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How to parition external HDD

vong

vong

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 31, 2010
847
8
hello, I currently have a 1 TB external HDD that i use to back up my macbook pro. tryin' to partition it to MS-DOS (FAT) for my little bro to use on his windows computer. i keep getting the error:

"Partition Failed

Partition Failed with the error:

Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed"

any help?
 
vong said:
hello, I currently have a 1 TB external HDD that i use to back up my macbook pro. tryin' to partition it to MS-DOS (FAT) for my little bro to use on his windows computer. i keep getting the error:

"Partition Failed

Partition Failed with the error:

Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed"

any help?
Click to expand...

I've gotten that before too, I'd also like to hear the answer!
 
what i did to get rid of the error:

1) right clicked on everythin' and tried first aid
2) first aid only worked for the partition for me (in this case my time machine back up)

i would use that guide but i have backups on this external and i do not want to lose it. i'll report back how it works lol
 
GermanyChris said:
And that has sometimes not worked with fat 32, and sometimes it has.
Click to expand...

You mean using "MBR" as partition map scheme? If the HDD is solely used with FAT32, exFAT or NTFS, one can use Windows to properly format the HDD.

GGJstudios said:
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
Click to expand...
 
simsaladimbamba said:
You mean using "MBR" as partition map scheme? If the HDD is solely used with FAT32, exFAT or NTFS, one can use Windows to properly format the HDD.
Click to expand...

i dont get what that means, i've been tryin' to partition 200GB for my little bro, the external uses 1TB all for my time machine, currently time machine is taking up only 400GB, so there is 600GB left over roughly. when I try to create it for 200GB for my little bro, it says "not enough space"???
 
vong said:
i dont get what that means, i've been tryin' to partition 200GB for my little bro, the external uses 1TB all for my time machine, currently time machine is taking up only 400GB, so there is 600GB left over roughly. when I try to create it for 200GB for my little bro, it says "not enough space"???
Click to expand...
likely that the partition map scheme used is GUID, which Windows can't read. The problem is, that even though there appear to be 600GB free, the 400GB of data on the HDD are scattered around the whole HDD, thus there is no continuous space of 200GB to format.
To get rid of that, you need to clone your 400GB of data onto another HDD and then reformat the HDD again, maybe even partitioning it already.
But know, that TM doesn't work with MBR formatted HDDs: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1550

But as I just found out, Windows can read GUID (GPT) formatted HDDs, thus you should be fine.

Also know, that every HDD can fail, and it is always good to have two backups.
I have two backups of my important data (mostly photos and video footage), thus I have three copies of each file on three different HDDs.
 
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