Question regarding Hard Drive Partitioning

[macbookairman]

I have a WD 500GB External Hard drive, and a MacBook with Leopard. I have been using the WD 500GB for Time Machine. What I would like to do is partition it so that it has 60 GB's of space that can be used on Windows.


I have been using the drive with time machine for almost a year now, so erasing it isn't an option. I found out though, that in Leopard, you can partition a drive without erasing anything.

SO, i went into disk utility, chose the size of partition i wanted, but I don't know what format to make it so that the 60GB partition will work with Windows. The options it gives me are "Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive) and Free Space.

If i create a partition and choose the format for that partition to be Free Space, can i plug it into a windows computer will it work? what do i have to do?

 

[spinnerlys]

You can use HFSExplorer for Windows to read and write to a Mac OS Filesystem in Windows.

As for the lack of a Windows compatible filesystem in the Disk Utility: I'm baffled too.

 

[misterredman]

The lack of a windows compatible formatting is probably due to the fact that your drive partition map is either GUID or Apple partition map and not MBR. I don't think you can change that without erasing the drive.

 

[macbookairman]

thanks!

the HFS explorer program worked great. i was able to transfer all my files with that.

Thanks misterredman for the heads up on that formatting issue.

I think i'm still going to partition my HD so that Time Machine won't overwrite my personal files.