Will disk utility partitioning erase whats on my harddrive?

[chriscordell]

Hi everyone!

I have a hard drive with about 250 gb of film and music on fbut it's formatted as HFS+ which windows cant read!

I need to partition the drive to make windows be able to read at least a portion of it. But If I run disk utility and create a partition will it erase the info I already have on there?

I don't have this data else where so I hope it wont!

Thanks in advance

Chris

 

[gsahli]

Yes, partitioning will erase the files.
Consider getting Macdrive:
http://www.mediafour.com/
or HFS for Windows
http://paragonsoftware.wordpress.co...eaway-hfs-for-windows-50000-license-giveaway/

 

[balamw]

Or use the free HFSExplorer http://www.catacombae.org/hfsx.html or use the official Boot Camp driver to enable read only access to HFS+ in Windows. e.g. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/783063/

B

 

[chriscordell]

Thanks

Cheers guys, yeah I need to write to it as well and transfer the files from windows computers that aren't mine. So I think I'm gonna need to back up the info else where and reformat me thinks

Thanks anyways!

Chris

 

[Fishrrman]

"I have a hard drive with about 250 gb of film and music on fbut it's formatted as HFS+ which windows cant read!
I need to partition the drive to make windows be able to read at least a portion of it. But If I run disk utility and create a partition will it erase the info I already have on there?"

Take my advice for the value of what you paid for it, but here's what I think.

If the data on the drive you have NOW is important to you, do not trust it to any drive that is "dual-formatted" or is formatted in a Windows-compatible format.

Leave that data on the Mac-format-only (HFS+) drive, and get ANOTHER drive that is formatted for use with both the Mac and PC.

I've seen a number of posts from folks who had dual-partitioned drives, and one day (usually while hooked up to a PC) the Mac partitions on their drives just went.... POOF!

It's not worth the trouble. Drives are cheap.

Keep the important stuff on a Mac-only drive.

Keep whatever else you want on the dual-platform drive.

 

[sushi]

Just a reminder, before doing anything involving partitioning of your HDD, I would suggest that make sure you have a good back up.

 

[balamw]

Just a reminder, before doing anything involving partitioning of your HDD, I would suggest that make sure you have a good back up.

And to echo what Fishrrman said. Drives are cheap. A 500 GB external USB 2.0 drive can be had for ~US$60.

Leaving the data where it is and creating a new copy is the easiest form of backup.

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