External FireWire Hard drive, SuperDuper, Backing up and partitioning

[thomasp]

Hi,

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong forum - I wasn't sure if it should go here or in "Mac OS X Applications". Mods - please feel free to move it.


I've recently purchased a LaCie Rugged 120Gb FireWire drive mainly as a backup drive for my 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook. I've used SuperDuper to create a backup bootable drive on this with my current HD contents and that seems to work fine.

But, since SD seems to erase the contents of the drive first, I'd quite like to have one part of the drive for backups only, and one part for my own, random storage.

Is it possible to partition the drive and have one partition the bootable backup which SD backs up to and store my other stuff on the other partition? Will SD erase both partitions before it does a backup?

Also, I realise HFS+ isn't Windows compatible. Is it possible to format one partition in one format and another partition in another Windows-compatible format. If I want to plug this drive into a Windows machine and read/write to it, then read/write that data on my Mac, what is the best format to use on this partition?


Thanks for the help

 

[Erendiox]

Yes, you can absolutely do this. I do exactly this myself to do backups for my iBook G4. Superduper will not erase both partitions if you do a backup, only the partition you are using for backups. I have a Seagate 250gig drive, and I reserve 60gigs for my iBook backup (which is the maxiumum size). What you need to do is start up disk utility, which is located in the "utilities" folder inside your applications folder. Select your external drive and click on "partition". From there you can split your drive into any number of partitions, each one will act as it's own seperate drive. You can even mix and match formats to suit your needs. Use HFS+ for mac-only partitions and FAT32 for use with windows. Macs can read both. I find HFS+ to be much more reliable in my experience, so if you have a partition that you know won't be used with windows, go for HFS+. Be aware, the entrire drive needs to be erased to partition it, but once it's partitioned, you can do whaever you like with the different partitions.

 

[thomasp]

Thanks for the reply.

Am I correct in thinking that FAT32 has something like a 4Gb partition limit?

Also, if you want to adjust the partition sizes (assuming you have free HD space), do you have to reformat the entire drive/partition, or does it just change the free space?

 

[mad jew]

FAT32 doesn't have a 4GB partition limit but it has a 4GB file size limit (and a 32GB partition limit if you format it on a Windows machine, but you don't have to worry 'bout that). In other words, it won't store files that are larger than 4GB.

I don't know how to repartition and not affect the formatting (erase everything) without using a third party app like iPartition. There's probably a free Terminal way of doing this, but I don't know it, sorry.

 

[thomasp]

Thanks for the replies

So, if I format one partition in HFS+ for backups, one partition in HFS+ for my random dragging & dropping and a third partition in FAT32, will I get three separate drives mount on my desktop when I plug the HD in?

And if I plug it into a Windows computer (*shudder* ), will I get only the one FAT32 drive mount?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, you'll get three separate drives mounting on the Mac. Only the FAT32 partition will work with the Windows machine unless you install MacDrive, but it's probably not worth it.

 

[thomasp]

Sorry to semi-bump this thread, but I've finally got round to partitioning off the drive.

In the "Format" options (in Disk Utility), what do I choose for FAT32? The options are: Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive), UNIX File System and Free Space

Also, under options in Disk Utility should I choose "PC Partition Scheme" or "Apple Partition Scheme", bearing in mind I only want the FAT32 drive to mount on Windows?


Cheers for the help

 

[mad jew]

It doesn't have MS-DOS File System with Master Boot Record as the partition scheme?

 

[thomasp]

It doesn't have MS-DOS File System with Master Boot Record as the partition scheme?

Doesn't seem to. Here's a screeny of Disk Utility (click for larger version):


And also, Disk Information for this HD:



Finally, should I check the "Install OS9 Disk Drivers" box - what does this mean/do?

 

[mad jew]

Strange. What does it say under the Erase tab? Could you select FAT32 there as an option? Also, you don't need the OS 9 drivers unless you want to boot this drive on OS 9, which isn't possible on your PowerBook anyway.

 

[thomasp]

Strange. What does it say under the Erase tab? Could you select FAT32 there as an option? Also, you don't need the OS 9 drivers unless you want to boot this drive on OS 9, which isn't possible on your PowerBook anyway.

Yeah, there's an MSDOS option under "Erase". So, should I just partition it into 3 partitions then erase the appropriate one into MSDOS mode?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, I reckon that should work well. Do you have anything you need to keep on this drive? It might be better to erase the whole thing as FAT32 and then make HFS+ partitions. If this isn't feasible, don't worry about it. The benefits are marginal at best.

 

[thomasp]

I'm thinking I might just scrap the idea of a Windows partition (since I'm not going to use it that much, and I do have a 1Gb USB2 pen drive), and stick with a backup partition and a standard storage partition, all HFS+

Just to double check, HFS+ is the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format?


Cheers for all the help Much appreciated!

 

[mad jew]

I'm thinking I might just scrap the idea of a Windows partition (since I'm not going to use it that much, and I do have a 1Gb USB2 pen drive), and stick with a backup partition and a standard storage partition, all HFS+

Yeah, it's up to you but it shouldn't be that difficult to repartition.

Just to double check, HFS+ is the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format?

Yup.