Why wont this work? External drive with HFS partition and NTFS partition?

[techmonkey]

I am trying to format my external drive to have (2) partitions. A NTFS for backing up my Windows computer and a HFS for backing up my MacBook Pro.

This is what ive tried:

1.) Create 2 partitions on my Mac in Disk Utility. 1 partition HFS, 1 partition FAT32. After doing this both show up in OSX but neither one shows up in WinXP. I was hoping the FAT32 would show up in WinXP so I can convert it to NTFS.

2.) Create 2 partitions in WinXP using Disk Management. 1 partition is NTFS and 1 is FAT32. Connected the drive to my MBP and both partitions mounted in Finder. I then opened Disk Utility and tried to "Erase" the FAT32 partition to HFS. The process seemed to be working but then it changed the name of the partition to disk1s1 and nothing else. The partition doesnt mount in Finder or WinXP.

3.) Create 2 partitions in WinXP using Disk Managment. Both partitions as NTFS. Connected to MBP and both partitions mounted in Finder. Opened Disk Utility and tried to "Erase" one of the NTFS systems to HFS. Same thing happen as #2, renamed the partition but didnt do anything else. The partition doesnt show up in Finder or WinXP.

This is getting pretty aggravating. Anyone have any tips on what I am doing wrong? Whats the best method to use?

 

[Trip.Tucker]

Which partition scheme are you using?

 

[techmonkey]

Which partition scheme are you using?

What do you mean? As stated in my title, I want a NTFS partition and a HFS partition.

 

[BobZune]

What do you mean? As stated in my title, I want a NTFS partition and a HFS partition.

Partition scheme (Apple Partition Map/APM, GUID Partition table/GPT, Master Boot Record/MBR) is a level higher in the hierarchy then partition format. Looks like you are using APM. Try GUID.

Someone posted a picture here http://www.flickr.com/photos/35468141938@N01/2390821455 (click OPTIONS to get the pop up, you can ignore the rest of the comments on the picture about bootcamp).

Test things out first before committing to use it.

 

[techmonkey]

Partition scheme (Apple Partition Map/APM, GUID Partition table/GPT, Master Boot Record/MBR) is a level higher in the hierarchy then partition format. Looks like you are using APM. Try GUID.

Someone posted a picture here http://www.flickr.com/photos/35468141938@N01/2390821455 (click OPTIONS to get the pop up, you can ignore the rest of the comments on the picture about bootcamp).

Test things out first before committing to use it.

Ah, ok, sorry about that. I am using MBR since that is what Windows uses. I will try again with GUID. Should I format the drive in Windows and make 2 NTFS partitions, then come goto OSX and Erase one of the partitions to HFS+ using GUID ?

 

[BobZune]

Ah, ok, sorry about that. I am using MBR since that is what Windows uses. I will try again with GUID. Should I format the drive in Windows and make 2 NTFS partitions, then come goto OSX and Erase one of the partitions to HFS+ using GUID ?

Partition on the Mac with GUID, format the HFS+ partition, then take it to Windows machine and format the other partition for NTFS.

[If XP fails to recognize the disk partitions -- this may happen if you have 32 bit WinXP, see http://www.mediafour.com/products/gptmounter/ ]. Let us know how you get on.

 

[techmonkey]

Well, it worked the way I did it option #1 that I described in my first post again, this time it worked. I made sure MBR was selected, since my other external drives are set for that.

Not sure why it worked this time, maybe I didnt have MBR selected last time.

On a related note, anyone know a free app that lets you read HFS+ partitions in Windows? I wanted to use FAT32 for my backups, but the image I am backing up is 90GB, so FAT32 isnt an option.

 

[BillG07]

Actually FAT32 does not have any practical size limits. (I want to say the real limit is 4 TB or something like that). However windows doesn't let you make it any larger than 32 GB I believe purely to get people to use NTFS. If you make the FAT32 partition on your mac you can make it whatever size you wish.

Unless you're saying that 90 GB is treated like one file, in which case FAT32 won't work as its over the 4 GB single file limit. In that case ignore this post.

 

[techmonkey]

Actually FAT32 does not have any practical size limits. (I want to say the real limit is 4 TB or something like that). However windows doesn't let you make it any larger than 32 GB I believe purely to get people to use NTFS. If you make the FAT32 partition on your mac you can make it whatever size you wish.

Unless you're saying that 90 GB is treated like one file, in which case FAT32 won't work as its over the 4 GB single file limit. In that case ignore this post.

True for the partition size, not the filesize. There is a 4GB max limit on filesize. As I said earlier, I backup to a image file thats about 90GB.

 

[DLH]

Well, it worked the way I did it option #1 that I described in my first post again, this time it worked. I made sure MBR was selected, since my other external drives are set for that.

Not sure why it worked this time, maybe I didnt have MBR selected last time.

You may already know this, but if you ever decide you want to be able to boot your mac from the external (HFS) partition, you won't be able to with it set to MBR.

Intel-based macs need it set to GUID and PowerPC-based need APM.

It's easier to correct this know when you don't have anything on the drive.

 

[techmonkey]

You may already know this, but if you ever decide you want to be able to boot your mac from the external (HFS) partition, you won't be able to with it set to MBR.

Intel-based macs need it set to GUID and PowerPC-based need APM.

It's easier to correct this know when you don't have anything on the drive.

Yes, I know this. This drive is actually a second backup for my Mac. I also backup to a portable external drive and do a bootable clone. The drive I am using on this thread is just a backup to an image file, so I couldnt boot to it.