Repartitioning TimeMachine External

I have a 500GB external hard drive that I would like to use for time machine and also as storage for files that I don't want to carry around with me on my macbook drive. I just told time machine to use the drive that I had already had stuff saved on. I thought this would be fine, but it seems time machine will keep using space until there isn't anymore.
I don't want to lose my other data. Is there anyway to tell time machine to only use like 50% of the drive.
If not, I know Disk Utility can partition drives, but will this erase the contents on the drive? In the help topics, apple said something about adding a new volume to a drive, but it won't allow me to do this to my external drive for some reason.
Thanks!!!

Does the same thing happen when you connect another external drive, or when you connect that drive to another Mac?

Similar Messages

  • Help with repartitioning an external hard drive

    I am sorry that this is probably such a simple question, but I am a novice and I am stumped in Northern Thailand.
    I have an external hard drive (500g) that I have partitioned way back into 3 - one for my IMac 1 for a Macbook Pro and the other for a MacBook.
    The hard drive is always connected via USB to the IMac and only connected with the laptops on oonce in a while.
    Anyway my problem is that I am getting a message on my IMac everytime TM tries to backup that there is not enough room - so i wanted to repartition the hard drive since I have allocated too much to the laptops. When I am in the TM preferences and I go to "Change Disk" and click on "Set up Time Capsule" it defaults to the AirPort Utility and looks for an "Apple Wireless Device", of course my external hard drive is not on of them - so I am stuck.
    If you do not want to waste the time of others on this discussion board you could email directly.
    Thanks in advance
    <Edited by Host>

    if the drive is connected directly to the imac you have to reformat it using disk utility, not airport utility.
    to format a drive you open disk utility. select the whole drive (model, not name) and click on the partition tab. set the number of partitions to 1 (or whatever), click on options and set the partition scheme to GUID. set the format to mac os extended journaled (that's the default) and click "apply". note that this operation will completely wipe the drive. is this acceptable? depending on how your partitions are set up you may be able to delete one partition and increase the TM partition without erasing the data on the TM partition.

  • Cannot make backups with timemachine, external harddisk and airport extreme

    Hi to everyone,
    yesterday i bought me a brandnew airport extreme station. i would like to use it for creating a wifi-network in my flat. besides i would like to connect my external 500GB lacie-harddisk with the airport extreme. in the past i this harddisk was connected with my imac over the usb-port. unfortunately timemachine does not recognize my harddisk. in the timemachine setups i can choose my harddisk but when the backup-process should start, timemachine stops immediately and tells me that the backup-volume wasn't found. whats wrong? does anybody know a solution?
    Greets from Germany
    Thomas

    pantomas wrote:
    why is my setup not supported? i read on this page
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
    in that very article, in the second sentence, it clearly says *Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme* ...
    so whats my mistake?
    a misunderstanding ? say you have 2 Macs on your network. one of them has an external hanging off it. the other Mac could back up to that drive via your network ...
    some users, however, successfully back up via an extreme and some don't get it to work. you might be one of 'em.
    JGG

  • How to restore iTunes library from TimeMachine external hard drive backup after clean install

    I was not able to solve this problem, hence I decided to open this discussion.
    1. Recently, I clean installed Yosemite so my new Mac is completely empty.
    2. I have my time machine backup on my eternal hard drive and would like to restore only specific things - such as iTunes library.
    3. I did not manually copy iTunes library to my drive, I did the TM backup only, but I also do have all the files in my own "music" folder I manually backed-up.
    However, I cannot locate the library there, where is it?
    How do I move the library to my new Mac and then establish a new source folder that would be on my drive?
    PS: Previously, iTunes used my own music folder as a source = it contained all the music files. I had it on an external drive, later moved it to my Mac.
    This leads me to the conclusion that my backup copy of iTunes library did not contain the files anyway.
    Any advice?
    Thank you in advance.

