Dual-purposing Ext HDD in Lion

[BarkingGhost]

Morning All,

I would like to re-purpose a MyBook Essentials 2TB USB2 hard drive to the wife's new/first Mac computer. Is there a way I could split the drive into two partitions, one for Lion and one for W7? Lion would use the Ext partition for TM, and W7 would use an NTFS partition for its backup.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, there is, but that will delete all data on that drive, unless you copy it somewhere else first.

Format Your Hard Drive Using Disk Utility
Partition Your Hard Drive With Disk Utility

Using Disk Utility - Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks
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[bmcgonag]

Absolutely backup your data first, but you should (and I say should) be able to use GParted partition utility to non-destructively add the partition for Lion.

If you have backed up, however, which is what you really should do first. When ready

1. Plug the drive into the mac.
2. Open Applications >> Utilities >> Disk Utility
3. Select the External Drive you want to partition.
4. Click the 'Partition' tab on the right.
5. Where it says 'Current' in the drop down, change that to '2', and you will see the graphical version of the drive split into 2 partitions. Resize the way you want them if you don't like the way it auto-splits the drive.
6. Click inside partition one. Select MS-DOS FAT from the drop down on the right and name the partition.
7. 'Options' button below the graphical version of the drive, and select MBR. Click OK
8. Click inside partition two. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) HFS + in the drop-down on the right.
9. Click 'Options' button below the graphical version of the drive, and select 'GUID', click OK.
10. Click 'Apply', then confirm.
WARNING: This will completely format the drive into the new partitions and REMOVE ALL DATA that is currently on the drive.