Partition external drive with files already on it - ?

I just received a 465g glyph harddrive with some video files on it from our editor that i need to convert. The idea was that I was going to use the same drive since it has 444g of free space on it, but now i realize that the entire drive is formatted to ntfs. Is there any way i can partition this without erasing/having to copy the files first?
Thanks!

By itself, MacOS X can read but cannot write to NTFS-format HD's. On the other hand, Windoze computers cannot read or write to Apple-format HD's. If you need to exchange files between the two using a HD, the only middle ground would be formatting in FAT32, which both can read and write. If you must keep the HD in NTFS format (company policy, etc.) you will need to install a third-party driver on MacOS X so it can write to that disk; for example, [Paragon makes a shareware option|http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac>.
You can erase the volume by selecting it (not the device) on Disk Utility, clicking on the Erase tab, choosing the appropiate format and applying.
You can repartition the drive (creating new volumes) by using a workaround because the Leopard Disk Utility has a bug when dealing with NTFS partitions. [Here's a writeup of what to do|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7783365#7783365].
In either case, the current contents of the HD will be lost.

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Partitioning External FantomDisk With Files Already On It

When I got my Mac Mini I got a 1TB external drive and configured Time Machine to work with it. I'm told that I can create a bootable clone to this drive with SuperDuper and then boot from it. SuperDuper suggests that I clone to a separate partition than the one used by Time Machine, which is what I would like to do.
The question is, can I carve out a new partition without trashing the file contents of the existing single partition? Any hints on how to proceed? I can copy the external drive contents to another system if I have to.

Depends on how large you Mini's hard drive is. Your TM backup volume should be at least twice the capacity of the Mini's hard drive. If the 1 TB drive just meets that, then you need to get another drive for the clone. Otherwise, figure out how much space you must reserve for TM, then the difference can be allocated for the clone.
You can partition on the fly using Disk Utility.
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. 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.
OS X 10.5- About resizing disk partitions.

Recover external drive with file salvage

Hi guys, By mistake I hit erase on disk utility on the wrong drive. I didnt use the drive at all after that so file salvage did recovered a lot of stuff. My problem is the media is grouped in the folders dv and quictime but Im not able to see the video, on the dv folder the quictimes have all square colors around the screen and the quictime folder is all white. and on both cases theres no audio. Im doing the process again and see if it works but does anyone has any experience recovering an external drive with it? is there another way to recover the media?
Please let me know, im desperate to recover this drive!
thanks a lot

My recommendation is use one Caldigit in RAID 0 for editing (we'll call it C 1) and use the other Caldigit (C 2) as a backup.
When you get new material, copy it to C 1, then to C 2. Take C 2 off line. You can not accidentally erase a drive if it is not connected and/or turned on.
Edit your projects.
At the end of the day, back up C 1 to C 2.
As C 1 and C 2 fill, you will need to move older and/or finished material off of them. Get a MacBurly or other 2 drive enclosure with swapable drive bays. You could also just get a simple bare drive housing like the Voyager Q. Purchase a pair of bare drives (always purchase your drives in pairs). We'll call this first pair: Archive01 and Archive01.back. Backup whatever you need to remove from the Caldigits to your Archive01 and Archive01.back drives. Test that the material transferred ok to the new drives then take them offline. If you are using the Voyager, put them on a shelf. Delete what you just copied from the Caldigits.
Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Keep in mind, a drive placed on a shelf and not used is probably more prone to failure than one used constantly. So, every few weeks, spin all the drives up and run disk utility on them to verify they are ok. This gives the heads a workout and keeps the drive from seizing up.
Aren't you glad you asked?
Good luck,
x

HT201250 If I have a Hard Drive with files already on it, will backing up my MacBook Pro delete the files already on the Hard Drive?

I have recently bought a Hard Drive to store files that can no longer fit on my MacBook Pro. I also want to use this Hard Drive as a back up for my entire computer. Will backing up my computer delete the files i already have on my Hard Drive??????

It shouldn't.
If you are planning to use Time Machine, then no, it will never overwrite files that aren't part of an old Time Machine backup; only old data put there by Time Machine will ever be touched by Time Machine.

