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Partitioning Existing External HD

keekl

keekl

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2008
175
0
PA
I have a 250 GB external I've been using for Time Machine since late 2007. I happened to check it today and it was nearly full~so I'm in that process of deleting some of the older data (that process is taking forever).

I would like to partition this external and use some space for iPhoto since my main HD is getting full. Is this a fool's mission? I can understand if I started from scratch but with a nearly full one is it possible?

I do have backup off site (Carbonite)~~maybe it would be easier to erase the external and start fresh?

Thank you for your help.:)
 
If it were me, yes, I would erase the external with Disk Utility and partition fresh
Restart Time Machine and let it start over from today

Just realize, whatever you store on the external will not be backed up if you take it off your internal HD

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
bumping up for others' consideration~~thank you kindly:)
 
As someone else mentioned, perhaps the best thing to do is just re-initialize the drive, partition as desired, and "start over".

I'm NOT a fan of Time Machine for backups, preferring either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. If you use either of these to "clone" your main drive, the backup is fully bootable. You can't boot from a Time Machine backup, which could become critical in a moment of need.

Use the other partition to store a backup or dupe of your photos, but I would suggest that you NOT use it as your "primary storage" folder for iPhoto. Leave that in your home folder and just create a copy of that folder on the external drive. If you have pics that you want to "archive" (i.e., photos that you wish to keep, but no longer want to maintain in your "active" iPhoto folder), create an archive file for them somewhere and "move them out".

The easiest way to copy your photos to a backup drive is to just do a "drag-n-copy" of your "home/Pictures" folder to another location.

Actually, for archiving older files, if you want to put them somewhere safe that has longevity, consider archving them to "gold-covered" CDR's. These aren't as expensive as they sound (about $1.00 per 700mb CDR), and can be bought in 50 and 100-packs at reasonable prices from places like amazon.com (I recommend Verbatim media). These will have a shelf life of 50-100 years assuming you take precautions to store them carefully. They will outlast you!
 
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