How to partition external hard drive?

I have an external hard drive that is mac os journal formatted but I want to format it so part of the hard drive is fat32. How can I do this. Thanks

Have a look at this thread -
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1577540&tstart=0
This is what I have understood -
1. FAT 32 partitioned from OS X - Not recognisable from XP
2. FAT 32 partitioned from XP - Recognisable from OS X, but cannot have a single partition of more than 32 GB and there cannot be more than 4 partitions
3. NTFS partitioned from XP - Only readable in OS X
4. NTFS partitioned from XP, converted to HFS+ (i.e. Mac OS Extended Journaled) - becomes unrecognisable in XP and the remaining partition becomes unusable
5. NTFS partitioned in XP and converted to NTFS -3G after installing Macfuse in OS X - Perfect

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OK, it's very bad computing to use a backup disk for anything but a backup. The reason being is if/when the HD crashes you will have lost not only all your backup but the data files. While I commend you for wanting redundant backup, you really need separate EHDs for doing so. Format each EHD using Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID parttition. When you connect, OS X will ask if you want to use that drive as a Time Machine backup drive, select yes and then let it backup. On the second EHD format the same way however do not use TM as a backup, this time I'd suggest an app such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of the internal HD. Leave both EHDs connected and TM will backup new or changed files automatically on a hourly basis. The clone you will need to set to backup on the schedule you want. For example I have my SuperDuper EHD set to backup only changed or updated files at 2AM every day.
The advantage of a clone is that if the computers internal HD crashes you can boot from a clone and continue working, TM will not do that but it's great for keeping an archive of all files. So if you want a version of a file from many months ago, TM will help you locate and restore it.

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Yes I did get to that part.... I went trough external to retrive itunes folder... When I selected the folder, it said that it was locked, choose another folder... I then went to my external again to my itunes folder and and used command I to see if folder was locked and it wasn't.... it was suggested on another forum to reboot.. which I did and still same problem... All I want to do is link my external hard drive that has my itunes playlist from another Mac to my new one.. and to also use the external as the main source for adding new songs to my playlist...

How to partition the hard drive?

How to partition a hard drive?

Hello there, LegalClown.
The following Knowledge Base article has the exact information you need:
Mac OS X 10.6: Partitioning a disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph6843
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro

I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks!

I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks! I am new and may not be the right place to post my message here. But I am really grateful and want to express my appreciation to PlotinusVeritas.

Mickey,
Here is your original topic:
Need Help with my External Hard Drive
PV seldom if ever visits this forum as it is for Macs made before 1998.

How to decrypt external hard drive on lion filevault

How to decrypt external hard drive on lion filevault

To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open the OS X Terminal utility and run the following command:
diskutil cs list
The output of this command will look like a hierarchical tree. Locate the long alphanumeric code next to the words "Logical Volume Group" (this code is called a "UUID"), and copy this code to the clipboard by highlighting it and then pressing Command-C.
2. Run the following command to destroy the logical volume group, replacing "UUID" with the alphanumeric string from the first command.
diskutil cs delete UUID
When done this will clear the volume and allow it to be formatted and otherwise customized. See the following screenshot for what this should look like (the two commands are underlined in blue:

How do i partition external hard drive using mac

how do i partition my external hard drive on mac? can i use it as time machine disk as well as external drive?

You can use an external disk for store files and for Time Machine, but you have to create a second volume.
To create volumes on the external disk, use Disk Utility. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html I recommend you to put as much space as you can for the Time Machine volume, because backups consume a lot and Time Machine starts deleting backups when the external disk is full

How to decrypt external hard drive so it can be re-partitioned

I can't repartition an external hard drive which has been encrypted as a time machine backup drive. So I am trying to remove the encryption. But I can't figure out how to decrypt the drive either. I know it is still encrypted since it requires the password when I mount the drive. I have successfuly erased all data at the partition level. But there is no ERASE tab at root level. When I try to re-partition it shows a greyed out "current" and the only thing I can do is to create a 2nd partition the identical size as the first.
I have tried ejecting and remounting. I have tried 2 different macs. Repair disk shows "it appears to be ok". Any suggestions?

