How to partition my HD in 2 ?

Hi,
Just recently bought a new macbook pro 13 this week end. Don't have the Mac Os X disks. Would like to know how to partition HD in 2.
Do I need to save all my data first ? I would assume yes.
Is there also a way that I can get the disks or do I get them ? I'd like to have them as sometimes I reinstall the whole OS.
Thanks
Gwen

There are no disks with new Macs. Haven't been any since the release of Lion.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.

Similar Messages

Installing Windows 7 via Bootcamp - your opinions on how large partition size ?

Hi there, I am installing Windows 7 Professional SP1 on my iMac with the following specs :
27in Core i7 3.5 GHz with 16GB RAM
256 GB flash storage (pure SSD)
I will be running the following programs :
(In descending order of program size)
Adobe Acrobat 11
Microsoft Office 2010 (entire suite)
Fedex Ship Manager
Google Chrome
iTunes
Microsoft .Net Framework
SnagIt
Java
VLC Player
AVG Antivirus
PPS
QuickTime 7
Mozilla Firefox
uTorrent
I don't run Autocad, Photoshop or any other graphics-intensive software.
I'm not sure ifI I will install games or not .... I might !!
In your opinion, How much partition size should I allocate for the Windows 7 Professional installation ?
Thanks.

Thanks BobTheFisherman.
Actually. Let's say i use 80gb for windows partition. What am I saving the rest of the 176GB for ? For maverick ? If let's say I only use windows what's stopping me to use the maximum possible (211GB according to the installer) for windows ? Just
Thanks

How many partitions and operating systems can you line up in BootCamp?

A quick question, hopefully with a quick answer.
How many partitions and operating systems can you line up in BootCamp?
Are we limited to just 2, or can we have more?
Say, for example, Mac, Win XP, Win Vista and Linux maybe?
Thanks in advance.

VPC does not run on Intel Macs. If you wish to use virtualization on an Intel Mac see this:
Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak 2 or Vista. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not yet fully developed for the Mac - some features are not yet implemented - but it does work otherwise.
6. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion.
Boot Camp is only available with Leopard. The Boot Camp Beta that was used with Tiger has expired and is no longer available for use. So contrary to the other poster's comment, Boot Camp isn't truly "free." You must purchase Leopard to get it.
You can upgrade XP to Vista without having to make any changes to the Boot Camp partition. Vista can either perform an upgrade install or erase the Windows volume before installing Vista. You don't need to do anything to change the partition via Boot Camp. However, if you need to enlarge the partition, then the only way that can be done is to first use Boot Camp to remove the partition. Then use Boot Camp to make a new, larger partition. All data from the Windows partition will be lost.

Satellite A200-10X: How to partitioning the HDD

Hi there guys!
I have a pro with my satellite A200-10X, it has only one HDD volume, and i want to make them two... and everytime i use the product recovery CD, it formats the HDD... but i do not know how to partition the HDD two get two volume spaces...
and whats worse is that when i keep on doing that over and over it eats the HDD free space... so how can i partition the HDD and recover the 200GB space the computer originally have?
i appreciate your help ..
thanx

Hello Sherif
If you use delivered recovery media you have follow options:
1. the whole HDD capacity can be used for partition C
2. the HDD capacity can be split and you can create two partitions
When you use both options Vista will create 1,4 GB partition but this partition will not be visible when you use OS.
If you want to have two partitions (C and D) start recovery procedure and after choosing the language use SETUP button on the right side. In the middle of the screen occurs small window and there you can set how much capacity should be reserved for partition C. when the recovery procedure is finished and Vista starts open Computer Management.
On the left side choose Disk Management. After doing this on the left side you will see partition marked as black. This is second partition but still not visible. Click there with right mouse button and choose option to create logical drive. Follow the setup procedure.
After few steps this partition will be set as logical drive and after formatting it will be visible in Vista Explorer.
If you have more questions please post again.
Bye

Linux multipath device how to partition?

Linux multipath device how to partition?
Which command can realize the partition?
fdisk, kpartx and parted Which command correctly?

