Using TM to reformat one (FAT32) partition on external HD

Hi all,
I'm wondering what others' experiences have been using TM's reformat feature on only one partition in a drive. In my case, I have a 400GB Seagate external HD that has been partitioned to one half HFS+ and one half FAT32. Now that my data analysis programs have all come out with mac support, I have finally said goodbye to the ole Windoze machine (yey!!). However I am still left with a hard drive that has been partially made compatible for my old PC.
Right now, all music/docs/files/etc are stored on the FAT32 side of the drive, for the practical reason of TM needing HFS+. By default, the HFS+ side of the drive is then set up to be my TM location. Both my iBook and MBP see these as two separate HD's, and can read/write both.
What I am trying to get to as an outcome is having 1/2 of the hard drive partitioned for all my music, documents, large files, etc. Another 1/2 should be exclusively TM backups. Although TM gives me the alluring option of just reformatting one half of this drive so that both separate partitions are HFS+, I just get goosebumps thinking of all the things that could go wrong. And while I have begun the process of backing up files (slowly) to A-drive, I don't want to lose those files just yet. So here are the questions:
1. Has anyone ever been so brave as to reformat only one half of their hard drive (or one particular partition) with TM? Keep in mind my Mac sees it as two separate HD's.
2. Any advice on whether I should simply keep all 70GB of my music/documents/pictures/etc on the FAT32 drive and leave the configuration as it is? I have heard rumors it's a little more unstable, but on the other hand it would be accessible from multiple operating sys if anything went wrong. I do access this regularly for iTunes, and plan to do so over an Airport Extreme/usb hub set up permanently. I have little to no need for windows compatibility, but I'm also lazy and want to have as simple of a set-up as possible. And, knock on wood, I got a Seagate specifically because of the long term stability. Am I flirting with disaster?
3. I am repeatedly getting the error that I am not able to delete folders from the FAT32 side (My Music, My Photos, etc) because "You do not have sufficient privileges". Any ideas on how to get around that?
I know the best option would be to backup everything by network/another external HD, and that is the long-term idea, but for now just wondering if FAT32 can be my permanent data access solution without any serious looming problems.
Any advice on better sites than A-drive (www.adrive.com) for permanent, relatively inexpensive cloud storage would be much appreciated as well.
Thanks for taking the time, appreciate any advice here.

Ok, I finally understand.
redhedhs wrote:
I have a separate TM drive for the Intel Mac, so I'm focusing on having an Apple partition map for my iBook backups. Right now I have a successful partition to use for TM (let's call it TM DRIVE). And another for music, docs, etc (FILES DRIVE). FILES DRIVE is currently FAT32 formatted. I haven't had any problems with it, but I'm trying to figure out:
a. If it's even necessary to reformat this to Apple partition if I'm not using it for TM (ie: what are the possible scenarios that would necessitate avoiding FAT32 for this?).
Not necessary but I would recommend it. FAT32 has several limitations. For example, TM can not back it, up. the file size is limited. unix permissions don't work on it. if a file is locked you can't delete it from OS X and have to boot from windows to do it. Much better to use HFS+ if you are not going to use the drive with windows.
b. If I do want to reformat just the FAT32 partition, is it likely/probable that I would erase the info on the other partition if I did so?
No. It's quite safe to do so using disk utility. this has nothing to do with TM which threw me off.
just select the FAT partition in disk utility and reformat it to HFS+ using the "erase" tab. this will of course erase everything currently on the FAT partition but will not affect the TM partition in any way. as i said, the operation is quite safe.
Sounds like you're saying Disk Utility would be better suited for it, wondering if I should crosspost there? Either way, I wonder if I can just reformat one partition safely?
Thanks!

Similar Messages

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

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?

I'm trying to create a Windows partition using Boot Camp. An error comes up telling me that I need to reformat my current partition(s) into one single partition. However, it's already formatted in the correct format, and is already a single partition.

