Help external drive question

[Erasmus]

no it is not an option here- she will lose data doing this. Don't partition at this point!!

Best advice I believe is to follow what I told the OP to do earlier; ie. nothing. What's done is done, and his startup disk is backed up.

BTW, the OP does have a partitioned HD, it's just that it's a single partition. Although that's irrelevant to the OP.

The OP should go and buy a second external HD, and load all their extra data on this. They can then use the 2TB external to TM backup the whole lot, for complete redundancy.

 

[bluespaceoddity]

no it is not an option here- she will lose data doing this. Don't partition at this point!!

This is not necessarily true. It depends on the current formatting of the External Drive and the Operating System on the Mac used for the re-sizing / re-partitioning.
danycsr wrote that her MacBook Pro 3.1 is three years old.

Disk Utility under Leopard and Snow Leopard can resize partitions without destroying data on the External Drive. (Tiger and before required third party utilities to resize without destruction.)

While it is always advisable to have a backup of the data on the drive, the process of partitioning the drive by dragging the bottom of the partitioning field in Disk Utility -as suggested by alust2013 earlier in the thread (post #13) - should not normally destroy the data on that drive. As long as there is enough contiguous free space on the drive it will work and this is a non destructive process for splitting that drive into more than one partition.

Since the external drive is 2TB and fairly new -per the OP- there should be enough space to perform the resizing / partitioning. Disk Utility will say so after dragging the bottom of the field up and clicking [Apply]. It is not a reformatting procedure.

After the split it is only a matter of dragging and dropping the other files and photos out of the first partition away from the Time Machine volume.

Edit to add:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2374
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU3.html

 

[flyfish29]

This is not necessarily true. It depends on the current formatting of the External Drive and the Operating System on the Mac used for the re-sizing / re-partitioning.
danycsr wrote that her MacBook Pro 3.1 is three years old.

SHE has no partitions though- so how can you resize partitions if she has none on the external drive?!?

Best advice I believe is to follow what I told the OP to do earlier; ie. nothing. What's done is done, and his startup disk is backed up.

Doing nothing does not solve the real problems here. SHE needs someplace to store her extra primary copy of data (ie- her 10,000 pics) and needs a appropriate backup solution. Right now her TM backup is on the same drive as some of her primary data (the 10,000 pics) so if the drive fails she loses photo data!

BTW, the OP does have a partitioned HD, it's just that it's a single partition. Although that's irrelevant to the OP.

Actually by defintion partition is dividing something into parts or parts of a whole....parts being plural. So by definition there are NO partitions on that external drive. Either way this is irrelevant to the OP as you explained.

The OP should go and buy a second external HD, and load all their extra data on this. They can then use the 2TB external to TM backup the whole lot, for complete redundancy.

I TOTALLY AGREE!!

With a small $ investment you would end up with the following configuration of your data which not only solves your problem but will provide you with the security of backing EVERYTHING up in case of drive failure:

1. MacBook Pro startup drive has OSX software & some personal music, movies, and other files.

2. smaller external drive has the original copies of your 10,000 photos (this is a new external drive like a 250GB drive for $50. 250GB option or for $10 more a 500GB for $59 500GB option Both seem to have free shipping!

3. 2TB drive then becomes your backup drive for both your MBP startup drive AND your smaller external drive. You can use Time Machine to backup your MBP startup drive and Carbon Copy Cloner (free software) to backup your smaller external drive with the 10,000 pics.

4. I would also make DVD backups of your most important files, movies, music and pictures to keep off site in case of theft or fire.


I know it sucks having to buy another HD after you just bought the 2TB one. But two things- one, it would suck to lose your 10,000 photos forever (see below) and two, these external HD's woudl be able to be used for years to come with your future macs.

Currently, if your 2TB external drive fails you lose two things- your Time Machine backup (not a big deal) but more importantly your 10,000 photos which I assume are not backed up anyplace! That would be bad news for you for sure!!! Everything you view on the computer needs to be backed up at least one other place in case of hard drive failure which can happen easily (I have had two go bad in the last two years!!)

This all being said, I still would like clarification of where the 10,000 pics came from- are those pics still on your startup drive? If so, then that may change things a little.

 

[bluespaceoddity]

SHE has no partitions though- so how can you resize partitions if she has none on the external drive?!?