Re Time Machine I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory. I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything. will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous bac

Re Time Machine
I have an external hard drive with files I backed up manually over the past 2 years 1TB of memory.
I am finally taking the leap to use Time machine to back everything.
will I have to reformat that drive, thus wiping my previous back ups?
can I split it the drive in two partitions?
Also
as I have two separate Macbook Pro's- one older than the other.
OSX 10.68
the other is
OSX 10.75
can I back them up separately?
or even synch and merge files and folders etc? between the two?

You CAN use a drive with files already on it to store Time Machine backups. But long term, that is not recommended. You do not need to reformat or re-partition the drive to do this. Once Time Machine Backups are established, you could remove the old files.
But do not delete Time Machines files with the Finder -- that can cause it to lose its place and lose everything.
With the cost of backup drives under US$100, it might be a better idea in the long run to get another drive. Best results from Time Machine is a drive about 3 times larger than the drive(s) you are backing up.

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partition?

Using an external drive with shared files (iPhoto, iTunes), attached to a Time Capsule, can the contents of the external drive be backed-up to the internal Time Capsule drive? Perhaps a RAID1 mirror to a partitioned Time Capsule? I understand that the Time Machine (software) cannot backup a networked drive (the external) and that Time Capsule (the router/wireless hard drive) does not have its own backup software... so it won't backup the connected drive. What I would like is an alternate solution for having an automated backup of a networked drive. A 2TB Time Capsule has more than enough space for Time Machine backups of my family of Macbooks, so I had hoped to mirror a 500GB external drive (with shared media files) to a portion of the Time Capsule internal hard drive. I assume this would require a partition of the Time Capsule drive. If not, would the sparse file from the various computers being backed up need to be copied to the external drive as part of the RAID1 setup? This seems like overkill for the Time Machine backup, but it would cover the media files.

The complexity with this idea is the software has to run from a Mac computer on your network.. so you need a Mac turned on, probably most of the day.
It isn't possible to partition the TC although you can create a image area.
The software would have to copy the material, that means all files to be copied, go from USB drive, back to the Mac, then back to the TC, and written to the drive. In other words you have just added Network congestion, although a proper incremental backup type software will not actually use a lot of capacity.
Finally it will be slow.. network drives are slower than internal drives. Well USB connected drive is much slower than the same drive connected directly to the computer.. and if the drive is connected directly to a computer it can be shared with the network.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/airport-extreme-5th-gen-and-time-capsule-4th- gen-review-faster-wifi-/4
Read carefully the speed of the USB drive plugged into the TC.

I have a seagate external hard drive with files copied from windows pc. If I will download NTFS driver from seagate to my mac, could I install it safely without harming my files in the external hard drive? I am afraid I may erase all files in there.

I have a seagate external hard drive with files transferred from my windows pc. If I will download NTFS Driver from seagate to my mac, could I install it safely without harming my files? I am afraid.. I might erase all my important files during the installation..

Thanks a lot! I have already downloaded Paragon Driver and it works well with seagate external hard drive. I am copying as of now my important files from my mac to it. However, I have only the trial version which will expire in 10 days. I don't have credit card to buy for it.

Trying to backup one of my iPhoto libraries I keep getting a error message that basically says that the file could not be backed up because there is another file on the external drive with the same name, etc. There is no other file.

While trying to copy one of my iPhoto libraries to an external hard drive I get the following error message "You can’t copy “iPhoto Library old” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames." There is no other file on the external drive with this name. I have asked this question before and was told that there are some duplicate photos (files) in my library and I needed to go to "show file contents" and look at certain files to find duplicates and delete the duplicates. I did all of this and the library will still not copy and always stops copying in the exact same place on each attempt. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You've been deleting your actual Photos.
Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things, deleting them or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Best way forward now is to recover the surviving Originals from this library and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

Is there any way to create a time machine backup to an external hard drive with content already on it? I have a hard drive that i have used for pictures but when i try to run a backup it says i need to start from a blank drive. Can i get around it?

