Partitioning Software

[xreyuk]

Hi guys,

I currently have a 2TB external HDD, with a single partition, formatted in NTFS. I want to change this to a 2 partition, one in NTFS and one in HFS+. According to disk utility, I can't do this.

Are there any pieces of software that will allow this?

 

[42streetsdown]

You could you ExFAT instead of NTFS. Disk utility supports that. What do you need NTFS for?

 

[GGJstudios]

To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)

 

[xreyuk]

I have Paragon NTFS drivers for mac, should this work, or do I need the NTFS 3G ones as above? Am I okay to keep them both installed or use one or the other?

Would this be the reason I can't shrink the NTFS partition?

 

[MisterMe]

I have Paragon NTFS drivers for mac, should this work, or do I need the NTFS 3G ones as above? Am I okay to keep them both installed or use one or the other?

Would this be the reason I can't shrink the NTFS partition?

NTFS-3G is a free NTFS driver. Paragon NTFS is a commercial NTFS driver. If you are one of are few people for whom the license fee for Paragon is worth it, then you don't need to install NTFS-3G also.

You did not tell us that you had both installed. Uninstall NTFS-3G. You can't have two drivers fighting over the same device.

 

[xreyuk]

I don't have both drivers installed yet, I was asking whether it was okay to install NTFS-3G, if I already had Paragon.

The disk utility is still telling me I cannot modify the current partition (NTFS) on the external HDD. I want to shrink that partition to create space for an HFS+ partition.

 

[itsmrjon]

You can use gparted to do what you need.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

You would essentially put gparted live on a cd or USB stick, boot into it's operating system (linux), and then resize all partitions outside of mac OSx.

It would give you full control over all disks connected to the system. it is also free, handles HFS and HFS+(case sensitive and non) as well as NTFS.

However if you have a newer mac there may be some compatibility issues with bluetooth peripherals and wifi (when booting into the linux kernel on the live cd).

 

[xreyuk]

You can use gparted to do what you need.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

You would essentially put gparted live on a cd or USB stick, boot into it's operating system (linux), and then resize all partitions outside of mac OSx.

It would give you full control over all disks connected to the system. it is also free, handles HFS and HFS+(case sensitive and non) as well as NTFS.

However if you have a newer mac there may be some compatibility issues with bluetooth peripherals and wifi (when booting into the linux kernel on the live cd).

Thanks, I'll give this a go.