Partitions on external hard drive. Need advice, PLEASE!

Can someone explain to me about partitions on EHD's. I have just installed Leopard, and at present I have 3 partitions on my LaCie 250Gb Firewire external drive. I need to create enough space to allow TimeMachine to do a backup (about 120Gb).
I know that I have to use Disk Utility to do this, but can someone tell me if there is a minimum number of partitions to have on a volume like this? What would be your recommendation?
Also, could someone tell me if it is possible to run Tiger on an external drive? Or would that have to be run from the Mac HD? I have some software and games etc that will only run on Tiger. A step by step guide would be much appreciated.

Hi! You can have many partitions on an external drive. One for Leopard, Tiger, Panther, OS9 (if capable) data, pictures, music....you get the picture. I'm not sure what you are using the partitions for now but remember usually reformatting into another partition scheme erases everything. As an example you can have a partition for Time Machine, another for the Tiger OS, and one for a Leopard bootable clone for use in an emergency. I'd recommend that if you plan on changing your current scheme that you do so with disk utility in Leopard. Create your partitions in the disk utility and then clone to the partitions. When you choose two or three partitions then you can grab and drag the bars to change each one's size. Again remember that if you already have a Tiger partition that reformatting will erase the data.
In Leopard open the disk utility and on the left side you'll see a disk drive such as 279.5 GB Maxtor and then listed under that and indented to the right will be the volumes or partitions with the names you have assigned to them. To partition click on the drive itself (not the volumes under it) and then on the right side of the pane will be listed first aid,erase, partition, raid, and restore. Then click on partition and the pane will show the current partition scheme such as only 1 volume (partition) or as many as you currently have. In Leopard you can resize the partitions but that gets a little complicated. If you click on current the tab pops up listing up to 16 partitions that can be created. When you select the number you want and then click apply the new scheme will be formatted erasing the current data on the entire drive. You can assign the names you want to the volumes such as Time Machine, Emergency Drive or whatever you want. Just remember you're erasing the drive so be sure that's what you want to do. Resizing partitions depends on how full they are, what size you want to change them to and takes some practice to master. I typically have soemthing like the following:
300 gig Main Drive with Leopard
300 gig drive with bootable clone of Leopard as a backup
400 gig drive with 2 partitions (1 for time machine and 1 for an emergency
Leopard clone with no added apps and only
utilities such as TechToolPro.
120 gig drive with three partitions
1. a previous system (Panther in my case)
2. a 9.2.2 System
3. a data partition for a quick data backup of something important
Your scheme can vary but give it some thought before you embark on something you're not going to want to change tomorrow. Tom

Similar Messages

Partitioning My External Hard Drive - need some help

Greetings,
Recently, i have bought an external hard drive, then enclosed it with a casing and connected it through firewire 800 on my iMac 20" 2.0Ghz late 2007 model. what i want is , on my external hard drive, i partitioned it into two, then one partition for my mac, and the other is for windows. wherein windows partition can also be read/write from my mac, and vice versa on my windows;
am looking for a suggestion on how to make the other partition, the windows partition to be read/write from my mac, and can also be read/write on my windows;
Really appreciate any help; thank you in advance.
Message was edited by: jeanepaul_

Greetings,
Thank you for your reply. i can't seem to do this Disk utility>externalHD>"Erase">MS-DOS(FAT). for MS-DOS(FAT) option seems to be not available on windows partition; is this something in relation that i have formatted my externalHD into mac os extended(journaled) then partitioned it to two?
thank you again..

HT201250 Do I need to partition my external hard drive if I'm using Time Machine and other storage?

I never used Time Machine before. I was storing select files on my external hard drive as well as using my libraries (IPhoto, ITune, IMovies) directly off of the external hard drive. That hard drive is giving me problems, so I bought a new one. I want to set up Time Machine on this one, but I also want to keep my active libraries on it. Do I need to partition the external hard drive?

You can partition the new drive, just don't make one of the partitons a TimeMachine drive, save a TM for a entire drive with more space than the boot drive as it saves "states" thus requires more room than most people expect.
I highly advise one drive to one drive for backups, and not placing too many backup eggs in one vulnerable hardware basket basically.
Drives are cheap, data is not. Hardware can fail just as often as software, so you need a multiple backup and storage stragedy to protect even against theft and fire.
Most commonly used backup methods

Hello, I need help to retrieve deleted information to partition an external hard drive. What should I do?

Hello, I need help to retrieve deleted information to partition an external hard drive. What should I do?

