Why is it impossible to partition the TM volume???

[theman]

I have a 320gb external used for TM and it currently only is about 100gb full. I want to make a 50gb partition with FAT32 so I can transfer files between Mac and Windows easily (in boot camp). when I go to disk utility, and select the drive, all the partitioning options are grayed out... what is going on?

[theman]

i tried both... neither work! selecting the volume doesnt even give me a partition tab. if i select the drive, i get the tab, but all the options are gray. the partition map picture is just white (no blue to show how full it is).

[JNB]

Sorry, deleted my previous post, it was pointless. The Partition tab only appears when the drive is selected. Are you logged on as a user with sufficient privileges? Try posting a screen shot of the Disk Utility window with the drive selected, give us a better idea what may be the issue.

[theman]

Ok, first is the picture with my external drive selected. I can't do anything really.

Next is with my internal volume selected. Notice how there is little diagonal lines in the corner of my Mac partition that i can drag to resize the partition. The smaller partition is my Boot Camp partition.

[JNB]

First use the drop-down (see pic), then modify the new partition to FAT.

[theman]

so, i select "2 partitions"? it makes 2 equally sized partitions.... will this not delete all my data?

[JNB]

When you select the number of partitions, you can adjust the size of each prior to committing. Unfortunately, even in Leopard an initial split is destructive, but iPartition (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php) will manage live partitioning nondestructively. It isn't Leopard-certified yet, as I recall.

[theman]

ok, that sucks. i should have partitioned it when i first got i then...

vmware fusion allows copying directly between mac and windows right? i might buy that and load it to my BC partition.

[JNB]

I don't know about Fusion (it is likely the case), but Parallels allows that, in fact launching Parallels using the BC partition, no additional bottle required.

Remember that for copying between Mac & PC, FAT allows RW in both directions, but the MacOS is read-only from NTFS.

[Europe calling]

I once used Volumeworks to succesfully partition a drive with content on it. That worked fine but i don't know if there is a Leopard version of this program.

Check out versiontracker (http://www.versiontracker.com) to find out more.

[theman]

I went out and bought VMWare fusion and it works perfectly. I set it up to run of my BC partition, and now I can just drag files from explorer into finder, or onto the desktop. It's pretty spiffy. thanks for all the help John.

[theBB]

I have a 320gb external used for TM and it currently only is about 100gb full. I want to make a 50gb partition with FAT32 so I can transfer files between Mac and Windows easily (in boot camp).
There is a free utility that allows Windows to import from HFS+ volumes, called "HFS Explorer". If all you need is occasional transfers to Windows, it might be good enough. Mac can read NTFS anyways.

[JNB]

I went out and bought VMWare fusion and it works perfectly. I set it up to run of my BC partition, and now I can just drag files from explorer into finder, or onto the desktop. It's pretty spiffy. thanks for all the help John.

Anytime for a Zeppelin junkie!