    I am confused as to what you had or have where and when.  The bottom line is, your library (for the standard user) is everything in the iTunes folder.  As far as iTunes' organization and display is concerned, your library is a file called "iTunes Library.itl" which points to all the other host of files and folders normally in the iTunes folder which all work together.
    What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
    More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
    What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
    Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
    iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
    Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.
    If you kept everything together in one place then you need to put the whole iTunes folder on the drive where you want it, start iTunes while holding down the option key and guide it to that .itl file.  If things were split up and you had media on the external and the rest of the library on the internal you need to get them back to exactly where they were before.  If you can't find that iTunes folder holding the critical .itl file anywhere then you have a bunch of media tracks and no organization and will need to rebuild the organization from ground level.

  • Upgrading from 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard 10.6.3 - I've backed up my mac with timemachine / external hard drive.  Am I all set to go?  Bit nervous!

    Hello kind support people - I'm not hugely technical so would appreciate any advice, I'm very worried about my i-photos and loosing them.  All my important documents are already on google drive so that's ok if anything has gone wrong.   Does all the information stay on my mac (such as photos and mail etc) when I upgrade?  Am I likely to experience any difficulties or should I be doing anything else?   Yesterday I used time machine for the first time, I have an external hard drive with back-ups taking place all the time (completed yesterday over a couple of hours).   Can I just eject the hardrive now and put my upgrade disc in? 
    Thanks in advance

    1. Yes, unless a problem occurs.
    2. No, you’re not.
    3. Yes.
    (111564)

  • TS1550 Time Machine fails to backup after I've repartitioned the external drive

    Just got this new iMac running OS X version 10.8.4 and can't get Time Machine to complete the back up... It is extremely slow... makes me think of the Windows environment I'm trying to escape from... and then after several hours (only achieving about 200MB back up) I get a message that the back up failed.
    I've repartitioned the 1T HP drive several times to the Mac OS as advised by the Apple on-line advisory, and have run rhe Disk utility repair function... but still can't get it to work.
    ? suggestions

    Hi, I never use TM, but...
    Have you looked through Pondini's extensive TM help site?
    http://Pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    Can't imagine something not being covered there.

  • Transfer data to new macbook pro via timemachine external harddrive?

    My old macbook pro from 2006, osx (mountain?) lion, has totally broken down now. The screen is black on start up and I think its time is up. I've made saves and backed it up regularly to an external harddrive. If I buy a new macbook pro with yosemite - will I be able to retrieve all the data from the old external harddrive? Could I use an Ipad to access any data?

    Yes, you should be able to do that if the backup is a Time Machine backup by using the Time Machine application on your new computer or migrating your data from the Setup Assistant that starts up on your new Mac when you first turn it on. I recommend either approach. You can, at a later time if you wish, use Migration Assistant to transfer your data from the Time Machine backup.

  • Repartitioning an external hard drive

    Hi Everyone,
    I have an external hard drive, which I had intended to set up with two partitions, one for my Mac and the other for a Sony Vaio with ME. But, I never use my Sony, I backed up everything on it on CD's, and I'd rather have that space available to back up my Mac. If I go into Disk Utilities and drag the bar down to the bottom, will it only format the part of the disk that's not formatted, or will it reformat the entire disk (thereby losing the data already on it)? The second partition of my HD is not formatted, because I never used it with my Sony.
    Thanks,
    Lizzy
    Blueberry I-Book   Mac OS X (10.2.x)  

    Hi Lizzy
    What you are proposing can't be done in Disk Utility. Whilst there are third party applications that can combine two partitions into one without losing data, they are not available for 10.2. So as far as I can tell your only recourse is to copy all the data from your first partition back to your internal drive, assuming there is room for it.
    Check that these files work, songs play, photos appear etc., then using Disk Utility reformat the external disk as one volume.
    If you are not wanting to use the Sony Vaio and wish to have the external disk used exclusively by your Mac, then choose the format type as HFS+ which means it won't be seen by the Sony, so be clear about your intended use of the reformatted disk.
    If you have any questions, please post back.
    regards roam

  • WD 750GB HDD won't erase or repartition, using external HDD enclosure, what am I doing wrong?

