Partitioning 1TB HDD - what to use or not

[Mitaka27]

I am new to the Mac world. I have search the net and here but haven't been able to find a suitable answer to my question as yet.

I have a brand new 27inch iMac with a 1 TB HDD which I want to partition in order to store graphics (photos and the like), movies and music on. I am also considering installing Windows7 if I can't get Codeweavers Crossover Mac Pro working in order to bring over some of my old Windows programs. I have tried iPartition 3 2 0 but without much luck. I leave the bootable DVD in the drive and press "C" on boot but it just seems to freeze. I haven't tried placing the image on an external USB HDD as yet because I am not confident as yet as to what I am doing with the mac.

My questions are:

1. Should I be partitioning an iMac in the first place in order to store such data?
2. If I do partition, then what software do you recommend?

Your help or advice would certainly be appreciated.

Mitaka27

 

[waloshin]

Mac's built in disk partitioner is pretty good,but I would personally use Gparted.

 

[Mitaka27]

Thanks for the quick reply. Will a GParted boot disk work on a SATA drive? And will I still need to use the "C" key on boot up? At the moment the installed iPartition soft says that I can't format from within the partition. I am not sure about the "built in disk partitioner" utility as I have never used it before. I have always used Hiren's Boot CD in Windows for this function.

Once again thanks for the advice. Very much appreciated.

Mitaka27

 

[SpookyLars]

Boot iMac from Install DVD (key "c" on boot up), run Disk Utility (from menu Utilities), select disk and go to tab Partition.

 

[MCRunning]

I just use Disk Utility. It gets the job done.

 

[Mitaka27]

Thanks SpookyLars, that worked. I managed 4 partitions - 3 Partitions. 3 MAC OS and 1 WIN DOS for my Windows. The only problem is that the Win partition is FAT32 and I want NTFS. Any suggestions on how to change that anybody?

Many thanks again.

Mitaka27

Getting to love this Mac though. Cool

 

[SpookyLars]

The only problem is that the Win partition is FAT32 and I want NTFS. Any suggestions on how to change that anybody?

Select correct file system during Windows installation.