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can i partition an external drive for mac and pc use?

K

kcmeow3

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2007
4
0
hello fellow mac users!

recently i bought an external drive, a Seagate Freeagent (USB). I have an ibook for personal use, but a pc for work--

how can i partition its use, if possible, are there "procedures" to follow everytime i want to switch from one to the other?

and where do i find instructions how to partition??

thanks a lot!
 
you can, but to boot it ur computer needs to be able to boot from USB or how ever you connect it the computer
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12) T-Mobile Dash)

Are you trying to setup one partition for OS X and the one for windows or jus one for both to have read write access? What do you want to be able to do once its setup?
 
ideally, i'd like to be able to have read and write access to the same files accessed from either the mac or pc...

is that possible??

so then do i need to partition?
 
kcmeow3 said:
ideally, i'd like to be able to have read and write access to the same files accessed from either the mac or pc...

is that possible??

so then do i need to partition?
Click to expand...


You absolutely MUST partition; filesystems are completely different. A suggestion if you need a LARGE (>32GB) Windows space: Primary Windows partition NTFS, MacOS partition HFS+, Swap drive FAT32 (can be read/write for both NTFS & HFS+).

If your Windows space needs needs aren't that great (<32GB), then make the primary Windows partition FAT32 to start with.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12) T-Mobile Dash)

You dont HAVE to partition but i would, a fat32 will give you read/write access from windows and OS x.
 
one last silly question before i make this attempt to partition- um, where do i find these settings?? i do it from when im on the pc..or mac??
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12) T-Mobile Dash)

You can use bootcamp to create a fat32 partition. I would format the drive in disk utility in OS X, then use bootcamp to make a windows partition.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.12) T-Mobile Dash)

Veritas&amp said:
EvilDoc said:
You can use bootcamp to create a fat32 partition. I would format the drive in disk utility in OS X, then use bootcamp to make a windows partition.
Click to expand...
True, but if you use fat32 you can't transfer files >4 gb.
Click to expand...

i really cant think of one time thats been an issue. for me anyway...
 
OK... here we go again. (Please search before posting)


You have 3 choices, really.... NTFS, HFS+, or FAT32.

NTFS will allow Mac to read, but not write and full accessibility for PC.
HFS+ will allow Mac full accessibility, but PC is lost on everything.
FAT32 will allow full accessibility to both Mac and PC, but you are limited to 4GB files and it just plain sucks.


My advice to you is to do what I'm doing. Use HFS+ and get MacDrive or something similar for PC to allow you to use it. MacDrive works fine for me.
I'm also pretty sure there are free applications you can use on Mac to write on NTFS. Off hand I think you might want to look into MacFUSE and NTFS-3G.


Good luck. If you really want to use FAT32, go ahead... but I'm telling you it sucks. And you're going to have to repeatedly turn off and on your AEBS, Modem, and HD when transfering large quantities of files (ie, when you are setting it up)... at least I had to.
 
JohnNotBeatle said:
You absolutely MUST partition; filesystems are completely different. A suggestion if you need a LARGE (>32GB) Windows space: Primary Windows partition NTFS, MacOS partition HFS+, Swap drive FAT32 (can be read/write for both NTFS & HFS+).

If your Windows space needs needs aren't that great (<32GB), then make the primary Windows partition FAT32 to start with.
Click to expand...

John, I am ready to buy a Q-drive for back up and storage of large files (so I do not clutter my dual Mac/Win MBP.

Interesting recommendation of yous.
But, how does one create HFS+, FAT32 and NTFS partitions on the same external dive?
I understand that MacOS can create HFS+ and Fat32 partitions on the same drive via DiskUtility (with a limit of 32GB for FAT32, right??). But then, how to create the NTFS partition with Windows?
Say, I have a 320gb external drive. I want to create a 32gb FAT32 swap file + an approx 150 gb HFS+ partition + an apprx 140 gb NTFS partition. How to I go about it? In what order do I create them?

Thanks!

Roger T
 
disk parition settings??

hello all,

thanks so much for your help in advance-
originally i posted on how to partition to use my external drive w mac and pc-

the possibilities were selecting NTFS, or HFS+ and FAT32

so i opened disk utility, selected the external drive, and under "Partition", i see how many times i want to partition, ok...(2)

then i see what "format"
mac os extended (journaled), case sensitve or not
ms-dos
unix
free space....

am i to use mac os extended ?

then i have "options"!
GUID partition
Apple Partition Map
Master Boot record..

i don;t see any of those previously mentionned partition names?!
how do i go about this?

thanks =)
 
Well I was able to do it just it by partitioning my 500GB Maxtor drive into two drives, one being HFS+ and the other DOS.
Went into Vista and formatted the DOS into NTFS.
Double checked everything and it all works fine.
 
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