Hello.
I usually use the command "parted". Here is an example of what I do. You have to run it as ROOT of course.
Example drive: /dev/mapper/mpath_drive
Steps:
run command with the full path for the drive
print what you have, just to make sure it's not being used
IF there is not a label created, you will receive a warning telling that. Then, ceate the label for the drive making sure you are NOT using the drive or you will loose everything!
print what you have
Change the units to what's more suitable for you (maybe Megabytes)
Print the partition table once again to see the space you have available
create the partitions one by one, making sure you don't overlap them
print once you finish the partitions definition
quit
Add (if you need/want to) the partitions into /etc/fstab
bash>parted /dev/mapper/mpath_drive
(parted)print
(parted)mklabel gpt #MAKE SURE THE DISK IS NOT BEING USED OR YOU WILL REMOVE ALL THE DATA
(parted)print
(parted)unit Mb
(parted)print
          Model: Linux device-mapper (multipath) (dm)
          Disk /dev/mapper/asm_data1: 2199023MB
          Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
          Partition Table: gpt
          Number Start   End     Size   File system Name     Flags
     7. (parted)mkpart primary ext2 INIT_MB END_MB #YOU WILL SET THOSE VALUES BASED ON THE AMOUNT OF SPACE YOU HAVE
     8. (parted)print #In this example, I have created four 500gb partitions with a 2tb drive for ASM.
          Model: Linux device-mapper (multipath) (dm)
          Disk /dev/mapper/mpath_drive: 2199023MB
          Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
          Partition Table: gpt
          Number Start      End        Size      File system Name     Flags
           1      1.00MB     549757MB   549756MB               primary
           2      549758MB   1099515MB 549757MB               primary
           3      1099516MB 1649272MB 549756MB               primary
           4      1649273MB 2199023MB 549750MB               primary
     9. (quit)
In the top of that, IF you want to be more clean, you can edit the file /etc/multipath.conf to add pretty names to the drives. I do that to maintain control over the disks in ASM so I know what is what basically.
Hope it helps.
Thanks,
Alex.

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

How to partition a 300GB hard drive?

I have two 300GB drives I plan to mirror.
Now how many partitions and of what sizes do I create given 300GB size?
Should I put everything except swap under / ?
Do I need a separate partition for /tmp, /var, /usr, /opt and so on?

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

How to partition 120 GB hard drive MacBook for OSX+Win (BC+Par.)? Fat/NFTS?

After many happy years with my PowerBook G4 12" (I will miss it definitely, as compact and cute as it is ;-() I'll now switch to a new MacBook 2.16 GHz with 2 GB RAM and a 120 GB hard drive.
I will have to use Windows (not yet sure if XP or Vista), as I need special software not available for the Mac, so my choice will be Parallels, so that I can work in Os X and at the same time use those Windows Apps I need.
However, I also want to be able to boot Windows-only with BootCamp, so I already learned I have to install Windows on its own partition.
So my question is:
How shall I partition the hard drive?
* If I have one big partition for OSX + documents and the rest (maybe 30 or 40 GB) for Windows, I won't be able to access my documents from Windows, right?
* So I would have to keep the data I want to access from within Windows on a PC formatted partition (if I don't want to pay for a software like MacDrive)?
Or can Windows running in Parallels read from a HFS partition?
* Does this mean: if I want to access (read and write) my documents in OSX and Windows, I have to keep them on a Fat32 partition?
-> This could be the partition where Windows is installed (but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with that solution) of I would need a 3rd partition (Fat32) for data which would cause quite a big "segmentation" of the hard drive.
How did you resolve this problem?
Unfortunately, I don't see that I could really "separate" data I only have to access from Windows and those I only want to access in OS X, so in my opinion for me they all have to be in one place.
Looking forward to your comments,
Martin
MacBook 2.16 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD (white) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

You should probably ask all your Boot Camp quesitons in the Boot Camp discussions:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165
And your Parallels questions in the Parallels forums:
http://forums.parallels.com

How to partition my second hard drive in my Macbook to use as data with both Mac Mountain Lion and bootcamp Windows 7

Hi guys
So this is my dilemma...
I have a 13" macbook pro, I have just installed a 128GB SSD and am using that as the main boot drive and the bootcamp. I have split that hard drive in half (64gb each), one half is for OS X and the other half for Windows 7, no data is being stored on the SSD.
I have also replaced the Super drive with the original 500GB Sata drive and am wanting to use that as my Data drive. I want to partition that drive as 400GB for OS X data and 100GB Windows 7 Data (windows is only going to be used for work which wont be using too much storage.
Lets call the SSD as the OS drive and the 500GB as the Data drive...
Now i have currently formatted the Data drive in Disk Utility as MSDOS (FAT) so that both OS X and Windows can read data from it. I am not really fussed with the Mac being able to read what is on the Windows partition or vice versa but i do want to be able to store files larger than 4GB.
In the Windows bootcamp i have formatted the data drive partition as NTFS and that seems to work but I now cannot store files in the Mac partiton that are larger than 4GB, how to i get both HFS and NTFS to work on one physical hard drive to remove the 4GB limitation?
I hope i have explained the situation clearly enough.
Thanks
Ash