She has a 2TB external drive with one partition. This single partition can be resized by dragging the corner of the partition field in Disk Utility upwards. This dragging makes the first partition smaller and creates an "empty space" below the existing partition in the partition field. When she subsequently clicks [Apply], Disk Utility will ask her to confirm the action, will re-assure her that the data won't be erased and will then create a second partition on her drive out of the space freed up by re-sizing her first partition after she clicks the [partition] button.

Once again these suggestions to resize her external drive with Disk Utility work if she is running Mac OS 10.5.x Leopard or 10.6.x Snow Leopard on her MacBook Pro. If she is still running Mac OS 10.4.x Tiger such steps require a third party utility.

The principle is confirmed in the Apple KB document in the first link I posted while options -including the dragging resizing process- are described in illustrated detail on the pages of the website linked as well.

All that changes nothing about the requirement for back up but it does give her options with the MacBook Pro and her 2TB External she already has.
Provided she isn't running Tiger those steps to create an additional partition will not destroy her data.

 

[flyfish29]

She has a 2TB external drive with one partition. This single partition can be resized by dragging the corner of the partition field in Disk Utility upwards. This dragging makes the first partition smaller and creates an "empty space" below the existing partition in the partition field. When she subsequently clicks [Apply], Disk Utility will ask her to confirm the action, will re-assure her that the data won't be erased and will then create a second partition on her drive out of the space freed up by re-sizing her first partition after she clicks the [partition] button.

Once again these suggestions to resize her external drive with Disk Utility work if she is running Mac OS 10.5.x Leopard or 10.6.x Snow Leopard on her MacBook Pro. If she is still running Mac OS 10.4.x Tiger such steps require a third party utility.

The principle is confirmed in the Apple KB document in the first link I posted while options -including the dragging resizing process- are described in illustrated detail on the pages of the website linked as well.

All that changes nothing about the requirement for back up but it does give her options with the MacBook Pro and her 2TB External she already has.
Provided she isn't running Tiger those steps to create an additional partition will not destroy her data.

She is running 10.5.8 which is great so thanks for letting us know she can at least patition without deleting.

She has an older external 500 GB HD formerly used for TM (so she is going to reformat that and probably use it for a primary drive to store some data on because her HD is full

So what we need to figure out still is....


She still has her iphoto library on her Mac HD (but is minus 400 photos she already deleted) but she has copies of all her photos on her 2TB external (plus the 400) as picture files only.

Her docs and music are on her Mac still and are also copied on the 2TB external.

She said she does not care all that much about her music files.

My first though was to upgrade to Snow Leopard to save space (not sure how much space it would save but I have heard it can be considerable) then if she deleted music it might give her enough space for a while at least, but may not be a long term solution.

So how does she go about setting up an iPhoto library to be accessed from the smaller 500GB external drive she has? Unfortunately she would have to be connected to her external drive when viewing or working with pictures. this might be ok if she uses the laptop at a desk, but not very portable.

Danielle, what else is taking up so much space on your HD.....movies perhaps? how many GB of music do you have? (look at bottom of iTunes window)

 

[bluespaceoddity]

So how does she go about setting up an iPhoto library to be accessed from the smaller 500GB external drive she has? Unfortunately she would have to be connected to her external drive when viewing or working with pictures. this might be ok if she uses the laptop at a desk, but not very portable.

That can be done by copying the iPhoto library to an External Drive and then pointing iPhoto to the new location of the iPhoto Library. (Quit iPhoto. Copy iPhoto Library as a whole to the External. When done - Hold the alt/option key then click iPhoto to open it. iPhoto will now ask for the location of a Library. Navigate to the new location and select the copied Library. From then on the selected Library will be the default. (Provided the disk is connected)

If portability with the entire file collection is the goal then a larger internal drive may be a (Temp) solution or a more portable external if the current enclosure is too bulky.

Having an older External available makes it easier.

Moving files off the internal and to both the 500GB and the 2TB before deleting them from the MacBook Pro's internal drive will not just create free space but also creates back ups -which is essential as you suggested- with irreplaceable files such as photos.

If the MacBook Pro is already telling her the drive is full it is essential and urgent that she doesn't do much with that Mac until free space is created on the internal drive.
(I would not run an updater in that state, I think)

If the non-destructive repartitioning of the 2TB is considered it should be done before additional files are moved over to preserve enough contiguous free space for the re-partitioning to work.

Suggestion:
1 - Immediately delete music or other non-essential and easily replaceable files from the MacBook Pro to create at least 10% of free space on the internal drive.