As made clear in the title:
I'm trying to create a Windows partition using Boot Camp. An error comes up telling me that I need to reformat my current partition(s) into one single partition. However, it's already formatted in the correct format, and is already a single partition.
My computer recently had a kernel panic, which apparently the corruption was in the system and needed to be erased and re-installed. I have a complete back-up using an external hard drive, and I am definitely not willing to do another one of those to reformat a partition that is already singular. I restarted the computer after ejecting my back-up, and after turning off time machine (thinking that boot camp was recognizing it as a secondary partition), however the error still occurs.
Is there any way to get around this?

diskutil list:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            749.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            Windows7               *2.9 GB     disk1
diskutil cs list:
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
mount:
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1 on /Volumes/Windows7 (udf, local, nodev, nosuid, read-only, noowners)
From my very basic knowledge - it still looks as if there is only one partition (not including the windows 7 CD necessary to install the windows partition).

Resize a fat32 partition using linux 3.0

So I have an external hdd that I use as a backup/archive, and it is formatted using fat32. It is 315GB listed, and 293gb actual. It has about 183gb of data on it, and 110 free. I want to keep some of the data, but also switch the whole thing to ext4. My plan was to shrink the partition, use the free space to copy over the stuff I want, reformat the rest over to ext4, then merge the partitions.
Apparently as of parted 0.9.0 you can no longer resize fat32 partitions. Is there another utility that I can use to make this happen? Specifically, one that will work with the linux 3.0 kernel? I don't have another drive big enough to get everything onto it, so I need to find a way to keep everything on the drive as I flipflop everything around.
Thanks!

ozar wrote:Yes, I just took a look at the latest gparted on the PartedMagic LiveCD and it still offers the option to resize FAT32 partitions.
Quite possibly PartedMagic links gparted against an old libparted.
ozar wrote:edit: oops, looks like I was typing out a response when B pressed ENTER!
Heh, PartedMagic != GParted LiveCD

Partitioning an ext. HD for use with Time Machine HFS+/FAT32

Hi, I hope that this question is not already answered somewhere - I did a couple of searches but couldn't find the answers I need.
I'm setting up an external LaCie 500GB HD (USB 2.0) for a friend, in order to use it for Time Machine backups (one partition) and as a non-backuped "data dump" (music / films etc.).
My plan is the following: Partition the ext. HD into a 200 GB HFS+ Journaled partition for use with Time Machine, and a 300 GB FAT32 partition for data (FAT32 to ensure the interoperability with PCs).
I have a couple of questions (apart from if you think the proposed setup is good in general):
1. The Time Machine partition would be used to back up a MacBook with a 120GB HD - in your opinion, is 200GB too much/enough/too less space?
2. In general, does Time Machine work with partitions on ext. HDs as seen in the setup I propose? (or should I use a drive with only one partition?)
3. are there any possible problems I might run into when partitioning a drive into two different file systems as HFS+ and FAT32?
4. Is it OK to use the Leopard Disk Utility for this or should I use another application?
thanks a lot for your answers!

Hi,
Could you please share the answers you found?
I'm going through a very similar situation...
Thanks!
Beto.

Using Disk Utility to create a partition on an external drive

Hi Everyone
I have a 250gb external HD drive which is currently split into two partitions of Fat32. I'd like to use this drive for storing images of OS X, but when I tried to create an image using the OS X startup DVD, I was told that FAT32 didn't allow large enough file sizes (or something along those lines) in order for me to backup my OS X.
Disk Utility appears to offer the ability to split partitions on the external drive, i.e. I can select the largest of the two partitions and choose to split it into two 96gb partitions. However, will this be a destructive partition process, and can I reasonably expect my external hard disk to be reformatted with a 96gb Mac OS X formatted partition whilst still keeping two FAT32 partitions and all the data that resides on them?
Any help is much appreciated!

You will not be splitting existing partitions. Instead, you will be creating a new partitions from scratch.
Run Disk Utility. Select the hard drive to be partitioned. Make sure you select the hard drive in the sidebar, not the volume indented below the drive. Go to the Partition tab. If you want one or more of the partitions to be MS-DOS, you must first click on the Options... button. Select the Master Boot Record option and OK. Select Volume Scheme of 3 Partitions. Now set up your three new partitions as you want them, in terms of size and format. For the Mac partition, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format.

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.

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.

How to create a FAT32 partition on the internal HDD?

I'd like to set up a partition that can be shared between OSX and Windows.
I tried using a GParted LiveCD, but then OSX won't recognize the partition. I haven't installed Windows yet, but I've read that formatting the partition from Windows will prevent OSX from recognizing it as well. Any ideas? Thanks.

