How long to partition a 500gb hard drive under disc utility

i opened disc utility for the purpose of erasing a drive and restoring it. following the erase portion, it automatically started partitioning it. this operation has been going on for 1 day and 4 hours! someone help!

etcetera wrote:
I have two 300GB drives I plan to mirror.
Now how many partitions and of what sizes do I create given 300GB size?That's up to the administrator.
Should I put everything except swap under / ?That's what I do, but others might prefer other setups.
Do I need a separate partition for /tmp, /var, /usr, /opt and so on?No. But that doesn't mean that they might not be useful in some cases.
Darren

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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.

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.
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.

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.

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.
Any ideas as to what the problem would be?
Thanks!
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.

If I erase my hard drive using disc utility, can I safely donate my computer without my data being used?

I would like to donate my computer without my data being stolen or compromised! Is it safe to wipe the hard drive with disk utility?

Yes, but do not forget to zero all data (even better, several times). See the article below.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1820
Jan

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.

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:
1. Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)
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 my second Hard Drive

I am wondering why my second hard drive that apple installed on my mac wont partition for use with windows.
I tried to partition the drive via Boot Camp Assistant and when I tell it to partition it sits there for hours saying its partitioning. I tried restarting and trying again. It just wont complete.
My next step was opening the disc utility and selecting the second hard drive and clicking partition. It still doesn't work. I get an error message saying
"Partition failed with the error: Filesystem resize support required, such as HFS+ with journaling enabled"
I took screen captures of the steps I took that are in these links
http://gallery.me.com/calaberator/100029/Picture-205/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/calaberator/100029/Picture-206/web.jpg
http://gallery.me.com/calaberator/100029/Picture-207.jpg?derivative=medium&sourc e=web.jpg&type=medium&ver=12205459000001
It won't let me partition the disc. Does anyone have any recomendations?

Okay!
Disk Utility is... weird ever since Leopard, and BootCamp Assistant... fine for iMac or MacBook but not as flexible as I like.
Sometimes you just have to restart Disk Utility, or at worst, restart. Sometimes after resizing partitions and such, you really do want to restart before using those partitions.
I've seen Disk Utility "lose communication" with a drive.
I don't like to use the last part of a drive.... for anything, it is the slowest inner tracks and less than half the performance.
If you don't have anything on it that you need and that is backed up, I would just go to Partition tab and start over.
Personally, I like to strip a drive of all partition tables and format it in Windows. Or set it as Master Boot Record, then create a couple FAT partitions which works for Vista installs but not for XP.
Vista needs at least 40GB and you want to leave room to add applications, restore points, and room for updates (a 500MB 'update' can unpack, write temp files, and use much more, as much as 7-10GB for Vista SP1 update, which you get back most of afterwards. And 2-3x the amount of RAM for pagefile and hibernation.
Try again, restart if necessary, and it really should.
When a drive is first formatted, it writes partition tables and has to test the first and last 100 sectors plus where the GPT and EFI partitions go, which shouldn't take more than 2 minutes. More than that, just kill it, quit Disk Utility and try again.
If you have never used the drive, consider doing a full zero-all from security options to erase it after you have it partitioned.

Partitioning my External Hard Drive Using Disk Utility in Mac?

I have a 1 TB external hard drive which I've been using for a year now. It already has 200 GB used space, having approximately 100 GB of movies. Since the format of the single partition it has is MS-DOS FAT32 (so that it can be used on my Mac, Windows and PS3), I can only store files not bigger than 4 GB. Some of the HD movies I have range from 6-8 GB and I can't transfer them to the hard drive and they're occupying so much space on my laptop. Now, I wanna know if I can split the hard drive into 2 or 3 partitions (please recommend whether to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled), ExFAT or both) without having to undergo the process of backing up my 200 GB worth of files onto another hard drive; it's too tedious. Is there a way for me to directly convert some space of my single partition into a different partition with a different format while the hard drive still contains my old files? Thanks!

You can add a partition to the drive. In Disk Utility select the drive and then select the Partition Tab. The current partition layout is shown.
Grab the resize handle in the lower righthand corner of the partition display and drag it the size you want. Click in the new empty gray area and click the + sign, the new partition will be displayed. Enter the information for the partition, name and format and apply.
As for the format you should use it depends on how you will use the partition. If you will only be using it with the Mac then OS Extended (Journaled) is the way to go.
While this procedure is safe for the data on the disk as always whenever doing any system work like this a good working backup is highly recommended. And if you get to a point where you are not sure of what you are doing you can select revert to restore the settings as they are now, at anytime before you hot apply.
good luck

How should I partition a new hard drive - for data storage

My original drive was failing, so I installed another one, with the operating system on it, so that when that one failed, it was not a problem. Now I have a 2nd one that's failing (or has possibly failed, though I do have it backed up using Time Machine . I bought another drive today - a 2 TB one and want to install it, possibly partitioning it - maybe with a partition that holds the operating system and some of the software, (though don't know if that's a good idea or not), and part for the data backup of videos I've made, and slideshows from Aperture, etc. - just "stuff". What is the best way for me to partition it?

