Should I partition and external hard drive??

brilehnhof wrote:

I know this is an old question, with several good threads. I wanted to make sure the answer is still yes.

I am setting up a LaCie 1 Tb portable drive to use as storage for music, videos, pictures, etc. I have been using a network-sharded drive to back up TM with via wifi, but I will forseably use this new portable drivre for TM instead in the future. So... is it still best to partition the external drive, so as to have TM side of the drive and a side for everything else?

My HD is 160 GD on the MacBook, so I am thinking of partitioning 325GB for the TM side.

Any thought? Recomendations? Criticism?

Thank you!

Yep, that is still fine and relevant info. I would personally give 500GB to the Time Machine partition though.

Cheers

Pete

Hello:

Based on your post, I would partition the external HD. Partitioning internal HDs is a bad idea, IMHO.

Incidentally, if all of the other things you mention are on your internal HD, there is really no reason to replicate them.

I am paranoid about backups (I have two external HDs). I use one for TM and a bootable clone, the second for just a bootable clone.

Barry

Hi:

If you are moving things to free internal HD space, I understand. If you do not need internal HD space (10-15% free at all times), there is really no reason to move things from the internal HD.

Incidentally, I am not being critical - just making observations. 😀

Barry

Barry Hemphill wrote:

Hi:

If you are moving things to free internal HD space, I understand. If you do not need internal HD space (10-15% free at all times), there is really no reason to move things from the internal HD.

Incidentally, I am not being critical - just making observations. 😀

Barry

I think the OP simply wants a partition for Time Machine on his/her external drive and a partition for general backups, such as music, photos etc, that they don't require on their HardDrive (to free up space) but would like to preserve if and when they may be neded to access in the future. I don't think they were intending to partition their HardDrive.

Cheers

Pete

You are most welcome! 🙂

At the risk of sounding like a commercial, these are the best on-line forums anywhere. Those of us that try to help others do so because we simply enjoy trying to solve problems and, at the same time, make someone's life a little less frustrating. The speedy response, in my case, was timing. We are all volunteers, so we have no schedule of appearances here. 😎

Barry

Ditto

Happy Computing

Pete

I bought a 2T external hard drive for my PC, but I also want to be able to transfer my Mac files to it; I was advised by someone on this forum to format the external drive as Fat32. I've been reading up on-line about the options for formatting and it seems exFAT32 is preferable in that it can work with large files, whereas FAT32 can work with files no larger than 4GB.

My Q is: I haven't formatted it yet a) because I don't know how:) and b) I want to know if I need partitions, and if yes, how do I decide what partitions to make and how big they should each be? The external hard drive is a Seagate one and Seagate don't actually spoon feed us through the how to's.

I've received such amazing help from this forum for my other issues, I thought I'd come along and ask about this too!

Many thanks!

My Q is: I haven't formatted it yet a) because I don't know how:)

Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility

Suggest "exFAT" which will allow larger than 4GB individual files, and will work with Windows.

After you format it, before putting more than a sample file on the volume, take it to your Windows system and make sure you can be read/write. Once that is confirmed, you can proceed to dump stuff on to it.

and b) I want to know if I need partitions, and if yes, how do I decide what partitions to make and how big they should each be? The external hard drive is a Seagate one and Seagate don't actually spoon feed us through the how to's.

That would depend on whether you wanted to use it for more than just a transfer device. Otherwise don't bother.

NOTE: I DO NOT know what requirements Windows has on the type of partition table to be used.

Master Book Record (MBR) is typical for a Windows system, but I do not know if it will accept a GUID (which is typical for a Mac, but the Mac can read MBR)). But if you wanted a bootable Mac OS X partition, then you would need to use GUID.

This is one of the reasons you should test to make sure, after formatting, that the drive can be read and written by both Mac OS X and Windows. Setting partition type is in Disk Utility -> Partition -> Options, and changing the partition tables wipes the disk, so you want to find out before you spend a lot of time transferring lots of data to the drive.

Thanks Bob! I was actually thinking of formatting it on my Windows PC, and then putting some files on from my Mac, and seeing if I can read/write, etc.

Is there any reason I shouldn't format it on my PC?

One last Q: can I create folders for organising my files on the external *without* partitioning the drive? So, if I decide not to partition the drive, can I still create folders for organising my stuff, etc.

Best wishes....

I was actually thinking of formatting it on my Windows PC, and then putting some files on from my Mac, and seeing if I can read/write, etc.

Is there any reason I shouldn't format it on my PC?

Formatting the drive as exFAT on the PC is fine. FAT32 is OK, as long as you do not want files larger than 4GB in size.

One last Q: can I create folders for organising my files on the external *without* partitioning the drive? So, if I decide not to partition the drive, can I still create folders for organising my stuff, etc.

Yes, you can create folders.

If you have a reason for partitions, you can create partitions too. I went partition crazy in my youth. I've mostly given that up, as I always guessed wrong about how big a partition should be.

Partitioning internal HDs is a bad idea, IMHO.

At no point did the OP suggest this.