Partitioning Internal HD

When partitioning the internal HD for the system on the first partition and media storage/project on the second partition. Would it be better to have the second partition as a FAT32 ow would it better to have the OS X's default file system. Any thoughts... Thanks and appreciate it.

Use your MBP Disk Utility to format the external drive. You cannot boot from an external drive for your mbp if you have not formatted to GPT (aka GUID) and then formatted the volume as HFS+.
follow the directions for formatting in disk utility and its "help" section.
you asked: quote: Can I have an initial up copy of my system with all my programs installed, a copy of my system that's update before every updates, and a third portion for storing media and projects in one external HD. Would it be better to have the system copies on a separate external HD and the media and projects on another. I was going to use a G-Tech External HD.
Yes, your initial clone of your full system including your own applications and data and home folder should be a full copy, after that you continue to use whichever app you chose whether it be SuperDuper or CCC (I use CCC) and it will give you incremental backups when you backup. The drive you choose for the clone should be at least double the space of your internal.
That can be a partition (becomes a "volume" in mac talk) which you name, or it can be a separate drive. Remember to give each volume and each drive unique names.
You can use one external or many.... depending upon how much space you require and how many separate backups you want to maintain.
Your external drive should have come with some directions but you must format it with the Disk Utility that is included on your MBP.

Similar Messages

How to Install Windows OS on a two partitioned internal HDD?

Hi
I have a late 2011 macbook pro 8,2 (MD318HN/A). A month ago, I installed Windows 7 using Bootcamp. For that I made a partition of 50 GB on my internal 500 GB HDD. After sometime in need of space, i formatted that 50 GB partition using Disk Utility in Mac OS Ext. (J).
Till this everything was fine.
Now I want to install Windows 8 Release Preview :
And now to install Windows 8 Release Preview, when i go to Bootcamp, it shows me an error that windows can be installed on a single partition HDD.
Trying format the internal HDD in one partition:
So i tried format the HDD of my MBP. In Lion Disk Recovery Mode (Cmd+R) using the Disk utility I tried to format the HDD but it gives me an error "Couldn't unmount the disk". I tried many a time but failed then re-installed the Mac OS X Lion from internet. Now that 50GB partition is showing in finder but still the error from Bootcamp exists when tried to install WIN 8.
So tell me what to do?
I have nothing in MBP to backup etc. So tell me any solution. I have arount 4-5Mbps download speed too.
Thank you.

Download MiniTool Partition Wizard. The boot disk is free, and it contains all you need to delete all partitions on your drive. This same problem happened to me when I was tinkering with installing Windows 8 using EFI boot (incidentally, DON'T - Apple's EFI implementation is, to date, not compatible since it's partially proprietary).
The download link is: http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html
You'll need a USB mouse, since the trackpad mouse wont work with this partiticular image, but it's the easiest tool to use from a user experience point of view, which is why I'm recommending it.
After you delete all partitions using this tool (and press apply) you can go ahead and restore OSX by any means you wish (internet recovery, dvd install etc.)

How can I partition internal HDD after installing Windows 7 Professional via Boot Camp 4.0?

I recently purchased MacBook Pro 13" (Late 2011) model with OS X v10.7.2 Lion installed. I've upgraded to OS X v10.7.3 Lion and updated all other software.
I require Windows 7 for some Windows based softwares that do not support Mac OS X. Therefore, used Boot Camp 4.0 to install Windows 7 and then tried partitioning single internal HDD to have 3 partitions (4 total including BOOTCAMP partition). Disk Utility created a 648.5MB partition and then I was able to create 3 other partitions of custom sizes. After applying these changes, I got an error message that said selected volume size is too small. I resized this 648.5MB partion to a custom size and had total 4 partitions, including BOOTCAMP.
After reapplying these changes, BOOTCAMP partition was removed and I was left with only 3 partitions and empty space.
I've tried several different ways to partition the disk, all in vein. Is there a way I can partition my single internal HDD after installing Windows 7 Professional via Boot Camp 4.0?