It would be much better if you had separate drives for the pictures and Time Machine backups.....but, if you want to use the same drive for both purposes, temporarily move the folder with the pictures to another location for safe storage.
Run the Time Machine backup on the hard drive and verify that everything is working correctly. Time Machine will format the disk for you in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as part of the backup process.
Then move the folder with the pictures back to the hard drive with the Time Machine backups.
When you have tested to make sure that everything is working again, then and only then should you delete the folder with pictures from the temporary storage area.
Again....it would be much better to keep Time Machine backups on a drive just for that purpose, and other data on another drive for that purpose. This is clearly one of those times when the fact that you can do something does not mean to imply that you should do it.

Using AirPort Time Capsule as an external drive with access to files by guest account

Is it possible to use my AirPort Time Capsule as an external drive with access to files by a guest account?
I would like to store a large number of folders containg photographs on my AirPort Time Capsule and allow anyone with a password to access the photographs - at the time of viewing the Time Capsule would be connected to the internet but I wouldn't want users to actually access anything other than the files on the Time Capsule - is this possible? if so any help in configuring it would be really helpful.

No it is not possible.. Guest is just that.. a guest that is allowed permission to access the internet but none of the local files.
To give a person access to the TC they must have password to access your normal network..
From there it is up to you how you do this.. people cannot actually access files on your computers unless you give them share and password permissions for that.. you can even setup accounts on the TC although I recommend against it.. if you want shared photos anyway. All security on a TC is illusion.. merely pressing the reset and it is all blown away.. so if you are concerned about security don't put stuff on the TC people should not access.. or like your TM backups ensure they are encrypted.
A person can then access you TC and the photos.. but what else on the network??

Lion 10.7.4 on an external drive with 2 partitions

I have an external drive with 2 partitions one of which is used for Time Machine Backups. The other is 300 gigs and I want to install lion on it for study but the installer will not let me do that. It might be because of the larger partition that I use for Time machine but I don't see why as it is a separate volume on the same drive. I keep getting the not able to install the recovery HD message. I also made sure to erase and reformat the drive (journaled extended). Any ideas why I can't do this?

Hey Kap
Tried to shrink the volume by 2 gigs but I get a partition failed error: This operation requires a newer version of Mac OS X for this disk. I am running 10.6.8 on my cpu and the partition is empty as I erased it. also it is extended (journaled). I don't understand this message. wierd.

How do i launch iphoto on an external drive with my iphoto library already on it, how do i launch iphoto on an external drive with my iphoto library already on it

how do i launch iphoto on an external drive with my iphoto library already on it, how do i launch iphoto on an external drive with my iphoto library already on it

If you start iPhoto while holding down the option key you will get the library choice window.
From here you can select the library on the external drive and have iPhoto open it.

Have an external hard drive, with files on it, no longer showing on desktop

I've had an external hard drive for a few months now, and about 3 weeks ago, it stopped showing up on the desktop and when i search for it, nothing shows up. All of the cords are still connected.
Is there a way to fix this so i don't destroy the files that are on there?

Did you try to see if the drive would show up in "Disk Utility"?
First unplug any other firewire/usb devices (except your mouse and keyboard). Sometimes my external firewire drive gives me some issues when my iSight camera is connected. Normally no issues, but once in while they don't like each other and I have to unplug them and plug them back in (sometimes a reboot too).
Unplug and re-plug the external drive connection into your Mac and turn the external drive on. Then go to your Applications folder --> Utilities folder --> open Disk Utility. If the external drive shows up...highlight the drive and click on Repair Permissions. If the drive still does not mount, try swapping out the firewire or USB cable to the external drive with a known good working cable and try rebooting you Mac with your drive plugged in and powered on. Try repairing permissions with Disk Utility again. If you know the cable is good and the drive still will not mount, try connecting it to another Mac.
If your drive is now showing up in Disk Utility and in your Finder, you may have just changed a view setting for the showing or not showing of mounted media on the desktop.
Remember back your computer and backup your external drive if there is any data that is not duplicated or stored elsewhere. I hear of a lot people just storing data on their external and only have one physical copy of a file(s). Never. Always have at least 2 copies of your data on at least 2 different drives, DVD, CD, etc. You just never know when a drive will stop. A great drive cloning app is SuperDuper, google it.
Let us know if you are still having issues. If yes, please give more details...drive brand, firewire or usb, iMac model and OS version.

