Partitioning an external drive: HFS and FAT32

so i've just partitioned my external USB drive into an 8GB HFS partition (to hold an copy of my leopard installation DVD) and a 300GB FAT32 partition, to pull gobs of files off of my PC at home.
is this an ideal setup? i was thinking of doing HFS/NTFS, but then my mac couldn't write to the NTFS unless i go through my windows xp virtual machine.
also, can i adjust any of the partitions at this point without losing data, or is it simply too late for that?
thanks.

so i've just partitioned my external USB drive into an 8GB HFS partition (to hold an copy of my leopard installation DVD) ..
May I ask, why?
also, can i adjust any of the partitions at this point without losing data, or is it simply too late for that?
As far as I know, the answer is 'it's too late'. There is a product that claims it can do that. But the very first advice when you run the programme is to make a full back up!

Similar Messages

Partition Map Schemes: HFS+ and FAT32 partitions with OSX and Windows

OK so I know this question has been practically beaten to death, but I keep finding conflicting information. I am using a 2011 MacBook Pro, on which I will set up Windows through Boot Camp. I recently purchased a 750 GB WD external hard drive to use with time machine for a backup on my Mac. However, I also need to be able to use part of this for Windows files. SO.. I intend to use the HFS+ partition for the the Mac (500GB) and create a FAT 32 partition (250GB) to use for backing up windows files (using it for solely computer modeling and need to be able to transfer/share files with Mac users who use Parallels as well as copying to PC desktops). My question is what to use as the partition map scheme. I have heard that when using these two partition types, a Master Boot Record is needed (so Windows can recognize the FAT32 partition) and also that a GUID partition map is required for use with time machine, meaning windows would no longer be able to read the FAT32 partition. Is there a way to reconcile this? Either using Time Machine with HFS+ partition that is set to MBR or uisng FAT32 on Windows with a GUID partition map? Also if I were to use Parallels (with a GUID setup) instead of Boot Camp, could that be the way to save the windows files to the FAT32 Partition and avoid problems with Time Machine not working with MBR? Thanks for any expertise, as I have heard that both setups that I have mentioned both will work and both will not work. Any experience with a similar situation?

Wow. Thanks for the extremely quick responses. Just for a few points of clarification.. I'm a complete newb at backing up strategies.
Steve, you would recommend to not backup files from my Mac OSX and files from Windows (also on my Mac) on the same drive, correct?
I appreciate the strategy of using it only as a backup, that makes quite a bit of sense. However, if I want to only backup my OSX files, and also store (solely as backup copies) say, a number of computer models (Rhino, Revit, etc.) that were created in Windows programs (not needing to store the entire Windows disk), would it not make sense to store these on the same drive in a different partition, creating the need for two different partition formats? And if I were to do this, maybe I should use NTFS instead of FAT32 (and reformat to GUID since that seems to be a standard for Apple and Windows 7 recognizes it..?) to keep them completely separate since the computer model files cannot be opened unless running the Windows programs.
How do you use your drive with HFS+ and NTFS if not for backups? I will not need to access the HFS+ backup files in Windows, nor need to access files from an NTFS partition in OSX, so that seems to simplify things in that, at least at the moment, I will not need any Paragon software.
Currently my drive is partitioned as HFS+ and FAT32 as MBR, with the HFS+ partition set up with Time Machine. It appears to be successful, I see my files in Mac HD -> "users" and all my docs, desktop items, etc. are listed. Seems that there is in fact no limit on TM's use of MBR maps, or else it is way above 160GB.
Third, are you using CarbonCopyClone in place of Time Machine or in addition to it? If in addition would it create the bit-wise clone on the same HFS+ partition as TM is backing up to? Or a separate drive? I'd like to only have one external that I am backing up to for simplicity's sake. I've never used TM before, so this is all new to me. Also, I suppose I have been missing the distinction between storing copies of files, and making a complete backup of a disk image... just now realizing the difference. Thanks so much.

