partitioning without erasing data

[veedeekay]

Dear All

I have an external drive that I have only been using for cloning my hard drive. I would like to partition it to allow for time machine. Is the a way to do this without erasing the cloned info or should I just remove the cloned info and partition afresh with a volume for time machine as well.
Also, do you think I should put the copy of operating system (Snow Leopard) also into a third partition please?

Thank you
Veedeekay

 

[AdrianK]

Dear All

I have an external drive that I have only been using for cloning my hard drive. I would like to partition it to allow for time machine. Is the a way to do this without erasing the cloned info or should I just remove the cloned info and partition afresh with a volume for time machine as well.
Also, do you think I should put the copy of operating system (Snow Leopard) also into a third partition please?

Thank you
Veedeekay

What filesystem is it? To find out; right click the drive in the Finder sidebar > Get Info > Look under 'Format'.

If it's 'Mac OS X Extended' (journaled or otherwise) that should be fine.
In order to shrink it:-

• Open Disk Utility from Applications > Disk Utility
• Select the hard drive on the right
• Click on the partitions tab
• Under 'Partition Layout', drag the handle upward to set the new size, alternatively you can enter the size you want on the right
• Click the empty space underneath and press the + button to create a new partition
• Name it whatever you want (this can be changed later), set the format as 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' (this should be the default anyway)
• Hit 'Apply'!

Before you do this, just be warned that something could go wrong and data may be lost. It shouldn't happen, but if you can you should back up all import data on the drive.

 

[veedeekay]

partitioning without erasing data

Thank you very much for info - worked
Veedeekay