Why is it impossible to partition the TM volume???

[theman]

I have a 320gb external used for TM and it currently only is about 100gb full. I want to make a 50gb partition with FAT32 so I can transfer files between Mac and Windows easily (in boot camp). when I go to disk utility, and select the drive, all the partitioning options are grayed out... what is going on?

 

[theman]

i tried both... neither work! selecting the volume doesnt even give me a partition tab. if i select the drive, i get the tab, but all the options are gray. the partition map picture is just white (no blue to show how full it is).

 

[JNB]

Sorry, deleted my previous post, it was pointless. The Partition tab only appears when the drive is selected. Are you logged on as a user with sufficient privileges? Try posting a screen shot of the Disk Utility window with the drive selected, give us a better idea what may be the issue.

 

[theman]

Ok, first is the picture with my external drive selected. I can't do anything really.

Next is with my internal volume selected. Notice how there is little diagonal lines in the corner of my Mac partition that i can drag to resize the partition. The smaller partition is my Boot Camp partition.

 

[JNB]

First use the drop-down (see pic), then modify the new partition to FAT.

 

[theman]

so, i select "2 partitions"? it makes 2 equally sized partitions.... will this not delete all my data?

 

[JNB]

When you select the number of partitions, you can adjust the size of each prior to committing. Unfortunately, even in Leopard an initial split is destructive, but iPartition will manage live partitioning nondestructively. It isn't Leopard-certified yet, as I recall.

 

[theman]

ok, that sucks. i should have partitioned it when i first got i then...

vmware fusion allows copying directly between mac and windows right? i might buy that and load it to my BC partition.

 

[JNB]

I don't know about Fusion (it is likely the case), but Parallels allows that, in fact launching Parallels using the BC partition, no additional bottle required.

Remember that for copying between Mac & PC, FAT allows RW in both directions, but the MacOS is read-only from NTFS.

 

[Europe calling]

I once used Volumeworks to succesfully partition a drive with content on it. That worked fine but i don't know if there is a Leopard version of this program.

Check out versiontracker to find out more.

 

[theman]

I went out and bought VMWare fusion and it works perfectly. I set it up to run of my BC partition, and now I can just drag files from explorer into finder, or onto the desktop. It's pretty spiffy. thanks for all the help John.

 

[theBB]

I have a 320gb external used for TM and it currently only is about 100gb full. I want to make a 50gb partition with FAT32 so I can transfer files between Mac and Windows easily (in boot camp).

There is a free utility that allows Windows to import from HFS+ volumes, called "HFS Explorer". If all you need is occasional transfers to Windows, it might be good enough. Mac can read NTFS anyways.

 

[JNB]

I went out and bought VMWare fusion and it works perfectly. I set it up to run of my BC partition, and now I can just drag files from explorer into finder, or onto the desktop. It's pretty spiffy. thanks for all the help John.

Anytime for a Zeppelin junkie!