I'm not about the question, and giving you the right answer requires me to ask a few more questions.
Do you want to retrieve deleted information for future usage, or to completely delete a partition? The latter is straightforward: simply erase the partition. The former is more complicated: it's very difficult, even using available commercial software, to recover deleted information. If the data is important, you may want to contact a professional like DriveSavers. It won't be cheap.

HT201250 What does it mean to "partition" an external hard drive? Is it something that I want to do?

What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive? Is it something I want to do? How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one? I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon. I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive? I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!

Whoa! Slow donw. TRhere's a lot here. I would suggest you buy a good book on computers in general or macs in particular, one is "OSX the missing manual".
What does it mean to "partition" the external hard drive?
It means you take one large drive and make it into more than one volume. This means that it might show up as 2,3 or 4 inde[pendenmt drives. Each one could have, for example, a different operating system on it. Its a good thing to do if you want to use a drive for several purposes
Is it something I want to do?
beats me, you didnt way what you're trying to accomplish. Sorta like sking "should i turn left?" Depends on where you want to go.
How do I save files from another hard drive to the new one?
See advice n book above. Copy them in finder. Copy them in unix. Use a backup or sync utility. No different from Windows in that respect.
I have to reformat the old one as it was not set up correctly. The drive I have is Seagate but not specifically for MAC, so I have to format it.. never have done this before. Don't know the jargon.
Hook it up. Run disk utility. Partition 1 or more partions. GUID map. Format each partition Mac OS extended, Journaled. for more, read book, above. Seriously - we could give you more tips, but you really should learn enough to be comnfident.
I read that Time Machine will back up automatically but I want to take files from the old drive to the new one. Do I have to take them to the computer first and then to the new drive?
I have no idea what you are asking.
I need more memory on my computer. It's way too cluttered and congested. HELP!
What kind of memory and why? RTAM? Hard drive space? Explain. By the time you are done explaining, i suspect you will have ansered your own question.
Good luck,
Have you read the PDF manual for your cmputer?
Have you used a search engine to look for info, for example, in two seconds i got this from google and wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning
Grant

Partition of External Hard Drive

I am trying to partition an external hard drive into three partitions - one for the time machine backups, one for miscellaneous storage and one for storage of files that I can share with a PC. I was able to partition the drive successfully but all three partitions are in the Mac OS Extended (journaled) format. I understand that I need to change the format of the part I want to share with the PC into FAT but when I click on that drive, I don't have the option. I tried looking under the "erase" tab but the only options are: Mac OS Extended (journaled); Mac OS Extended; Mac OS Extended (case sensitive journaled) and Mac OS Extended (case sensitive). Now, if I look at the entire hard drive (not clicking on one of the partitions), the option is there. I could erase the entire thing using the MS DOS (FAT) option, but I don't want to do that. How can I format only one of the partitions in the MS DOS (FAT) format?

I think it's because of the drive's Partition Map Scheme. In Disk Utility, select the drive in the left side bar. Look at the bottom of the window, and find Partition Map Scheme. If it is Apple Partition Map, you will not be able to format it as MS-DOS (FAT).
The way to fix this is to go to the Partition tab. For Volume Scheme, select 3 Partitions (even if it already is 3 partitions). Click on the Options... button. In the window that opens, select either GUID Partition Table or Master Boot Record. GUID Partition Table would be best for use on the Mac, as long as the PC is OK with it (I'm not sure). Now, when you return to the Partition tab, you should be able to select MS-DOS (FAT) for one partition while keeping the others formatted for Mac.

I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2. I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries to an external hard drive. In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the externa

I have an IMAC and I'm running OSX 10.9.2. I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive. In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives. Is this possible? Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?

I'd like to store my Aperture /IMovie Libraries on an external hard drive.
That is fine and recommended.. use the fastest disk you can afford.. ie Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2.
In addition, I'd like to partition the external hard drive so that Time Machine can use it to both back up my IMac and the external library drives.
Let me be clear.. you want to partition the one disk.. use it for TM and move your files to the external disk.. and then backup to the same disk.. You can do it.. but that is not a backup.. that is an experiment in how long you can get away with running files and backups on the same disk before you lose everything.. like Russian Roulette.. pull the trigger enough times and laws of probability will do you in.
You must have backups on a different disk .. otherwise it is pointless.
Can I set up a RAID 5 format for redundancy?
No.. you can buy special USB and Thunderbolt external drives that support RAID..
BUT that is still not a backup.. let me show why.. you make a silly move and corrupt your file in aperture.. it is not that rare.
Raid will corrupt all copies of the files.. it is replicated across all disks.
Delete a photo it is deleted across all disks.. you have no recovery.
Alway, always consider RAID system one disk.. backup onto another disk.. and if the photos or movies are at all important to you.. ie your family .. make another copy and store in a relatives house.. There is no such thing as too much redundancy.