FAT32, what Mac/OS X/Apple calls MSDOS FAT, can only store files smaller then 4GBs in size. That is the limit of FAT32. So all you need to do is format the partition you want to use for the Mac "Mac Extended (journaled)" (If you can on a MBR partition table drive, Not sure) or exFAT.
But be aware that Apple's implementation of exFAT is flawed and Windows may not be able to read a exFAT partition formatted by OS X.
Everytime I have tried to format a drive exFAT on a mac and nthen move it to a Windows computer, that is Win 7 that natively support exFAT, Windows could not read the drive.
Good Luck

How to partition to install Snow Leopard and Lion on one computer

My first posting:
My iMac came with Leopard. I upgraded to Lion, 3 months ago. I found out that Appleworks doesn't work anymore... very displeased because I always used Mac Strong points (for the past 30 years), which is drawing, like McDraw, McDraw 11, Clarisworks, Appleworks, etc. Apple could have have included a software in iworks to open the numerous works I have done over the years in drawing. Now iDVD doesn't come with Lion anymore. Another blow from Apple!! And iDVD 7.1.2 (after upgrade from Leopard's iDVD) doesn't work too well in Lion... quite a few things are wrong.
Consequently, I want to install Leopard in an external HD, where I could use Appleworks and iDVD.
I have a 1 tera WD Firewire as an external HD. I have tried a few ways to install Leopard on my external HD with no succes.
I have tried "partionning" the external HD, but when it came to "Scan disc image" of Leopard, I had the message: Unable to scan "Install" (Resource busy)
I have tried to install with original Leopard DVD, but after pushing restart (to chose my external HD), then my computer keeps asking me to push restart.
Can anymore can tell me how to properly install Leopard on my external HD?
MartinR says:
Connect your WD Firewire drive. Open Disk Utility and check to make sure that it is partitioned as GUID partition scheme (assuming you have an Intel iMac) and is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If not, you will need to repartition and reformat the drive - note that this will erase everything that is on the drive.
Notes:
-If you have an Intel Mac you cannot install OS X to a drive that is partitioned as Apple Partition Map; it must be GUID Partition Scheme.
-Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the same as the "HFS+" as previously mentioned.
-For the disk to be bootable it must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) not plain Mac OS Extended.
Next, insert your Leopard install DVD in your iMac. If the installer opens, just exit/close the installer window. Do not remove the Leopard install DVD from the drive.
Shut down your Mac. Then restart it by holding down the "C" key while it starts. This will make your iMac start from the Leopard install disk that is in the CD/DVD drive. You should then be able to select your external WD drive and install Leopard there.
My response to MartinR (I appreciate the dedication of the helpers)
I tried MartinR solution but it doesn't work. When I restart and keep "C" depressed, after a while, a kind of gray drape closes the screen and tells me I have to restart my computer par pressing "restart" for a few seconds. Then when the computer reboots, it tells me there was a problem and had to restart the computer with a report to Apple window.
I wonder if my computer is not defective? In 30 years, this is the only Apple computer that broke down on me (Always been faitful to Apple computers in spite of the fact they had little apps then), and twice on top of that. The first repair was done by Apple in Wellington Mall, Florida (hard drive had to be replaced); the second time was Northstar Computer in Sudbury, Ontario (optical drive had to replaced). Maybe that tells us something? Were replacement parts up to par? My computer seems to be working OK. I verified my HD with Disk Utility, and everything was OK.
My computer is an Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06 GHz and 4 GB of ram.
My WD external drive is formatted as GUID Partition Table, and Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

baltwo wrote:
Can't recall which I used to do the dynamic repartitioning.
I'm betting that it was originally Partitioned with Snow Leopard.
As a test I just added a second Partition with Mountain Lion to a FireWire HD and it would not let me Install Snow Leopard from my System or Retail Disc into the Partition.

How to partition my drive for Mac and XP use? from a novice

I would like to use my MacBook Pro for both Mac ad PC programs (Office and others) and hear that I can partition the drive. How is the best way to do that? Also I have an external Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external drive to set up that supposedly can back up both Mac and PC without formatting each time. Do I have to partition the drive first? Do I use Time Machine?

Is it your intent to run Windows programs on your computer? If so then this is more than simply a partitioning exercise.
In order to use an external drive on both Macs and PCs there are two options. Option One is to partition and format the drive MBP and FAT32, respectively. OS X can read/write a FAT32 formatted drive. However, due to filesystem differences some features of the OS X filesystem are not supported by FAT32, so FAT32 is not the best choice for transferring OS X documents, but would be fine for transferring Windows documents.
Option Two is to partition the drive using GUID then creating two partitions. One partition is formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled and the other partition is formatted FAT32. Each partition can be used for the data from the appropriate platform.
TM is not a file transfer program, cannot be used for Windows documents, and does not work on Windows.
If you wish to run Windows on your Mac then see the following:
Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak2, Vista, or Windows 7. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. Boot Camp is only available with Leopard or Snow Leopard. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows. You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.

