partitioning a time machine disk

[bobbypotluck]

disk utility dosnt seem too happy with adding a partition to my existing time machine disk. It has 750GB capacity, with over 200GB avail. i'm just trying to add a 70GB partition and it raises errors every time. i even tried using a mac that dosnt recognize it as a time machine disk, just a usb drive. still no luck. i cant delete the data on this drive, so its important i just resize and partition without deleting. any tips? any other options other than disk utility out there?

 

[doylee01]

you have to format the hard disc first before you can add any more partitions or take any partitions away. i think...

 

[bobbypotluck]

it is formated. thats the first thing i did when i bought it. It's Mac OS Extended Journaled Case Sensitive. every-time it says "there is not enough space on the drive" That makes no sense.

edit: just attempted a 30gb partition with the same "no space left" error. Is it because the time machine backup files are too large to move around? if that is the case i'm willing to delete those files. the files i need to keep arent in the time machine backup folder, they're on the hard drive itself.

 

[doylee01]

I think you need to erase the drive to repartition it, thats how i understand it anyway looking at disk utility

 

[BobZune]

Some thoughts - perhaps you can use them to derive a solution:

IF the drive has any valuable data, I won't recommend resizing it on the fly and creating new partition (unless you have a reliable backup of that important data somewhere else).

Don't use the case sensitive HFS+ unless you have a very good reason. See http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=2003111009264885 (and possibly other places) for some warnings.

Leopard's Disk Utility (DU) should be able to make partitions on the fly, IF there is contiguous space and the OS is not booted from that drive. If your drive has been in use for a while, there may not be 70GB (or 30GB) of contiguous space and that is most likely the problem. [There may be other variables like required GUID partition table.]

Given all that, your best option may be to copy at least the non-TM files somewhere else, repartition the disk (preferably with GUID partition table), them redo a full TM backup (and copy the non-TM files to the disk if you want them there.

If you feel more adventurous, you can defragment the TM disk (the ones that will do that I know of commercial versions only) and try creating a partition on the fly with DU -- but some of these commercial tools with do that without using the DU.