    I have the late 2008 aluminum macbook running Mountain Lion with the original 250gb hard drive, and the hard drive's been sitting at over 90% full for months. I've been needing to upgrade it for a while, so I bought a 2.5" WD Scorpio Black 7200 rpm 750GB HDD and a StarTech 2.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure (SAT251OU2).
    Once inserted into the enclosure and plugged with USB into the mac, a green light on the enclosure comes on and a message comes up reading "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." and gives me the options to Intialize..., Ignore, or Eject. To allow for the Disk Utility to see the disk, I press the Intialize...
    When I run disk utility and select the 750.16 GB WDC WD75 ... HD and run erase: format Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or Partition the Drive (has a disk2s2 partition by default) to 1 Partition with the option of GUID Partition Table (and Mac OS Extended (Journaled)) and hit apply, the disk utility will run for about 30 seconds, while reading Formatting (default partition name) disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name [name I specified].
    The light on the external enclosure changes from green to amber when the formatting starts, then about 20 seconds in a message stating "Partition failed, Partition failed with the error: File system formatter failed," and a hard drive click sound occurs, the enclosure's lights blink green and amber (or red) for a few seconds, then shortly afterwards a message reads, "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" with a prompt allowing me to again start the process over: Intialize..., Ignore or Eject.
    How can I format this disk and use it with my mac? I was hoping to clone my original hard drive.
    HDD: Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 750 GB SATA 3 GB/s 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Internal Bulk/OEM 2.5-Inch Mobile Hard Drive
    Enclosure: StarTech.com 2.5in Silver USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure for SATA HDD

    Any ideas on how to get the HDD to format, or whether it's a bad enclosure or hard drive?

  • Cannot repartition my external drive

    I have an external drive that was partitioned into 4 parts.  I needed to expand one of the parts from 40GB to 60 GB.  I opened Disk Utility and deleted the bottom partition (I didn't need anything in there any more.  But now, when I see the three parts, the bottom one (the one I want to expand) shows a grey area which I believe is open space (it's the space that was previously occupied by the 4th partition). 
    But, as you can see, it says that "this partition cannot be modified.
    Any ideas on why and how I can get it resized without deleting the entire thing?

    Partitioning a hard drive:
    http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html
    To resize (or delete) an existing partition without losing data, you will need to use, for example, iPartition:
    http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php

  • Repartitioning external hard drive

    Hi apple community, I have two partitions on my external HD, which I just created. One is empty and the other I have a clone of my internal HD. I like to resize the one with the clone on it cause it made it way to big. can anyone tell me the correct way to repartition my external HD.

    Yes I just found that out. I decided to punt, kill Disk Utility and try again. It repartitioned and formatted the drive in less than a minute. Unfortunately I had 89 minutes of frustration before deciding to retry.
    Thanks anyway.

  • Best way to make a bootable backup on an external HD

    What is the best way to make a bootable copy of the startup drive on my mac. I have an external HD which would work. I already run Timemachine but if I'm correct it isn't bootable.
    IMAC using MT. Lion
    thanks in advance

    If you create either a new partition on the external or Wipe, Repartition the external, and then create a New Full TM backup on either the wiped or new partition with Lion installed as the OS and you have a Recovery HD partition that Recovery HD partitionwill be copied over to the New TM backup and will be bootable.
    TM backups made with Lion installed over the top of older ones made with Snow Leopard does not create the Recovery HD file on the TM backup drive. Only new TM backups created when Lion is installed does this.
    Ot you can create anopther partition the external and use one of the Cloning software programs to Clone your internal to that other partitions

