1 or 2 partitions on 2tb external hard drive

[okizen]

Should I put 1 or more partitions on my 2tb external hard drive? Which is the safer method or does it not matter?

 

[prisstratton]

It does not really matter. If you are going to use it for Time Machine + other storage it is recommended that you partition the drive, please read here:

http://pondini.org/TM/3.html

I have a couple of 2 TB drives on my server and I have each of them partitioned so that 1 TB is dedicated to Time Machine on each drive, the other 1 TB contains: music, personal data, software storage etc.

 

[Gregg2]

Should I put 1 or more partitions on my 2tb external hard drive? Which is the safer method or does it not matter?

Technically, one partition means the drive is not partitioned, no? unless the | in "drive 1 | drive 2" is considered the partition. (the separator of the two areas)
I have three on mine, or two if you define it as above, and it works great.

 

[DeltaMac]

Technically, one partition means the drive is not partitioned, no? unless the | in "drive 1 | drive 2" is considered the partition. (the separator of the two areas)
I have three on mine, or two if you define it as above, and it works great.

No, the partition (as applied to computer storage) is the prepared storage space itself, not the | between two storage spaces/partitions.
I used to use this analogy (maybe it still fits!): Consider a sheet of lined notebook paper, with writing on the page.
You can erase the writing, but there's still lines. That's erasing.
You COULD also remove the lines, which is somewhat analogous to removing the partition on a hard drive. You create the partition, which leaves you with a blank sheet (no lines). And, you format the sheet by putting lines in place, so it can be useful for writing.