Partition External Hard Drive

[dckj95]

I have a WD 640GB External drive and i would like to partition some for time machine and some for storing my files. i just have some questions:
1) If i partition the drive into 2, in the future can i join the two partitions together again?
2) does the whole external drive have to have the same file system like HFS or NTFS or can one partition be HFS+ for time machine and the other partition NTFS to make it readable on windows?
thanks so much.

 

[GoCubsGo]

You cannot partition then later decide to "join" the two. You'd have to repartition to one partition and it will ultimately erase your data.

You can also have different file systems for each partition.

 

[sushi]

1. Yes, in concept. However, if you have data stored on the partition you want to delete and join with the other partition, you will need to move the data elsewhere before you can combine your two partitions into one. Note, I believe Drive Genius can combine two partitions.

2. Don't confuse partitioning with formatting. They are not the same thing. You can partition a hard drive as GUID, APF and other. You can format the partitions that you create as NTFS, FAT32, HFS+ and other. If you partition as NTFS, with Mac OS X you can read files but cannot write files to that partition. However, there is third party software that allows the Mac to see and read a NTFS formatted partition.

 

[dckj95]

If you partition as NTFS, with Mac OS X you can read files but cannot write files to that partition. However, there is third party software that allows the Mac to see and read a NTFS formatted partition.

What about if I partition that as FAT32, then both Mac OS X and Windows will be able to read it?

 

[sushi]

What about if I partition that as FAT32, then both Mac OS X and Windows will be able to read it?

Yes. Both Mac OS X and Windows can read and write to a partition formatted as FAT32.

There are some limitations to FAT32 such as the max file size that you can save.