I made a bootable disc on an external hard drive, with Yosemite on it. I am running Snow Leopard on my iMac. How can I open the Yosemite disc from the desktop on my iMac? Does the external hard drive need to be connected to my iMac by firewire to

I made a bootable disc on an external hard drive, with Yosemite on it. I am running Snow Leopard on my iMac. How can I open the Yosemite disc from the desktop on my iMac? Does the external hard drive need to be connected to my iMac by firewire to do that?

kahjot wrote:
Snow Leopard's Startup Disk pref can’t see Yosemite volumes. So the only way to switch from Snow Leopard to Yosemite is to do what Niel mentioned. Doesn't matter whether it's connected by USB or Firewire, although performance via FW would be faster.
Are you saying that Yos/10.10, as a volume located in a mounted external drive won't appear as an option in Snow Leopard's Startup Disc, in Sys Prefs? I've never heard this one before. AFAIK any mounted volume, regardless of OS, should appear there. I would think that, if it appears in the Boot Picker/Startup Manager it would also appear and could be booted to from Snow's Startup Disk. I can't test this myself, since I don't have Yos. Is what you are saying documented somewhere?

Partitioning an external hard drive for Mac and PC

I want to partition an external hard drive (3TB) into 3 even partitions. I want to use one for PC storage, one for Mac storage and the last for Mac backup. Is this possible and how do I do it?

Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your 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. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. 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 Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
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.) Click on the Security 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 can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Re-partition the drive to create the three partitions. The one you wish to use on a PC you should format MSDOS (FAT).
When you connect the drive to your PC it should have no problem reading the partition set up for a PC. Now while on the PC you may wish to consider reformatting that partition using ExFAT (if supported on your PC.) This format is more compatible with both OS X and NTSF supporting long file names and other FAT filesystem irregularities.

How can I partition an external hard drive with data in it? When I select the drive, the partition option is grayed out.

I am having a problem partitioning an external hard drive with data in it.
When I select the partition, everything is grayed out. I can't add a a partition for some reason. When I asked this question to other people, they told me to select my partition "io" to do it from there.
As you can see, I can't seem to partition it form there either. I ran the Verify Disk utility but the volume came out okay.
Any ideas as to what the problem would be?
Thanks!
Luis

Select the main hard drive entry (topmost one.) Click on the Partition tab. Shrink the existing partition by grabbing the sizing gadget in the bottom right corner and pushing up until you free up enough space for your second partition. Be sure you do not shrink to less than the space currently occupied by your files. Click on the Add[+] button to create a new partition in the free space. Click on the Apply button and wait until the partitioning is completed.

How can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

Hello everyone, how can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

OK. Start with:
1. Open Disk Utility in your 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. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). 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.
4. Click on the Erase tab in DU's main window. Select one of the two partitions, preferably the first one, change the Format type: to MSDOS then click on the Erase button.

How do I partition my external hard drive without losing data?

How do I partition my external hard drive without losing the data already on it? I've been using it with Time Machine on my old computer, but want to use it as a regular drag-and-drop type back up on my new computer. Is there any way to basically split the hard drive so I can still access the Time Machine backups on my old computer, but also be able to use it with my new mac? Thanks!

If you reformat the drive all data is lost.
The only way to save the data is to copy it somewhere else during the reformat.
Drag & drop will not backup things correctly.
I suggest you set up partition for each Mac and then point Time Machine to each of the partition for each of the Macs.

Do I need to partition my external hard drive for a bootable backup

Hi - First, I apologize for asking a question that's already been discussed so much. I did try to read everything I could, but I remain confused. Here is my precise situation:
I have an iMac, and I purchased a year's worth of Carbonite's online backup and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I read some people have problems with Carbonite, and the best advice was to buy an external hard drive, which I did. It just arrived, I plugged it in, and Time Machine backed up my computer on it...so I breathed another sigh of relief.
Then I read that my wonderful new 2T external hard drive isn't good enough, that I should partition it so as to have one backup, and one "bootable backup." Is this really necessary? And what is the difference between a backup, and a bootable backup? If it is necessary, how do I do it? Is it a problem that I've already used it to create a backup on Time Machine?
I use my computer for things like email, Facebook, pictures, eBay, stuff like that. I have no unusual needs. My computer is an iMac OS X 10.6.8.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

I prefer a clone/bootable backup ovver Time Machine myself.
For TM you need a running OS, then time to restore, with a clone you can boot from that & keep working while doing the other when time is better. And you can test a clone before you need it.
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/
You would need to Partition your drive though.
How to format your disks...
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
(To Install OSX on an IntelMac the Drive it needs the GUID Partitioning scheme mentioned at the bottom.)
Thanks to Pondini, Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks...
http://Pondini.org/OSX/DU.html

How can I partition my external hard drive into NTFC and Mac OS Extended Journaled?

