New External HD: Transfer strategies?

[cleo]

I currently have a 500GB external hard drive which is split into two partitions of equal size, one for Time Machine and another for video.

I recently bought a new 1TB drive that I'd like to use for my video files, giving the full 500GB drive to Time Machine.

My question is, how do I do this without losing data? If I move the video to the new drive, is it possible to delete that partition on the old one and "open up" the space without reformatting (and losing my backups)? Or can I temporarily move everything to the new drive, reformat the old one, then replace Time Machine?

I feel like this is that old riddle about the three animals needing to cross the river without killing one another!

 

[r.j.s]

Move everything to the new drive, then format and replace the TM info.

 

[cleo]

Is it just a matter of drag-and-drop with TM? I read (somewhere on the internets ) that you have to use Disk Utility -> Restore to move TM around.

 

[sickmacdoc]

If your original 500Gb drive was formatted for Mac use fully (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition map) when it was partitioned AND your TM backup is on the first partition, it is a simple matter to give all the space to TM without requiring any moving of the TM data.

• Copy the video data you want to keep to the other drive
• Go into Disk Utility
• Highlight the 500Gb drive on the left (the whole drive line, not a partition on it)
• Click the "Partition" tab at the top
• Click the second partition in the map displayed
• Click the little "-" sign at the lower left to delete the partition (the space formerly occupied by it will turn gray)
• Drag the bottom of the remaining partition all the way down indicating that it will use the whole drive
• Click "Apply", read the summary of what is going to happen and then hit "OK"

Job done!