Unless you have very specific requirements, such as wanting to install more than one OS, there's no advantage to creating multiple partitions.

How long to erase 3TB external hard drive 7x with disk utility?

Just wondering, started Sunday afternoon and its still going 2 days later.

The 7x erase formatting was added to Disk Utility because of government agencies who have it as a requirement for their security. For most people a 1x erase and zero all data is sufficient. Do you really need to do the 7x?
Best of luck.

How can I initialize an external hard drive when disk utility won't work?

Have a Seagate 300 GB external firewire drive. Formatted it for Mac. Had worked great and then one day it would not mount, got message box with choices of "initialize", "ignore" and 'eject". Clicking initialize, disk utility comes up with only the "first aid" button showing active. When I click on it nothing happens. As far as I can tgell there are no other options
Any suggestions on how I can repair this drive or recover data would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Jim

OK, I suspect First Aid may be blank since Disk Utility "sees" the device but does not think there's anything on it.
1. How about if you select the drive and then click the Erase tab?
2. Also, what happens if you connect the drive, select Ignore, then open Disk Utility? Does the drive show up?
3. What's your objective here? Do you want to try to recover data from the drive, or simply erase it? If you're looking to recover data from the drive, see my "Data Recovery" FAQ.
4. Do you know what happened before the problem arose? For example, was there a power outage or was the cable or drive suddenly disconnected before the drive was Ejected? Any of these events can result in the drive's partition map being corrupted, leading to the kind of problems you're seeing.
5. Did you build this FireWire drive? That is, buy and enclosure, buy a drive, and install the latter in the former? If so, have you checked the connections?
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

How do I delete a partition on a hard drive?

I have a 2012 MacBook Pro with OS X Lion (don't know the version), I installed windows 7 shortly afterwards and primarily used that. I've now sold the laptop but need to delete the windows partition and that's where the problem started. The original Mac partition stopped working, so I deleted the content on the bootcamp partition and reinstalled OSX onto that one, now I am unable to delete the original partition so only half of the 500GB hard drive is available to use. Can anyone tell me how to delete the old partition so I can then just re-install OSX so it's ready for its new owner? I also have two recovery HD partitions. Please help!

make it easy, kill 2 birds with 1 stone
reboot holding 3 keys - option, command, r - you should see a spinning globe, if not try again
open disk utilty, select your HD on the left and erase/reformat as mac journaled
exit du, choose install OSX
result - no more windows or other random partitions and a fresh OSX like out of the box

How to put a recovery partition on the hard drive

How can I create a recovery partition on the hard drive of my laptop. I had to reinstall the whole system, and tried to use the HP recovery software they sent me but it quit when it was about three quarters the way finished. I had to use a copy of windows 8 to put the system back on my laptop. After I got it all straighten out, I updated it to windows 8.1 and it seems like the computer runs a lot faster with windows 8.1 on it. Now I need to find away to install a recovery partition on my hard drive.
Thank You
Garry Crist

When requesting assistance, please provide the complete model name and/or product number of the HP computer in question. HP/Compaq makes thousands of models of computers. Without this information it may be difficult or impossible to assist you in resolving your issue.
The above requested information can be found on the bottom of the computer or inside the battery compartment. Please do not include the serial number. Please enter the model/product information into HP's Online Consumer Support page and/or post it here for our review.
A Recover partition is something the factory places on the computer. It is an image of the factory installation and the software required to restore the computer to a factory like state using that image. You will not be able to create a Recovery partition on your computer unless you use the HP Recovery Discs to return the computer to a factory like state. Please note the HP Recovery Discs and the resulting HP Recovery partition will only contain an image of Windows 8 that cannot be updated to reflect the installation of Window 8.1.
My suggestion is to use the Windows "System Image Backup" utility to create an exact image of the Windows 8.1 partition as it currently is. If your computer developes an issue or you need to replace the hard drive, all you have to do is "restore" the image to the computer. You will need to use an external USB hard drive or other media to store the image. Please see Windows 8.1 Tip: Use System Image Backup for instructions on creating and storing a "Windows - System Image Backup."
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
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How long to partition a 500gb hard drive under disc utility

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