I brought a 1tb external hard drive from Western Digital. It currently have one partition which is Mac OS X (Journaled). I want to have two partition, one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and one NTFC for Windows. When I try to choose 2 partition and choose a partition type, I only get the following choices:
1. Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)
2. Mac OS X Extended (Case-Sensitive, Journaled)
3. MS-DOS (FAT)
4. ExFAT
5. Free Space
I don't want to use MS-DOS (FAT) because I am limited to only 32gb of space and I need plenty of space for Windows files.

Assuming that entire drive is GUID and you keep the existing journaled partition.
Make a second partition that is exFAT (more storage ability than FAT) using DU.
Then mount the drive on a Windows 7 and reformat that exFAT as NTFS. But remember that Mac can read and write exFAT natively, but cannot write NTFS without special software. Perhaps exFAT is what you want.
But more the the point: is the journaled partition used as a backup device? If it is, I would leave that drive alone as a backup drive and use a second device for "data only" sharing between types.

Disk utility can't repair disk (1 partition) on external hard drive

I've search here some to try to find the answer to my scenario, but I really don't understand how Disk Utility got involved in my external hard drive to begin with, so here's my question.
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Studio FW800 external that has 5 partitions, connected to my 2011 iMac. I had help doing the partitions and don't really remember the reasoning, but one is just for my SuperDuper! backup, one is Miscellaneous, one for movie clips off my camcorder, one for misc scanned photo's and one for my genealogy research.
I back up using Time Machine to a Time Capsule and also to this WD hard drive with SuperDuper!
Recently I'm getting a pop up message that "Mac OS X can't repair the disk "Genealogy"'. And it needs to be reformatted. It's become a read only disk. When I look in Disk Utility it shows all the partitions as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" EXCEPT for the one in question. I also noticed that there are a lot of files with "date created" being the same date in 1969! These files may be letters I've written or photo's I added to that partition within the last few years.
I think I have to completely reformat the entire external hard drive to repair this, but I want to make sure. Because it's going to be a major hassle backing it all up to another external (having to get one first) and then figuring out how to make the files that have turned "read only" in that one partition, back to their original state!
Does this sound right, that I have to reformat the entire external hard drive? And how do I get the read-only files back to their original state.
Thanks, Sandy

I don't back them up. There isn't much on them, besides the one I save video files too, but those are 2-3 min snippets of school events, that are just uploaded to youtube without any editing (like titles, fade ins, etc.) through iMovie. All those vid's are on original tapes I have.
The partition that is giving me problems, I do have most of that on my iMac's hard drive, just not as organized. I guess it's just seeming overwhelming to re-created those files into the same file structure on my iMac, but I think it could be done.
I'm still not sure why my brother had me do the partitions like this. In the past I had just two partitions, one for the back up and the other for random stuff that I didn't want to take up space on my iMac.

Partitioning my External Hard Drive Using Disk Utility in Mac?

I have a 1 TB external hard drive which I've been using for a year now. It already has 200 GB used space, having approximately 100 GB of movies. Since the format of the single partition it has is MS-DOS FAT32 (so that it can be used on my Mac, Windows and PS3), I can only store files not bigger than 4 GB. Some of the HD movies I have range from 6-8 GB and I can't transfer them to the hard drive and they're occupying so much space on my laptop. Now, I wanna know if I can split the hard drive into 2 or 3 partitions (please recommend whether to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled), ExFAT or both) without having to undergo the process of backing up my 200 GB worth of files onto another hard drive; it's too tedious. Is there a way for me to directly convert some space of my single partition into a different partition with a different format while the hard drive still contains my old files? Thanks!

You can add a partition to the drive. In Disk Utility select the drive and then select the Partition Tab. The current partition layout is shown.
Grab the resize handle in the lower righthand corner of the partition display and drag it the size you want. Click in the new empty gray area and click the + sign, the new partition will be displayed. Enter the information for the partition, name and format and apply.
As for the format you should use it depends on how you will use the partition. If you will only be using it with the Mac then OS Extended (Journaled) is the way to go.
While this procedure is safe for the data on the disk as always whenever doing any system work like this a good working backup is highly recommended. And if you get to a point where you are not sure of what you are doing you can select revert to restore the settings as they are now, at anytime before you hot apply.
good luck

Partitions on external hard drive. Need advice, PLEASE!

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