After partitioning external drive network Time Machine instance can't back up

This is a re-post with additional background information requested by several responders:
I recently added a G-Speed Q RAID array to my MAC PRO to use exclusively for back-up with Time Machine. I purchased this RAID array from the Apple store, so assume that means it's acceptable to use for this purpose. Maybe that's a bad assumption on my part. In any event, it worked great with Time Machine on my MAC PRO. The G-speed array is connected to my Mac Pro via Firewire 800 port for now. I am awaiting delivery of an eSATA expansion card for the Mac Pro which I intend to switch to when it arrives. In any event, it is not configured or capable of acting as an NAS device. It is a shared external drive on the MAC PRO.
My next step was to share the external device over my hardwire gigabit LAN with my wife's iMAC so she could back-up with Time Machine as well. It also worked great. Both Macs are connected via hardwire gigabit, supported by an Actiontec Q1000Z router. The LAN performs flawlessly for all other purposes, including over 30 network devices connected via either hardwire or 802.11n. Both machines are running Lion 10.7.4. (not server)
I then started reading posts that suggested the two Time Machine instances would compete for space on the back-up array and eventually it would fill up and I'd have problems. The solution, everyone says, is to partition the external drive and assign one to each Time Machine back-up. It makes perfect sense to me. I did this following the step-by-step instructions (#22) from Pondini's site. Both partitions are formatted with MAC OS Extended (journaled). Everything seemed to be working great until the remote client tried to run back-up. The remote Time Machine instance fails with the "Disk does not support AFP featues" error message.
Current status is as follows, local time machine back-up works fine on its partition. Remote machine finds and connects to its assigned partition once I provide correct user name and password, but fails while Time Machine is "searching for backup device" with the AFP error message. The remote (sending) machine is connecting as a dedicated user and not as "Guest".
I can write test files directly to the remote back up partition from either mac and I can read, modify and save files directly to this partition from either mac.
Please let me know if any additional information related to configuration is needed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In my "dispute" with Pondini in the other thread, I came across some information that will certainly explain things, but not in a good way.
Apparently you cannot use an external drive as a Time Machine repository. People who use Snow Leopard and Lion Server to provide Time Machine services have already discovered this.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3327294
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2472139
It may work better when your eSATA card comes in. My theory is that a Thunderbolt RAID would show up as an internal drive and would be useable as a Time Machine repository. There is a chance that an eSATA card would do that too. You'll find out. Apparently, one of the things you get with Lion Server is a warning pop-up if you try to use an external drive with Time Machine.
While I'm a big fan of Time Machine, I still consider it Apple Black Magic. You can use it, but don't get too clever. I don't like to take chances with backups. Simple is usually better. Time Machine isn't simple, but it is so convenient that I like to ignore the incredible complexity of it.
If the other machine were a notebook with local snapshots I might say you could manually plug it in to do backups. With two iMacs, I would recommend just getting another external drive.
Perilous to us all are the devices of an art deeper than we possess ourselves.
- Gandalf

Updated my OS to Yosemite ver 10.10.3 Need to access iPhoto library in Photos. I have over 400 Mega pictures on a partitioned external drive. Tried dragging but no change.

I updated my OS to 10.10.3. but now can't access my iPhoto library in Photo.
I have an iMac (20 inch, Mid 2007) with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDRs SDRAM and have over 400 mega bits of pictures on a partitioned external drive: 2 TB G-Technology by Hitachi connected by FireWire 800 to my iMac. My iPhoto application no longer reveals what version of iPhoto I have, but it was last updated on Dec 14, 2013 with a 1.7 GB file.
Tried dragging from its place on external hard drive.
When I go into the iPhoto it says it is not compatible with OS X Yosemite but the link offered to App Store says they do not have an update.
Help?

Apple dropped both iPhoto and Aperture with the Yosemite release, and I am not happy about that as I used Aperture, but try holding down the option key when you click on the Photos icon. That should bring up a box asking what library you want to connect to. In my case it had both Aperture and Photos. But there is also a choice called "other" that I would think would allow you to navigate to where your library is located and select it.

Partition external drive with files already on it - ?

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