You can't do what you want with GUI utilities, which will only allow a total of 4 partitions due to the limitation of MBR needed to support Windows. Those four partitions: EFI System (hidden), Mac OS, Recovery HD (hidden), Windows. So with Lion, you only get two visible partitions if you're going to use Windows with BootCamp. You can't make anymore with the included graphical tools.
If you need more partitions you'll need to use something like GPT fdisk (gdisk) to create the partitions in the GPT first. Then add the Windows partition only to the MBR and flag it as bootable. gdisk can be googled and downloaded for Mac OS X off sourceforge. It is not a GUI tool.
You should read this:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/
And this:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html

How to Backup & Partition Internal Hard Drive

I have a macbook pro 2.4ghz. I need to partition my hard drive to have a separate volume for photoshop scratch disk. How do I actually back up the drive prior to the reformatting? Do I create a bootable clone to restore the main volume.
Specific steps would be very helpful. Thanks

So, using Carbon Copy Cloner I first do a full copy of my internal drive (the one I will partition). This will copy any data files as well, correct? I then format the internal drive, creating the partition I need (making sure one is adequate to hold my back up/full copy). How do I then restore the full copy from the external drive to the internal partition? Does this include the OS or do I need to reinstall that and run for all of the updates, etc?
The basic thing to keep in mind is if you want to clone a complete, bootable copy of your drive, the +target partition+ (regardless of how big whole drive is) has to be at least as large as the items on the partition you are copying. With this mode of copying it is all or none but you need to use it to get the bootable option.
Cloning will copy your data files, OSX, OS9, updates, etc., everything. It makes a _complete, bootable duplicate_ of your internal drive when used in full copy mode. So you need to start off with the external firewire empty, or not care about anything on it because it will all get erased.
First, repair permissions on your internal and make sure it is in a healthy condition. Then use CCC as I instructed in an earlier post and clone your internal to the external. Run Disk Utility and verify the external drive just to make sure there weren't any problems while cloning. Then go into your System Preferences, Startup Drive, select OSX that should now appear on your external, and restart. This does double duty of making sure that your clone really is bootable, and you are now working off your external drive so you can work on your internal drive from the external drive (no need for startup disks). Things should look pretty much identical to how they looked when you were working off your internal except your external drive will probably be positioned in the upper right hand corner instead of your internal.
Oh, if you have like 90 GB of files this can take quite a while.
Once you have established the external drive is working you can start up Disk Utility and partition your internal drive. Unless you need me to I will have breakfast now instead of doing a blow-by-blow account of that. Just keep in mind that if a "get info" of your external drive says you have xx.xx GB of stuff then you need to make sure one of your internal partitions is at least that size. Oh, it is probably a good idea to make the first partition on your internal drive the one to which you will re-clone (if that is a word) your original drive contents; the one with the operating system.
Once you have partitioned, you run CarbonCopyCloner and again use full copy mode to copy the things on your external onto one of the internal partitions. Run verify on the internal partition just to make sure all looks good. Use Startup disk to choose the internal's copy of OSX as startup and reboot.
At this stage you have one bootable internal partition with everything that used to be on that drive, and an external drive that is bootable. I find the latter very handy because Disk Utility requires you be booted from a different drive that that which you are repairing and using startup disks is slow.
You also now have a backup of your internal drive. If you want to, in future you can use CCC in non-full mode to backup your main internal partition. It will just copy off modified files, but you can read the details in the CCC Readme.
Brian

Running two OS's on a partitioned internal HD.

Hi there. Just a quick query about running two OS's in parrallel on an internal, partitioned HD. Is it possible for ML and SL two run on one computer (not at the same time) The reason for this is because I use Serato Scratch DJ software quite a bit, but ML does not yet support the software, and by the look of it might not for a while. Im thinking of running SL on a small partioned part of the HD when Im out gigging but still be able to use ML for the rest of my workflow...Hope this doesn't sound to strange.Many thanks.
MBP 2.9GHz i7
8G Ram
750HD

Yes, as long as the computer didn't originally ship with Lion or Mountain Lion.
(69804)

Partition internal drive on new computer?