To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open the OS X Terminal utility and run the following command:
diskutil cs list
The output of this command will look like a hierarchical tree. Locate the long alphanumeric code next to the words "Logical Volume Group" (this code is called a "UUID"), and copy this code to the clipboard by highlighting it and then pressing Command-C.
2. Run the following command to destroy the logical volume group, replacing "UUID" with the alphanumeric string from the first command.
diskutil cs delete UUID
When done this will clear the volume and allow it to be formatted and otherwise customized. See the following screenshot for what this should look like (the two commands are underlined in blue:

How does an external hard drive compliment Time Capsule?

Hi, I am relatively new to iMac and time capsule. I am a novice computer and Mac user so things have to be simple. I have been reading a number of threads in the forums gleaning as much information as I can. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
My iMac is running OS 10.6.4 with a 313 GB HD and my time capsule is 500 GB. I purchased my first iMac 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided that I needed to be backing up files that I have been creating and building especially my photos and music files so I purchased a time capsule which I have been using as an external hard drive not as a wireless router. It is hard wired to my Mac. I use another wireless network. I have used Time Machine a few times and it has worked well for me. So far this simple set up has met my needs.
Just recently I got two error messages, one that "Your startup disk is full." and "The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.
While I was exploring my memory capacities and possible ways of freeing up space on my computer my Time Capsule croaked. Apparently all hardware has an expiry date. It has since been replaced under an extended warranty and the new one reinstalled. I have done a complete back of my hard drive and deleted some useless stuff on my computer's hard drive to create 17 free GB. I am pondering what further steps I should take to safeguard my data. I hopefully will be building a much more extensive photo library both in iPhoto and Aperture. I wonder whether I should be looking at an additional external hard drive which seems to be the easiest thing to do. My Time Capsule (500 GB) is not quite twice the size of my computer's hard drive. Maybe it is too soon to invest in an external hard drive seeing that it may have a shot life span such as my first Time Capsule did.
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives? The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums. How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule? What is the difference is between USB and firewire? Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.

curious r wrote:
Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives?
Yes, Time Machine works with external HDs. That's how most folks back up. Connecting directly via USB or FireWire is much faster then Ethernet, but you're right -- all disk drives fail, sooner or later.
The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums.
It can be used for Time Machine backups and other things, but trying to use the same one for both presents problems, because of the way Time Machine works (filling-up all the available space before deleting the oldest backups) and the fact that you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD to separate your backups from the other data. Plus, you can't back up the other data.
How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule?
It won't extend the TC's internal HD -- backups can't "span" the two. In your setup, you'd be much better off connecting an external HD directly to your iMac. The advantage of a TC is, since it includes a wireless router, you can use it to make a wireless network and do backups wirelessly. That's what a lot of laptop owners do.
What is the difference is between USB and firewire?
FireWire is faster and more reliable for large amounts of data transfer. It also requires less use of your Mac's CPU, since the FireWire chipset does some of the work that your CPU has to do with USB.
Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
Yes. Files you put there (other than Time Machine backups) are just like files on any other disk.
I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.
Yes, that's a concern. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but our general "rule of thumb" is that it needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing-up.
There's another consideration: Time Machine can back up FROM your internal HD and external HDs that are directly connected via USB or FireWire (if they're formatted for a Mac), but it cannot back up from any network drive, including a TC's internal HD or a USB drive connected to it. So if you move some data from your internal HD to an external HD connected to the TC, you'll need some other way to back it up.
Forgive me, but I'm not sure why you have a Time Capsule in your setup, if I understand it correctly. You have one iMac, no laptops or other computers, and you use a different router for your network, right?
Your best bet may be to get one external HD for the "overflow" of things you don't have room for on your iMac's internal HD, and another, much larger one, for Time Machine backups of both.
I'll press my luck here and also suggest yet another external HD, perhaps a portable, for "secondary" backups. With a portable, you can take it to a secure off-site location, such as your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] for more.

Partition external hard drive and install OS9

I have a Lacie external hard drive, 350 GB, and would like to partition it and install OS9 in one of the partitions so that I can run some of the applications I have that won't run in OSX. What do I need to do. How much space should I partition the volumes into, and how many. Do the applications need to be in the same volume as OS9. I also want a volume for backup using "Time Machine" of OSx (leopard) which is in my internal drive in my iMac G5 with 80 GB., and another for backup of files that are in my internal hard drive.

