can a reformat part of an external HD

[LParisIV]

I have a large HD which I divided into 2 partitions. One is just for saving photos. the other actually contains a software program which drags photos out of my Macbook Pro HD (from My photos, email etc) and puts them in one place. I was having problems with it and the tech support for the program told me to reformat the HD and install the update (stupid if you ask me when most times for mac software, you just launch the .dmg and it updates the program without erasing anything). after erasing the Hard drive (I did not tell them I was using a partitioned HD), and reformatting it, installing the update and then doing a bunch of stuff in terminal - then I would have to run the program again. Sounds to me like this program was written by PC people.

anyhow, my question is, using disk utility, can I safely just erase the portion of the external Hd with the program on it and then do all their ridiculous steps? or is it not possible to format just part of a HD? I've been working with Macs for 20 years and this question has never arisen.....so help please?

 

[casperes1996]

anyhow, my question is, using disk utility, can I safely just erase the portion of the external Hd with the program on it and then do all their ridiculous steps? or is it not possible to format just part of a HD? I've been working with Macs for 20 years and this question has never arisen.....so help please?

Unless there's an error in the partitioning table (which there's absolutely no reason to believe there is) yes, you can erase just the partition that is relevant. However, if the reason they recommend erasing the drive is that the program has hooks into different parts of the file system than just its app bundle, you'll need to ensure that it doesn't hook into files on the other partition that the tech support expects to be reset.

Frankly, a full reformat isn't necessary at all though. The tech support just needs to say where all the files created by the program reside so they can be trashed.
But whatever, if you have no issue re-formatting the partition, just go ahead with that approach. - Just pick the relevant Volume/partition in DU and click erase. If it's the system install partition it'll have to be done from Recovery Mode or an externally bootable drive, otherwise you can just do it from within the currently running macOS

 

[LParisIV]

thanks