  • Timemachine stuck preparing in 10.5.2

    I had been doing backups using Timemachine just fine before the update to 10.5.2. I had tried to repartition my external drive to limit the amount of space time machine would take up. Trying it on 10.5.1 didn't work, gave an error "no space left on device", even though there's 90 gig free. I then updated to 10.5.2. I get the same error. I tried splitting the free space, this time I got a kernel panic. Argh!
    I had to use disk util to repair the external drive. It says everything is ok now.
    I've never run Timemachine with 10.5.2. Now when I try, it gets stuck and says "Preparing". Forever. backupd stops doing anything.
    In the console I get
    2/12/08 12:23:05 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[295] Waiting for index to be ready (915 > 0)
    I check with spotlight, "mdutil -as". It says indexing it turned off for my external drive, but on for the time machine backup directory. I can't turn it on for the drive overall. When I try to turn it on, it comes back and says its off.
    Any ideas whats wrong or how to get around it? I don't know if Timemachine just isn't working in 10.5.2 anymore or if the partition is somehow messed up.
    Ideas?
    Message was edited by: dm33

    i used the /.metadataneverindex trick to disable spotlight on my time machine drive.
    removed that file, reindexed the drive, time machine picked up and backupd started backing up.
    can someone file a bug? i don’t have a rdar account.
    (i added the time machine drive to my spotlight privacy preferences so it wouldn’t be indexed. probably not necessary for the fix to work.)

  • Question about the format of an external drive.....

    Ok quick question...
    my external is formatted mac OS extended journaled. I need to create a new partition in FAT so that it can be read when I use bootcamp. However when I use disk utility to create a partition it says it would have to format the whole harddrive and I'd lose what is currently on there..
    Is there anyway that I can do this without losing what I currently have on there?
    I only need to have about 50 gigs read/writeable in windows running on bootcamp.

    You might want to try out MacDrive, which will allow Mac OS formatted drives to be read from and written to in Windows. That could save you having to repartition your external drive completely. There's a five-day free trial available so you could try it out first.
    Intel Mini 1.66 GHz, Mac Pro 2.66 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  
    Vista and XP running under Parallels

  • Disk Utility unable to format or partition external HD

    Last weekend I bought Leopard and prepared everything in my iMac (PowerPC G5, 2.0 GHz) to install it. One of the things I tried was to repartition an external USB hard drive (Iomega 120 GB P/N: DHD120-C) for use with Time Machine. This drive was already formatted with HFS+ but I noticed that was using MBR, and I understand that for use with Time Machine you have to connect a disk using Apple Partition Scheme. Well, I used Disk Utility (still on Mac OS X 10.4.10), selected Partition, Options, Apple Partition Scheme instead of Master Boot Record and tried to apply changes to the drive. Disk Utility froze, I left it for more than one hour until I had to force quit it.
    When my iMac rebooted an screen appeared saying that I had a drive not recognized and gave me the option to initialize it. A second failed attempt, Disk Utility froze again.
    Finally, I decided to move to Leopard and try to fix the problem later. Everything went fine and while I was waiting I used a Windows machine to partition my external USB disk drive (used DISKPART to create a primary partition) and formatted it with NTFS because Windows told me that the drive was too large to use FAT32. In Leopard, I connected the drive, it mounted OK and used disk utility again to try to repartition it using Apple Partition Scheme and Mac OS Plus (which I understand is the same than HFS+). Disk Utility froze again, more than a couple of hours later I had to force quit it and now I'm using MacDrive in a Windows computer to format the drive, after creating again a primary partition using DISKPART, it seems to work without issues, formatted it using HFS+ in less than a minute. For me, the drive is working fine.
    I'll test it with my Leopard iMac later, I'm sure it will mount OK but I'm also pretty sure that it will be recognized as Master Boot Record, which most certainly will give me problems if I try to use it with Time Machine (or not?). Can anybody please explain me what's happening between my iMac and the external hard drive?
    Thanks in advance.

    As expected, the disk formatted with MacDrive was recognized OK by my iMac. As soon as I connected it Time Machine offered to use it, I accepted and my first backup completed some time last night (I left it working and went to sleep).
    Any ideas about what could be happening with the hard drive?

Maybe you are looking for