Windows and OS-X partitions on external drive

Has anyone had any experience/problems with partitioning an external drive for OS-X and Windows?
How about 3 partitons: HFS+, FAT32, NTFS. Or is that pushing my luck too far?
I just received a new LaCie, primarily for backing up Vista Ult 64-bit, but if I can also use it for XP and OS-X that would be great.
Any information will be most appreciated.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Moonlight Mac wrote:
I've used an external USB2 drive to boot XP, but it is a very dicy process, and not really worth it in the end. You can slipstream USB boot support into the XP installer, but when you are done, you won't have virtual memory support (no pagefile). It also requires that the internal drive be removed during installation (if XP sees an internal drive, it will insist on attempting to use it for a pagefile.)
I've done the same with a 4GB flash memory card... but booting was hit or miss.
I've partitioned my internal into 2 HFS and 1 NTFS partition, and that works very well when combined with MacDrive on the PC side. I'd stick with using the external as just a backup device or for OSX (works best with firewire.)
I am not looking to boot XP although that would be nice, but simply to create a backup on the drive. I use Norton Ghost, which does allow a boot, or sorts, into the backup in order to restore a system.
But more, I was interested in an NTSF partition for Vista on this MBP. I have not used Vista's built-in backup program so I don't know how it works, but my thoughts were to partition the 500GB into multiple partitions and use them for XP, Leopard and Vista and a CCC clone of my two Leopard OSs.
Say, 3 HFS partitions for clones and storage, 1 FAT32 for XP and 1 NTFS for Vista, making 5 in all.
The 2 HFS partitions are probably easy. It was the other two, FAT32 and NTFS that I was concerned with.
I guess I will plug it in and use DU and see what happens. I have never used DU for NTFS or FAT32 on an external drive.
As long as the drive is empty, I have nothing to lose and lots of experience to gain, right?

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!

Time Machine and partition on external drive

Planning to buy a big external drive, but, is it possible to partition the external drive and make TM work on one ?

Absolutely, in fact it is recommended to give TM its own partition. Use the first partition of the drive (that's the one that ends up at the top of the list in Disk Utility).
Make sure the partition is double, if not three times, the size of what you will be backing up.
Note that you have the option (Sys Prefs-TM-Options) to exclude drives and folders from backups. This may save a lot of space and is useful for the applications folder (as you likely have that stuff on CD/DVD), for music (if you have it on CDs), the downloads folder etc; see [this page|http://www.ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine -backups] for more ideas on what to exclude so as not to backup unnecessary stuff. Also, if you work with scratch disks (in Photoshop or video applications, for instance), exclude them as well as that's just unnecessary.
/p

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music?

...or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
(Secondary question: would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder)

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music? or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
I see no good reason to create a separate partition unless you're backing up with Time Machine. TM prefers to have it's own volume, so in that case partitioning would probably be a good idea.
would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder.
No, probably not. As long as you're not getting the drive too full - opinions vary but about 20GB remaining should be plenty for most uses - you probably won't see any overall change in performance just from moving the iTunes content.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

If i partition an external drive do i need to erase it?

Hi,
I partitioned an external drive without erasing it first.
Do I need to erase it now that it has been partitioned?
I don't think so.

When you partition a drive all data will be lost whether you erase it or not

FAT32 Partitions on GUID Partition Table External Drive Not Seen in Vista

I have an interesting predicament. I have repartitioned my external hard drive to have 5 partitions: 2 HFS+ and 3 FAT32. The external drive has a GUID Partition Table. The drive was formatted and partitioned using Disk Utility.
When I boot into Windows Vista using Boot Camp, Vista will ONLY mount the first Windows compatible partition. For example, if I have two partitions disk2s2 and disk2s3 (both FAT32), Vista only mounts disk2s2.
The described partition setup worked well with Master Boot Record, minus the bug with Time Machine choking every so often.
Any ideas on how I can get Vista to recognize these partitions?

Hi Karl87,
according to the german computer magazine c't there is a limitation/flaw in the Master Boot Record (MBR:
Only the first four partitions are shown in the MBR and since one of these entrys is taken by the needed hidden EFI-partition and the next two entrys are taken by the OSX partition, there is only one of your three FAT partitions shown.
This limitation to four partition entries is quite old.
See here for further informations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterbootrecord
To my knowledge there is no solution for this.
Regards
Stefan

External Drive Backup and Partition Problems

I'd like to setup Time Machine to back up a smaller external drive (250 gigs) onto a larger external drive (1 TB). This is all I want to backup, nothing on the internal drive.
However, when I go to the exclude list, my smaller 250 gig hard drive is listed by default and I cannot remove it as it is "greyed out". Could this possible be because it's FAT32 formatted?
Additionally, I'd ideally like to format the 1 TB drive into 2 partitions - 1 to backup the 250 drive (so maybe like 400 gigs) and 1 to use for other things (600 gigs). I tried to do that with Disk Utility, but it keeps giving me an error and telling me to "try reducing the amount of change in the partition size".
If not that, is there any way to cap Time Machine's backup size otherwise? Sorry for the multipart question, let me know if you have any other ideas of how to make this work. Thanks!

Could this possible be because it's FAT32 formatted?
Yes. Time Machine can't back up a FAT32 drive.
(50585)

More then 2 partitions on an external drive with a Fat32 partition...