If you are reformatting your internal drive, you will loose your OS X install and have to re-install. That being said, boot from your os x install disc and reformat the first partition as _free space_ for your Windows install then install OS X on the second partition formatted as HFS+. After the install and boot of the OS X install, restart with your Windows disc and install on free space. It will format the partition for you as NTFS or Fat32 if you choose. Mac's can read and write to both. Fat32 is native and NTFS requires MacFuse and the ntfs-3g plugin...both free.
After the install you will need to set up a boot option. I have used Super Grub Disc
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
and booted the partitions seperatly. There are other BootLoader programs that will allow you to choose which partition to boot from. A really nice one with a great GUI is Cameleon
http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/chameleon-20rc1-is-out
Hope this works for you,
Glynn

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

Using time machine on a fat32

so i bought a new 2TB external drive and when i try use it in fat32 mode to backup with time machine it refuses to let me. i need it in fat32 mode in order to use it on my ps3 for media. 2TB is more then double of my macbook pro hard drive so i dont need all 2TB for my mac. the drive is 250GB so i really need it in fat32. is there something else i can use to back it up or any way time machine can use fat32? or would i just have to backup the install files and re install everything when i need to or when i re install a new osx or when i buy a new mac?
TIA

TM will not backup to a connected drive unless it is partitioned APM or GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. See below:
Requirements to use Time Machine
Time Machine is only available with Leopard (10.5.x)
1. External FireWire or USB 2.0 drive
2. Time Capsule
3. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 or later using File Sharing
4. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 Server
5. SAN volume managed by Apple's Xsan file system
A TM drive must be partitioned with either APM (PPC) or GUID (Intel) and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
What you may consider doing is:
Extended Hard 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 then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition 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 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 can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
After completing the above, which is necessary for a new drive pre-formatted for Windows, then use Disk Utility to create two partitions. Format one Mac OS Extended, Journaled and format the other MSDOS (FAT32.) Your drive can now be used on either system. For TM backup your TM partition should be at least twice the size of the drive you are backing up.

Unable to share a fat32 partition with macs (snow leopard)

i have a hard drive with two partitions in it, im able to share one of them formated for mac, but im not able to share the fat32 partition? what is going on?
it is connected to an imac (snow leopard)
trying to share it with macbook pro and windows pc
please help?
pd: when i use to have mac 10.5 leopard it works without problem, what is different

Try deleting the addressBook database, /Users/username/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb.
Address Book automatically creates that file from the metadata.

Found spotlight-v100 hidden folder in FAT32 partition

On my macbook, I have created a FAT32 partition using bootcamp and found .spotlight-v100 hidden folder and other files with it. I cannot remove them and they stopped me from formatting the partition to NTFS. Please help~~~!!!. I am new to mac and please provide me walkthrough step by step. Really don't understand how they can get into the newly created blank FAT32 partition in the first place.
Regards,
macbie

My drive that I wanted to format was the 3rd partition which was named as Drive E by bootcamp (C installed XP and D is default DVD ROM drive). The Drive E was formatted as FAT32 with cluster size 512k. I did some research on internet and was recommended to convert it to NTFS with cluster size 4096k. I did the conversion and it ended up with NTFS but size still remains at 512k. I tried to reformat it using different methods with no success. Each time I started to format it, the process proceeded with no problem until at the end, an warning message popped out : 'This drive cannot be formatted'. I have no clue why it happened like that since the drive has nothing in it except with 2 different folders created by window: Recycler and system volume information.
I want to change cluster size because FAT32 format does not support file size larger than 4G. So, how can I change the cluster size? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!!!
Macbie

Dynamic resize of FAT32 partition with disk utility?

Hi there.
I have a 1TB external FAT32 drive with 300GB of data on it.
I want to convert it to HFS+, but I know there's no easy way to do that.
What I want to know is can I resize my FAT32 partition to 500MB and keep all the data?
Then I'll move it to the new HFS+ 500MB partition, delete the original partition and resize the HFS+ partition.
Or do I have no hope of that?
Thanks
Greg

Greg,
You're probably out of luck on this one. If the drive was partitioned and formatted by a PC (every drive has a partition map, whether there are multiple partitions or only one), it almost certainly has an "MBR" partition map. This would preclude a dynamic resizing by Disk Utility. It will need to be partitioned using either GUID (Intel) or APM (PPC).
Scott

Using TM to reformat one (FAT32) partition on external HD

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