partition. You wont be able to break an existing partition into pieces while maintaining data integrity.
    If you have a chunk of disk that has yet to be partitioned, you can partition off that space as you wish leaving any previously defined partition, it's format and contents alone.

  • Repartition External FW Drive without Losing Data

    I have an external firewire drive on which I originally created 2 partitions that now have data. The drive is attached to my Macbook. Is there a way to create a third partition, requiring resizing of the other partitions, without losing the current data ?? I don't think the current version of Drive Genius is intel Mac compatible. Disk Utility will erase the entire drive when creating a third partition.
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    you're right, the current version of Drive Genius does not work with the Intel macs.

  • 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

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