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My external HDD only showing Time machine backup folder?

Hi, Need help! So I got WD Elements external 2 TB hard drive. I did two partition of it (screenshot):

  1. Time Machine with size 784 GB
  2. My personal folder with size 1.22 TB


So in external WD hard drive, I made two partitions, one for Time Machine Backup and one for Personal Folder where I put photos/docs/vids etc. Before in the hard drive it used to show my Personal Folder and I used to access too. Once the space on personal folder partition got fulled, that personal folder is not showing up or cant access anymore and only Time Machine folder shows (screenshot).


I checked in disk utility and it still shows both partition. So I know folder & files are still there.

After this I removed WD HDD as my Time Machine drive from iMac but whenever I plugged in its still shows Time Machine folder even though its not time machine drive anymore. And still I cannot see Personal Folder in drive.


I tried disk utility but its not enabling me to add more space on my Personal folder partition, its only allowing to create extra partition or add more space on Time machine partition.


I dnt want to loose files and family pictures from my Personal folder. Is there anyway I can retrieve those folder without needing to spend money?

iMac 27″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Mar 21, 2023 10:32 AM

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Posted on Mar 21, 2023 11:10 AM

This is a classic example of why you should not use the same drive for Time Machine and other backup or storage. Disk Utility can not allocate more space from the first to the second partition. You must erase the drive resize it and start over.


However, before you do anything you need to copy the data on the second partition to you internal drive or another external drive.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 21, 2023 11:10 AM in response to asim18

This is a classic example of why you should not use the same drive for Time Machine and other backup or storage. Disk Utility can not allocate more space from the first to the second partition. You must erase the drive resize it and start over.


However, before you do anything you need to copy the data on the second partition to you internal drive or another external drive.

My external HDD only showing Time machine backup folder?

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