Hi, falcontech -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions -
Bad news, perhaps.
Your G5 is not OS 9 bootable; no G5 is.
In addition, Leopard (OSX 10.5) does not support Classic (OS 9 used as a program while the machine is booted to OSX).
In order to make use of OS 9 as Classic, you would need to also install a bootable version of OSX 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.3 (Panther), boot the machine to that and then use Classic. Depending on which model it is, your iMac G5 model originally came with a version of either OSX 10.3 or OSX 10.4; its original disk set also can install Classic.
As far as partition sizes go, I would allow at least 20GB for the OSX/Classic partition. Although Classic (OS 9) is not fussy about whether its programs are on the same volume as OS 9 is, it would make little sense to have them elsewhere. Among other things, having the OS 9 programs on the same volume as OS 9 would make responses a bit faster since seeking would be restricted to just one volume.
As far as the remainder goes, your needs would best determine the partition sizes.

MacBook Pro crashed while deleting old backups off partitioned external hard drive. Now only recognizes windows formatted half of drive. Can the Apple side be saved?

MacBook Pro 15-inch, Mid 2010
Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB
Software OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)
I have an external hard drive:
2 TB Seagate Backup+Desk Media
Partitioned:
1TB - Windows NTFS
1TB - Mac (sorry I can't remember the formatting, whatever Mavricks asked me to use...)
What happened:
I was erasing 3 old backups from the Apple partition and my laptop crashed part way through emptying the trash. (it has done this many times before, where parts of the screen are frozen in square blocks displaced all over the screen. Screenshot not possible unless I use a separate camera).
When I force restarted my computer (holding down the power button) neither side of the drive was accessible. After running the Disk Utility and Verifying and Repairing the Disk Permissions and the Disk Itself (for the Windows side) I was able to access the Windows partition. However, upon attempting to do so with the Mac partition it tells me that it cannot be repaired. I have found many forums discussing SIMILAR situations but none with the same and here is why:
Up until this happening I could access ONLY the Windows partition when the drive was connected to either my Apple laptop in Bootcamp Windows 7 or my HP laptop in Vista, while my MacBook could access both sides of the drive. HOWEVER, after this crash, BOTH my Windows 7 and Vista can access both sides of the drive (so My files are still all there and accessible) but my MacBook Pro swears that the Apple partition is doomed.
Since the Apple side of my laptop is my primary workhorse I really want to figure out how to fix my drive.
So Questions:
1. Anything else I can provide to the experts out there to help me get this fixed?
2. Can I custom fix this via accessing the drive on either of the Windows systems?
3. Why would it suddenly show up in Windows when it became unaccessible to Mac?
Thanks All!

UPDATE:
It has been maybe a month since this happened.
After I made this post and was checking emails, walking away from computer, and then came back my Mac partition of the External Drive has shown up on the Desktop...
So, in the ever immortal way of asking the tech to come check the issue and the issue resolving itself, perhaps I should posted on the forum sooner...
NOTE: The disk still shows up as unusable in the Disk Utility and it appears that the files are read only (cannot make a new folder on this side of the external drive)
I still consider this a volatile issue because I do not want to lose the files on this half of the partition and I have not gotten a replacement drive yet (too much data to move to my computer and then format the current drive)

How to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ?

Hello,
i have an external hard drive which i store all my drum samples and sound library on and files are contantly changing, adding new sounds, deleting old ones etc ..
So my method of back up as of now is to just copy all the edited files and click and drag to the back up disk.
Now, my question is, how do i back up my external hard drive to another external hard drive using time machine ? I read somewhere that you can do this, i cant find the post however. It would be nice to automate the back up process rather than manually finding the files to copy over.
Thanks in advance !

The question you pose is conditional, in that you should have more than an exact
capacity replacement for a clone, if the drive you are going from (or one going to)
has insufficient free space and that has a bootable clone on the drive; any space
tied up in a partition for Time Machine backup, takes away from the running space
if you should need to run the computer from a clone on the external HDD's other
partition.... Better to have a good capacity of additional reserve unused free space.
Be sure any clone copy that you hope to use as a re-close, that each in turn is tested
after a clone operation. Also consider using each running system's Disk utility and
have First Aid 'repair disk permissions'. Preparation of a new drive or even an old
drive that may have questionable artifacts or errors on it, should be reformatted. To
even go as far as Secure Erase (overwrite) at least one-pass before reformatting it
again, could help.
However, I'm not sure if the drives and situation you are looking at would necessarily
be a good match. It could work, but you'd need a reasonable size partition or hard
disk drive for a system. Snow Leopard and all its associated applications, can do
OK in a 100GB HDD. (My computers have more storage capacity than is used; so
for mine to have 60% free space, is good.) Virtual Memory is drive space used by
OS X, that can be a substantial amount for swap and temp files. Some applications
make duplicates of works-in-progress, for each change in an open file; that adds up.
{This question (& my reply) should've been in their own thread & not at the end
of one that is nearly three months old, + marked 'solved' by the original poster.}
So I guess I don't have a direct answer to your question; having just returned from
a few hundred miles and automobile issues, too. I'm not really thinking on-topic...
The clone should be on its own separate drive, and up to 3TB drive dedicated to
Time Machine may be overkill, however that software will consume old backups first
when it uses up all the space. Or usually that is what happens in TM backups. If
that isn't happening, there may an issue in how Time Machine is set up.
Good luck & happy computing!