Hello I just got a mac pro,
I will be using it primarily for FCP. Now I have more internal drive space (250 gigs) than I have been used to working with. For big projects I will use external drives, but for smaller ones I plan to capture to the internal drive.
Is it correct that I should NOT partition my internal drive to isolate media from projects.
If its a matter of preference I'd just as soon not do it, but if it is wise to, I will
thanks!
Dillon

Dillon,
I will again suggest that you not use your internal drive for media, just because it's good advice. That being said...
There is no real benefit from partitioning your hard drive for media. It will not improve proformance (to my knowledge). The only thing it will do for you is give you a dedicated "folder"/area for your media. I prefer options, and just putting things in a folder seems smoother to me than working with a virtual disk and its arbitrary size.
Hope that helps!
~Luke

Partitioning Internal Hard Drive between Mac and Windows

So I receently ordered a new MacBook to replace my old PC and my old Mac. With 2 GB of Video Ram (With the Nvidia 750M), I was hoping to be able to run my Steam Games decently (I understand that a Mac isn't going to run on max graphics or anything, but I figure it will do alright) using Boot Camp.
My question is how would you guys recommend partitioning the 1 TB internal drive? I was hoping for a Mac and a PC System Partition with the majority of the storage space left as "shared" between them (I use Paragon NTFS for Mac, and MacDrive for PC, so I'm not sure what format would be most stable for the shared storage). What do you guys recommend?

Well, let me start by saying that with the default Boot Camp tools, you probably won't be able to setup more than the 2 OS partitions on the internal drive of your notebook. Not that it can't be done with other tools, but it is not a quick and easy setup to do, so if you are going to undertake it, please be prepared for issues, and do it from the beginning. There is a decent thread on this forum about "repairing after you change your partitions" which has plenty of information about the problems you will be facing and how to work around most of them.
Having said that, when I was using Boot Camp on my MBP with a 750GB drive, I gave 500GB to MacOS, and 250GB to Windows 7. I also used Paragon's NTFS for MacOS driver, and Paragon's HFS+ for Windows driver (after having use MacDrive for several years). This combination allowed both OSes full access to the entire 750GB drive, and I put my Thunderbird and FireFox profiles on the MacOS partition, but could access them from either OS that was booted. That solution worked great for me for years (until I upgraded my MBP and opted to eliminate Boot Camp and only run VMs for Windows).
With the proper drivers, either OS would be able to utilize your external drives, but keep in mind there are still some Mac utilities/apps which will only work with an HFS+ formatted partition, just like there are some Windows programs that do the same with NTFS. Personally I found that I would have to "share" my external drives with other Windows users more than Mac users, so I formatted most of mine NTFS, and just took the minor performance hit when accessing them under MacOS.

2013 MBP will not partition internal HD.

Hi.
I've recently experienced my 2013 MBP 13" getting slower and as the HD was getting full I decided to upgrade from 500GB to 1 TB.
The first disk i tried was the Seagate sshd slim hybrid disk. This disk was fine (and bootable) in an external USB enclosure, but once I cloned my MBP (using CCC) and mounted the disk internally it wouldn't boot. I tried formatting the disk using disk utility, both booted from the original HD i the usb enclosure and via the online recovery system. All to no avail. Disk utility kept giving error messages saying "can not make disk passive"(roughly translated from Danish).
At that point CCC tech support told me to get a new HD as he was certain it was faulty.
I did just that but now the new (WD blue 1 TB) drive can't be formated as well. I get the error: "wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed"
I am at a loss as to what to do. The MBP works fine, albeit slow booted from the original HD, but I can't seem to partition any new drive.
Hoping for an expert answer in here.
Regards. Anders

