Time machine ran out of disk space

Question

My WD passport has 2 partitions. I need to get rid of the partitions so I have enough room for backups. Can I wipe the whole disk clean and start fresh with just one partition. I'm not tech savvy so I need walking through the procedure if it can be done.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yep, but you may be able to change the partitioning without having to erase the drive. First, starting from scratch:
Drive Preparation
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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Second, changing on the fly may be possible but only if the TM partition is the first partition on the drive:
To resize the drive do the following:
1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list.
2. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. Click in the area of the bottom partition. It will become enclosed in dark blue lines. Click on the [-] Delete button to remove the partition.
4. Now grab the sizing gadget of the remaining partition with your mouse and drag all the way to the bottom of the partition window. The sizing gadget is in the lower right corner of the partition rectangle.
5. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process is completed.
You should now have one volume on the drive.