How to partition external HD for backups and storage?

Hey All,
I'm just setting up a backup system for my computer for the first time and need some help. I have purchased Super Duper and a 1TB Fantom firewire external HD and am ready to start, but don't fully know how to begin. Here are some questions:
Question#1 - how do I partition the hard drive?
Question #2 - once I have partitioned it, can the partitions be changed down the road if I need to shift how I allocate the space?
Question #3 - if not, can you help me make guesses to how best to partition it? My internal HD has 74.41 gb capacity but is only using 31.94 gb right now. The fantom external HD uses up a lot of its space in formatting, so it actually has 931.24 GB available.
I was thinking of making two HD backup partitions so that I can alternate them for cloning -- say 70 GB each.
then I want a partition for my iphotos library - maybe 40 GB ( right now the library is 10 gb and I expect to be adding.
then a files partition for documents etc - probably 20 GB.
and a partition for video -- cause I am going to be starting a small documentary and will need to store video and editing. I'm new to this and really have no idea how much room it needs, but maybe 500 GB for starters.
is there some other sort of partition I should create?
any ideas are helpful.
Thanks so much,
Katarina

The reference that baltwo points to is an excellent guide for a new drive. You also have very detailed instructions on creating backups in your SuperDuper Users Guide.
Everyone has their own style of backing up, so do what's comfortable for you. I schedule my backups to run in the middle of the night. They only backup the files that have changed since the last backup, so it shouldn't take that long. My log tells me that SuperDuper took about 14 minutes to perform last night's backup. It's also good to rotate so you have a system that hasn't been touched for a while in case you want that folder you trashed a week ago.
Yes, it is convenient to be able to boot from the clone to repair your internal and vice versa. For instance booting from your clone and running Disk Utility "Repair Disk" is a lot faster than using the DVD. Same goes for any utility you want to run that your internal needs to be not mounted to run like TechTool, DiskWarrior, etc.
It's good to keep another backup and keeping it on the net is fine (as long as you're not compromising any personal data). I really wasn't thinking of your house burning down but more along the lines of a hard drive failing when I made the statement about separate drives Yes, it is good to have a copy of your data "off premesis".given the need for extra free space for the system clones, if my HD is 74 Gb capacity with 32 GB used right now, won't I have plenty of space if I set aside 70 or 74 GB for that partition?Yes, even if your internal grows it should suffice if you stick with the 85% rule.
-mj
[email protected]

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!

"How to partition for an external hard drive for windows and Mac backups"

I have two PCs, Dells, and 1 Macbook Pro. They are set up on a wireless network. I would like to set up an external hard drive to backup all three automatically. Does anyone know how I can do this? Do I have to partition the external hard drive?

You would need to partition the hard drive using the GUID partition scheme. Your non-Apple machines would need their partitions formatted MS-DOS (FAT) and the Mac partition would have to be formatted Mac OS Extended. Note, however, that using the MS-DOS format may cause some problems with filenames on an NTFS formatted Windows drive.
Now you could use Mac OS Extended formats on all three partitions, but then you would need third-party software on your Windows machines to enable them to read and write a Mac-formatted drive.

How to partition/format external drive?

Hi,
I bought a WD MyBook 320 GB external drive. It is by default formatted in fat32. However, fat32 has a ridiculous file size limitation! (<4GB)
I have 2 Macs, one windows and one linux boxes at home, one linux and one windows boxes at work. I want that all the machines has access to it. But maybe I can forget windows box. I need some advice, which one is better:
1. Format it as HFS+, forget windows, maybe I can use hfsutils for windows, and maybe I can access to it by this (is there anybody using hfsutils???)
2. Format 120 GB in HFS+, the rest fat32. I will use HFS partition just for full image of my mac's harddisks, and fat32 will be accessible to every computer.
Any suggestions?
Thanks...

You cannot format the drive with both Mac OS Extended and FAT32 partitions. If you need FAT32 you must format the entire drive FAT32. If you format the drive Mac OS Extended, then you will need software on the Window's PC that enables reading/writing Mac disks such as MacDrive.
To format the drive:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in the 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. 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 (this does not apply to external drives.) Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button and select the GUID partition scheme then click on OK. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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, if supported.) Click on the Options 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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
If you prefer to format the entire drive as FAT32, then in Step 3 select the MBR partition scheme instead of GUID.
If you plan to use the external drive to backup your main hard drive then do that by cloning the main drive:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

How to partition my HD in 2 ?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for