how to partition with disk utility after formatting whole volume

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by Sossity, Mar 15, 2011.

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  1. Sossity, Mar 15, 2011

    Sossity macrumors 65816

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    May 12, 2010
    #1
    I have a 2TB western digital hard drive that I will have formatted to MS-DOS or fat 32 with disk utility, but later on would like a partition to accommodate files bigger than fat 32's file size limit.

    can I do this? & how?

    also, if I have cloned the contents from another hard drive onto this 2TB one that is just formatted as one whole fat 32 volume, can I make a partition with another format for bigger files? or must the drive have no content on it? what I mean is if there is room on the 2TB drive, can I make a partition with disk utility to the free space & leave alone the part that is fat 32 with content on it? or must the whole drive be blank?

    say later on, I want to move my bigger files to another separate drive, can I wipe the partiton off the 2TB drive? & still have the fat 32 partition with it's content?
     
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  2. misee, Mar 15, 2011

    misee macrumors member

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    Jul 4, 2010
    #2
    You can use Disk Utility to add a new partition without losing the data that you already have. This should work with Leopard (10.5) and newer.
    To do so, follow these steps:
    1. Select the Volume you want to format in Disk Utility
    2. Click the Partition tab
    3. Click the + button
    4. Click Apply
    For more information, read the Disk Utility help.
    To delete a partition, just click the - button.
     
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  3. Patrick946, Mar 15, 2011

    Patrick946 macrumors regular

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2009
    #3
    You can as long as your drive is formatted in GUID and HFS+. I had a drive formatted as Master Boot Record for some reason and I was unable to alter partitions without erasing the content on them. Now that I reformatted in GUID, I can change the size and number of partitions on the fly.
     
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  4. Sossity, Mar 15, 2011

    Sossity thread starter macrumors 65816

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    May 12, 2010
    #4
    Right now my drive is formatted to fat 32, will I be able to or remove partitions?

    & if I use mac's format of HFS on the partition, which one would be best?
     
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  5. GGJstudios, Mar 15, 2011

    GGJstudios macrumors Westmere

    GGJstudios

    Joined:
    May 16, 2008
    #5
    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.
    • exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
    • 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
     
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  6. Malene Espensen, Mar 22, 2011

    Malene Espensen macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    May 11, 2009
    #6
    i Have 2 50GB partition each of which 50 used and 50 Freespace, i want to resize the partition and create a new 100 GB partition, would it be good to delete the unused partition or format the existing partition...
    In what cases we use resize, delete or format options.. and if there is resize option then why delete option or format..
     
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