Do not use WD Blue drives or any "green" drives. WD Blacks are fine. Seagate and Hitachis are also fine, but avoid the hybrid because they sometimes don't work in some Macs. I don't know how you went about the process of prepping the drives or installing OS X, so here's what I would have suggested.
Install Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion Using Internet Recovery
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
Partition and Format the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Select the volume you just created and click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility's main window. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended, Journaled then click on the Security Options button. Set the slider to the first notch - one pass. Click on the OK button then click on the Erase button.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion. Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

Can't repair or partition internal hard disk with disk utility

Hi,
For the past couple months I've been trying to repair and (re)format my second internal hard disk. It stopped showing up on the desktop after I attempted to install leopard on it. Until then I'd had no problems with the disk for the two years I've had it Leopard installed fine on the other smaller internal disk. But the second disk only shows up in disk utilities - it doesn't have any volumes. I can't verity the disk because the button is greyed out as is the repair disk button.
S.M.A.R.T. Status shows "not supported".
Partition Map Scheme shows "unformatted".
Whenever I startup my computer I get a dialog box stating "The disk I have inserted is unreadable by this computer". I't referring to my 250gig internal disk. I read some posts here that suggested using OS 10.4 disk utility to format but that doesn't work either.
At this point I'm totally lost as are all the files I had on that disk - I initially erased it back when I attempted to install leopard on it. Does anybody have any ideas how to fix this?
Thanks for any and all help

Hi V.K.
Thanks for the advice. Luckily I don't have any data on it since I wiped it clean back when I attempted to install leopard on it a couple months ago. I'm really amazed that it only lasted two years compared to my 80gig which has been in use [daily] for at least five years. I hardly ever used the 250gig drive. I ordered another (500gig) drive from Western Digital which I expect to be here in a couple days. In the mean time I guess I'll get out my hammer.
Thanks for your help.

MBA 2010 Can't Erase/Partition internal SSD

I was unable to boot my 13" 2010 MBA. Hanging grey screen with gear turning -- forever.
Tried recovery partition tools starting with First Aid but to no avail.
I decided to erase and reinstall os x lion. I am unable to do this so far.
1. I tried erasing the volume Macintosh HD. Volume Erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed.
2. I tried to erase the 121.33 GB Apple SSD. Disk Erase failed with the error: Couldn't unmount disk.
The disk is mounted since the recovery partition is what I'm using. So...
I rebooted with a good OS X Lion installation from an external USB drive (no problems), retried and got this result: Disk Erase failed with the error: Unable to write to the last block of the device.
3. If I try to partition the 121.33 GB Apple SSD I get: Parrtition failed with the error: Unable to write to the last block of the device.
I thought I would use superduper or ccc to clone back the (repaired) image of the SSD but when I launch either program they do not see the 121.33 GB Apple SSD so this route leads to a dead end also.
4. I tried using the Disk Utility Restore function using a variety of Sources and get the following error: An error (22) occurred while copying. (Invalid argument)
I am out of ideas. I can't take the SSD out of the macbook air and put it into an external enclosure and try formatting. I can't use the internet installation method since it is a 2010, and not 2011 Macbook Air.
I did a lot of googling and tried a lot of the suggestions but so far I'm stopped dead in my tracks. I am able to boot the macbook air using an external drive and recovery partition is usable, either on external drive or internal SSD.
If I could boot gparted or linux from a USB or CD/DVD I could use gparted (if it works) to reformat the internal SSD. But I can't figure out a way to do this, and the 13" 2010 MBA seems to have exceptions to the complex set or instructions that some people have found works with the non-2010 MBAs.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm out of warranty and out of ideas.