Setting Up Time Machine with a Partitioned External Hard Drive

I recently bought a new external hard drive (MyPassport) and I was advised to partition it in order to keep my movies/music files separate from the rest of my files. So I partitioned it, but now I can't figure out how to set up the Time Machine with 2 separate hard drives. Is there a way to set it up so that I can use Time Machine for both, one for movies/music and one for everything else?

I recently bought a new external hard drive (MyPassport) and I was advised to partition it in order to keep my movies/music files separate from the rest of my files. So I partitioned it, but now I can't figure out how to set up the Time Machine with 2 separate hard drives. Is there a way to set it up so that I can use Time Machine for both, one for movies/music and one for everything else?

Partitioning External Hard Drive

Dear Forums
I want to partition my external hard drive into 3 sections:
1: Mac Only for video editing/backup etc (HFS+?)
2: PC for video editing (NTFS?)
3: Both MAC & PC to transfer music and photos (FAT32?)
I have recently made the switch to Mac and purchased a 1Tb external hard drive. It is currently formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
How do I go about partitioning the drive?
Any help gratefully received.

Hi, welcome to the forums and Macs.
If you're having difficulty with Disk Utility's instructions, try these:
Most disks come with various things on them that you don't need. So even if the drive says "Mac Ready" or the like, you should erase and format it with the Disk Utility app (in your Applications/Utilities folder):
A. When Disk Utility starts, select the new drive in the sidebar (the line with the size and make/ID).
B. Select the Erase tab, then confirm. This will erase the entire disk. (If you want, you can select +Security Options,+ then +Zero-Out Data+ to physically erase the entire disk by writing over everything. This will take quite a while, and shouldn't be necessary.)
C. Select the Partition tab, then set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.)
D. Click Options, then choose either GUID (for Intel Macs), or +Apple Partition Map+ (for PPC Macs)
E. For each partition, click on it (it will then be outlined in blue), then supply a name (this is the name that will appear on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar) and size (either by typing in the box or dragging the dividers), and be sure the format type is +Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)+ Don't use any of the other options unless you're sure you need to.
F. When you've got everything the way you want it, click Apply and wait until the process has completed.
I am wondering just what you mean by "video editing/backup." If you're planning to use Time Machine for backups, it should have it's own, exclusive partition, ideally 2 - 3 times the size of what it's backing-up.

Partitioning external hard drive problem?

I bought a new Seagate 120GB ATA/100 internal hard drive which I put into an Apricorn Firewire enclosure to create an External Hard Drive. The Mac initialized the drive and I used Disk Utility to partition the disk into 2 partitions, one for 70GB and the second for 50GB. When I clicked on "Partition", the Mac changed the size from 70GB to 55.9GB, essetially dividing the partitions equally, which is not what I wanted.
How do I correct this to get a 70GB and a 50GB external hard drive?
Thanks
Herschel

Rod,
Finally solved the mystery. Obviously, it would not be in the Help section, even though I had followed the directions exactly. Once I typed in the Size: 70GB, I then had to click on the left hand grey, partition box. At that moment, the box enlarged and the 70GB did not change in the Size window. How is one supposed to know to do all of that????
Anyway, it worked.
By the way, the Apricon Enclosures came and the setup was extremely easy. Took about 5 minutes and it was a Firewire External Drive. I got very good support, getting answers by email and phone in hours, not days. They are even sending me a cable that was missing. No Problem.
Now, I will work through the SuperDuper program. In corresponding with them, they suggested strongly that I Clone, and not Image the drive.
Thanks
Herschel

How to partition external hard drive?

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