Hey guys. I'm having some troubles with partitioning an external USB drive in disk utility.
I want to have 4 partitions total, 3x MAC OS Extended (journaled) and 1x FAT 32.
I am able to create the partitions (using GPT) fine in disk utility and as far as the OSX is concerned, all the partitions are viewable and work fine however windows machines do not see the fat32 partition. Windows only sees one large GUID partition that it cannot read.
If I reformat the drive (using GPT) with 1 MAC OS Ext (journaled) partition and 1 FAT32 partition, both windows and the Mac find all the partitions and things work as they should.
I want 4 partitions so I can have a data drive for OSX, a bootable copy of the snow leopard install disc, a bootable copy of a fresh snow leopard installation and a windows data drive for exchanging files.
Is there anyway I can do this or do I need to stick to 2 partitions if I want the fat32 partition to be readable by windows?

savante wrote:
Hey guys. I'm having some troubles with partitioning an external USB drive in disk utility.
I want to have 4 partitions total, 3x MAC OS Extended (journaled) and 1x FAT 32 .... Windows only sees one large GUID partition that it cannot read. If I reformat the drive (using GPT) with 1 MAC OS Ext (journaled) partition and 1 FAT32 partition, both windows and the Mac find all the partitions and things >work as they should.
I would try NTFS. I know that that would prevent you from doing anything with the partition from your Mac, but that's sort of a small price to pay. To compensate partially, you could run MacDrive (mediafour.com) on the Windows machine(s). MacDrive allows Windows machines to read and write Mac formatted drives.
Is there anyway I can do this or do I need to stick to 2 partitions if I want the fat32 partition to be readable by windows?
Could there be a problem with the way Sno is formatting FAT. I never use FAT so I am not quite sure what is going on here. But, many have reported that the Sno Disk Utility no long refers to FAT32, just to FAT, and having FAT formatted, they have FAT problems--i.e., things don't work like they should under FAT32. Maybe you should try formatting with an Install DVD that clears specifies FAT32.

Snow leopard messed up my external drives HFS partition table.

I bought a 500gb Verbatim external store 'n' go hard drive already formated in HFS+ with FW and USB3 interface and had been using fine with over FW for a couple of months. Once when the cable was unplugged by mistake (The sockets are all jigly, don't know why) I couldn't mount the drive but then I used the USB cable and it worked fine.
I kept on using in on FW till one day I was low on battery while I was using the external drive and my mac just switched off! It doesn't, for a misterious reason give me the low on power message anymore. When switched the computer back on my mac couldn't read the drive. I was getting an actual error message saying that the drive was not readable. Tried the usb cable but I was getting the same message. I went to the genius bar and by using disk warrior we were able to get the folders and the files on the root of the drive but nothing inside those folders and there should be 4 levels of folders.
Now my guess is that something somehow messed up the partition table but I might be wrong. Does anyone know of any tool or any way I could restore my lost data?
Any help will be very appreciated!

It is still an NTFS partition and it cannot be read to reformat unless the disk is repartitioned . An entire NTFS disk could be repartitioned but I don't think one existing non readable partition can be converted to an HFS partition which is why OSX has the error.
Message was edited by: Kangaroos on the prowl

Can I use Time Machine to backup to partition on external drive and a Time Capsule?

Trying to plan in advance...
I was wondering if I can (with a laptop) use Time Machine for both:
1. Creating Time Machine backups on a partiion of an external drive. My plan was going to create 2 partitions: one to be used for Time Machine backups of another external hard drive (that holds all of my media) and then the other partition was going to be a bootable clone of my internal drive (totally separate from Time Machine)
and
2. Also use Time Machine for my Time Capsule, to create Time Machine backups of my internal drive.
Is this possible? I had heard that you can't use TM to make backups to a partition on an external drive, AND use it for another drive (like Time Capsule) at the same time. But I would think that this should be possible-
Thanks everyone-

Yes you can, and if you are using Mountain Lion it's easy.
If you are using Snow Leopard (as in your profile - this is the Mountain Lion forum), you have to manually select the backup volume each time. Tedious, but possible.
Read Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's FAQ on that subject: "Rotating" Time Machine backup disks

Can I partition an external drive into MSDO and MACOS extended and use under bootcamp ?

I am interested in using Windows 8 alongside my OSX MAVERICK with the Bootcamp 5 solution.
However, I am trying to save the space on my internal SSD . Can I partition my 4TB WD external drive into 3 parts like this :
1.5 TB dedicated for Time Machine in MAC OS Extended Format
1,5 TB MAC for general purpose in MAC OS Extended Format
1.0 TB Windows for my PC games and other stuff in exFAT for files larger than 4GB
Is this possible at all or what would be better ?
Thanks

To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open 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.

Can I partition an external drive and install 10.6.8 so I can run some older software?

I have older software that won't run on my 21.5 iMac. Can I partition a 3TB Lacie external drive, then install 10.6.8 on it so I can use the older software?

The computer that I purchased did come with Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac, but I thought that was only for running some Windows software. Not a clue how to use it.
I actually asked a similar question about installing the older system on the external drive when I talked to Apple yesterday. They guy said go ahead and try it! Huh?

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.

Partitioning an external drive: HFS and FAT32

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