Help, partition external hard drive

[m.a.c.b.o.y]

i have a 320gb external hard drive and was wondering if i could partition it so i could use it just as an external hard drive on one partition, but have time machine on the other partition. i just recently got my frist mac, which is a macbook, and i love it. i would appreciate it if someone could tell how to do this if it is possible. thank you

 

[Eidorian]

Disk Utility can do it. I'm running Tiger so I apologize for that.

 

[MacGeek7]

There's really no reason to partition your external HD. All of your time machine backups are kept in a folder on the HD called backups.backdup or something similar.

Then you have the whole HD to store whatever you need to and Time Machine won't erase those files - It will simply just start to erase your oldest backups

 

[soberbrain]

There's really no reason to partition your external HD. All of your time machine backups are kept in a folder on the HD called backups.backdup or something similar.

Then you have the whole HD to store whatever you need to and Time Machine won't erase those files - It will simply just start to erase your oldest backups

It depends on your needs.

I understand Time Machine deletes when the drive fills up, but once the drive fills up you won't have room, in case you need it for something.

Having partitions ensures that there's always extra room.

I split a 250 GB drive into 3 partitions.

1 for PowerBook Time Machine
1 for iBook Time Machine
1 for Video Projects

If I remember correctly:

-Go into Disk Utility > Partitions
-Change the Volume Scheme from current to # of partitions
-Click and Drag to resize partitions
-Click Option to make sure each partition is set up for Intel Macs, PPC Macs or windows.

 

[m.a.c.b.o.y]

thank you very much. i got everything partitioned. as i am typing this i am doing my first time machine back up. i made 2 partitions. one for just random data that doesnt need to be on my computer hard drive, and one for time machine.
thank you again

 

[mfsteelers]

I just got a 1TB ext. HD for my MacBook Pro today, and this really helped me out and I just wanted to say thanks.

 

[iamanimale]

cheers!

just joined as this is the 2nd or 3rd time i've found really useful advice through macrumors. thanks for the help!

 

[Koradian]

I just got a 1TB ext. HD for my MacBook Pro today, and this really helped me out and I just wanted to say thanks.

I just ordered the WD 1TB HD. how exactly are you going to go about your backups? Time Machine?

 

[crazy$hark]

This helped a lot. I have a question though. I have some stuff already on my HDD and if i partition my HDD (because i want part of it for time machine and part to work with windows and mac) will it erase my HDD?

 

[soberbrain]

This helped a lot. I have a question though. I have some stuff already on my HDD and if i partition my HDD (because i want part of it for time machine and part to work with windows and mac) will it erase my HDD?

Yes. Anytime you create a new or change a partition it will erase anything on all partitions on that hard rive.

 

[AppleStem]

Thanks

Thanks for the help. Just got my 2 TB hard drive and didn't want to use it all for my 750 GB laptop hard drive.

 

[chrisoo]

Yes. Anytime you create a new or change a partition it will erase anything on all partitions on that hard rive.

Hi Guys, this sounds stupid but i want to ask haha,
So if i create a partition on my external HD (2tb) with data on it , then ill loose all that data eve n if it fits on the first partition (630g or so)?

thanks heaps.