From what I've read, the first step in downgrading is to use the disk utility and reformat from the recovery partition. Or let Snow Leopard do the same as part of the installation. This won't work. Unless Snow Leopard uses a different Disk Utility and that is where the error lies, in the Lion Disk Utility, I don't have much hope for this approach.
However, I would try it anyway's but I don't have any way of installing Snow Leopard. I don't think a DVD came with the 2010 MBA (if it did, I don't have it, nor a DVD drive although I've had limited success using a shared PC DVD drive ; i don't know if an install DVD would work using a shared PC DVDD drive).
If only I could boot to a gparted live partition from a USB stick or some such method (linux) I could try gparted but I don't know how to boot to gparted live on the MBA 2010. Again i have no problems booting from an exernal drive. I tried using fdisk, diskutil, etc. on the internal SSD but can't format it or delete partitions, one being the hidden recovery partition.
Very frustrating. I tried using ipartition but also to no avail. It kept giving me errors whenever Itried to reformat, repartition, unmount, etc..
I'm considering using the Genious Bar at Apple. Is this type of problem over their heads or might they be helpful? Perhaps it is a hardware problem with the SSD but I have no way of diagnosing that, AFAIK.

How to partition internal hard drive

I have a G5 Tower with 10.4.11 installed on an internal hard drive with a single partition. In order to partition the drive I have booted from the installation disk, opened Disk Utility, and was surprised to not see an option to partition the hard drive. I think that this has worked in the past but it's not working now.
How can I can partition my internal hard drive? I understand that I will need to reinstall the operating system after I do.
John Link

Well, in 10.4.11 Disk Utility you can only Partition if you erase everything!
But others that may work…
Drive Genius 2…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
iPartition...
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php
And, are you sure you want to partition it? How big is the drive and how much free space do you have?

Impossible to erase or partition internal HD - input/output error

When I tried to reinstall from the Install CD
the HD doesn't appear in the destinations volumes
The disk appear with Disk Utility, verification is ok
but impossible to erase or partition the disk
(input/output error).
I tried to recreate a partition from another macBook as Target
but Disk Utility doesn't allow me such operation.
Any idea?

Hi BDAqua, thank you for your answer
I try to explain better:
I have two MacBook. I connected them with a firewire cable and I restarted the one which gives me problems holding T pressed. I then opened Disk Utility on the MacBook that's working properly and I performed a verification on the target disk (the one that gives me problem).
Verification (which resulted ok) was he only thing I could perform on the target disk.
I did run I Hardware test holding D, and even in the Verbose mode. Both says everything is fine.
In this very moment I'm running another Hardware Test and keeping an eye on it as you suggested.
I'm suspecting a massive hardware problem too since:
- the partition of the disk appears grayed out in disk utility (like if is not mounted)
- the installation dvd doesn't find a location to install the system
Could be the Hard Disk or could be anything? what do you think?

How do I clean/ reformat partitioned internal hard drive Windows 7 Side on MacBook Pro 17"

Hello,
I would like to clean up / reformat the Windows 7 side of my partitioned hard drive, and then re-install.
Any direction - advise will be appreciated.

Have you tried booting directly to the Windows 7 DVD instead of running setup.exe from Boot Camp? Hold down "Option" as soon as you hear the chime on restart, and eventually you'll be presented with available boot options.
Otherwise, then, yes, Disk Utilities would be the way to go. Mount your Boot Camp partition in the sidebar to the left, and then choose to Erase the partition as FAT32. That should set you up to be able to write to that partition during the install process.
But I recommend booting from the DVD directly first, though.
HTH,
S.

Can I install Lion and Snow Leopard (pre 10.6.8) on the same (partitioned) internal disk?

If so, how do I handle documents to avoid duplicates - do I need an extra partition or disk? MBP 8,3 17" 2,2 GHz i7 8/500 Gb

Each OS needs its own partition or volume. For documents, put them on a third partition and let each OS access those. Do note that Mail isn't compatible with each OS, so you can't synch those.

Partitioning internal hard drive

Hello all:
I'm a newbie musician. Gonna run Logic on an iMAC 24"
Since there is only one onboard hard drive, should I partition it? What size partitions are best?
I've heard that the boot data should be separate from applications. Correct?
JET...
PC Windows 2000
PC Windows 2000

There is no particular reason to partition the drive. It is all personal preference. As far as the Application theory, any of the apple applications must be maintained on the boot drive, otherwise you will have issues with software updates.
Glor

Partitioning Internal HD

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