(The music already exist in the Time Machine back ups on the 2 TB drive so won't be lost completely unless the partitioning fails catastrophically later on. Not as much a concern as the inevitable problems caused by an internal filled to capacity.)

2. Clone the internal to the 500GB drive.

3. Add additional unique files to the 500GB drive by copying them over from the 2TB drive.
(All important files now exist in 3 separate places. (4 times when you count Time Machine))

4 - Partition the 2TB drive. As suggested earlier by several people. That leaves one partition for Time Machine and one partition where additional files can be added/kept at the root level.

5. Move the photo files etc out of the Time Machine partition once the second partition is created in the available space.

(Eventually use that second partition for a bootable clone of the internal drive - pre-existing files can be preserved with incremental back ups. See the suggestion about using Carbon Copy Cloner made earlier in the thread.)
Provided the re-partitioning goes as it should you now have 2 of everything except the music. (3 when you count Time Machine) on two external drives.

(If Time Machine backs up to that 2TB drive and is connected all the time for that purpose while the MacBook is on the desk I would point iPhoto to a Library on the other partition of that drive.)

6. Delete additional files from the internal to make the MacBook Pro workable again once confirmed that the two externals work.

 

[flyfish29]

That can be done by copying the iPhoto library to an External Drive and then pointing iPhoto to the new location of the iPhoto Library. (Quit iPhoto. Copy iPhoto Library as a whole to the External. When done - Hold the alt/option key then click iPhoto to open it. iPhoto will now ask for the location of a Library. Navigate to the new location and select the copied Library. From then on the selected Library will be the default. (Provided the disk is connected)

If portability with the entire file collection is the goal then a larger internal drive may be a (Temp) solution or a more portable external if the current enclosure is too bulky.

Having an older External available makes it easier.

Moving files off the internal and to both the 500GB and the 2TB before deleting them from the MacBook Pro's internal drive will not just create free space but also creates back ups -which is essential as you suggested- with irreplaceable files such as photos.

If the MacBook Pro is already telling her the drive is full it is essential and urgent that she doesn't do much with that Mac until free space is created on the internal drive.
(I would not run an updater in that state, I think)

If the non-destructive repartitioning of the 2TB is considered it should be done before additional files are moved over to preserve enough contiguous free space for the re-partitioning to work.

Suggestion:
1 - Immediately delete music or other non-essential and easily replaceable files from the MacBook Pro to create at least 10% of free space on the internal drive.

(The music already exist in the Time Machine back ups on the 2 TB drive so won't be lost completely unless the partitioning fails catastrophically later on. Not as much a concern as the inevitable problems caused by an internal filled to capacity.)

2. Clone the internal to the 500GB drive.

3. Add additional unique files to the 500GB drive by copying them over from the 2TB drive.
(All important files now exist in 3 separate places. (4 times when you count Time Machine))

4 - Partition the 2TB drive. As suggested earlier by several people. That leaves one partition for Time Machine and one partition where additional files can be added/kept at the root level.

5. Move the photo files etc out of the Time Machine partition once the second partition is created in the available space.

(Eventually use that second partition for a bootable clone of the internal drive - pre-existing files can be preserved with incremental back ups. See the suggestion about using Carbon Copy Cloner made earlier in the thread.)
Provided the re-partitioning goes as it should you now have 2 of everything except the music. (3 when you count Time Machine) on two external drives.

(If Time Machine backs up to that 2TB drive and is connected all the time for that purpose while the MacBook is on the desk I would point iPhoto to a Library on the other partition of that drive.)

6. Delete additional files from the internal to make the MacBook Pro workable again once confirmed that the two externals work.

Awesome post- thanks for all the details and clarity!!!! I am working with Danielle to find out how much data she has in each folder for user folders, etc. Once she gets that info we can ideally delete some or at least find out how she has filled her HD.

I also asked her how portable she needs her data- she uses a verizon Fios box for wifi so her external HD is currently having to be wired to the MBP which would be a pain unless she always works at a desk at home or something.

So perhaps by backing copying everything as you described above, then working to clear out data on the MBP and then upgrading will allow us to clear enough space to at least keep her most critical data on her MBP instead of on an external. but I agree, having the external smaller drive is key to making this work. I also agree that having her copy her data several times is key too- one can never be too careful when doing lots of data moving and consolidation like this.

Also, thanks for correcting me that you can potentially partition a drive with the right OS and space.