Advice on External HD Format/Partition

[Grasbak]

I have just received my 500gb external HD for the mac in my signature. After reading various threads I think I know how I need to format & partition my new drive.

I indend to use it as a back up (with time machine when lepoard arrives) and to hold raw movie footage and recorded eyetv programs. So I come to the following conclusions:

1. Format as OSX Extended - (FAT32 is ltd to 4gb files) - i dont NEED to be able to plug it into a PC althought that would have been nice, i see a program called Macdrive will sort this out if it becomes neccessary.
2. I dont specifically need to partition as time machine doesnt need its own.

Anyone offer any more advice?

Thanks

 

[Grasbak]

Ah well - done it now. Hope I made a good choice....

 

[yellow]

Well, you might have found partitioning to be a nice move..

A separate partition (HFS+) for raw data/movie whatever.

A separate partition (FAT32) for quick Mac <-> PC moves.

A separate partition (HFS+) for a cloned backup of your installation.

The rest for whatever.

At least a partition means that you can erase the logical partition (say the clone) when you want to redo a new, fresh clone. Without the partition, you have to erase the whole shebang and loose all your raw data/whatever.

 

[Grasbak]

Can i still create a partition on the drive without destroying whats on there?

If i created a Fat32 partition say 100mb - when I plug into a pc does it just see the 100mb bit?

 

[DoFoT9]

Can i still create a partition on the drive without destroying whats on there?

If i created a Fat32 partition say 100mb - when I plug into a pc does it just see the 100mb bit?

if you leave free space, and then want to come back to it later to format as whatever, sure you can do that without damaging other data on the drive.

if u have a 100mb fat32 partition, the pc will only see that, because it cant read the HFS+ obviously.

 

[yellow]

Can i still create a partition on the drive without destroying whats on there?

Not without purchasing 3rd party software. And even then.. anything that messes with the partition map on the fly.. well that scares the hell out of me. So I always do a full back up before I fiddle with it, and if you do that, you might as well just backup, wipe/partition, restore,