Intel Mac :: Formatting And Partitioning External HDD
Mar 11, 2012
Still new to iMAC (1TB). I have an external HDD 1.5TB and initiated TimeMachine (seems easy and fit for purpose) to keep a backup of everything on the iMAC. The iMAC did not come with an installation disc - apparently I would need to download the OS again should it fail or corrupt - unfortunately I have a VERY slow net connection - is there any way of backing it up to the external HDD to avoid having to download?
I believe I can purchase a copy of Lion in a flash drive - but I have already paid for Lion when I bought the machine? Would cloning sort this issue? If so - should I put the clone (Using something like CCC) in a separate partition? Have come across Recovery Agent - does it need to go in a separate partition? Finally - for now (!!) if I have to create any new partitions on the external HDD will it erase existing files, meaning I have to restart Time Machine?
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Apr 1, 2012
how to properly format and partition an ext drive using Disk Utility. I will be making a clone using CCC.
Info:
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Jan 26, 2010
I have an intel iMac (non-aluminum) without an operating system. But there are lots of important files on the iMac's hard drive. Can I install OS X Tiger on it without erasing any files, and still have them be accessible on the computer? If so, how?
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Mar 17, 2012
I bought a 2 TB Western Digital external HD for my iMac and instructions say it's set for PC and needs to be formatted for OSX. It sounds simple enough, but I'm new to Apple and want to make sure all I do is to reformat the HD thru Disk Utility.
Info:iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2.5 GHz 2GB Ram 500GB external
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Apr 2, 2012
I recently bought an external 1TB Samsung usb disk for my Imac.I cant get the disk to partition or format correctly.Disk utility just keeps hanging waiting for the disk to reappear!
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Nov 9, 2010
I'd like to partition my external HD into two parts: one for Time Machine and one for storing photos and other files so I can free up some space on my internal HD.
I've been using it out of the box for Time Machine for about a month now. I'm just wondering if I can partition it as it is with the backups on it already or do I have to wipe it clean, partition it, then start over with Time Machine? I would just like a 200 GB partition for Time Machine and the rest for storing data.
Also, Disk Utility is a little confusing. It has my external HD in there and then there is a "sub drive" (not sure the technical name.. sorry) under that? That's just drive that Time Machine made more or less? And every time I partition it, there will be a "sub drive" for each partition?
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Jan 9, 2010
I have a 250 GB external I've been using for Time Machine since late 2007. I happened to check it today and it was nearly full~so I'm in that process of deleting some of the older data (that process is taking forever).
I would like to partition this external and use some space for iPhoto since my main HD is getting full. Is this a fool's mission? I can understand if I started from scratch but with a nearly full one is it possible?
I do have backup off site (Carbonite)~~maybe it would be easier to erase the external and start fresh?
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Nov 3, 2007
In the effort to use Time Machine, I want to partition my external drive. I have 500 gig external, and would like to have one partition of 480 and one around 20. This way, Time Machine will only back up onto the smaller partition, not endlessly backing up until all 500 gigs are used. The reason I need to partition without erasing is my 170 gig iTunes library. Its too large to transfer to my internal HD, and I have no other drive to store it on.
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Nov 10, 2010
I purchased a Seagate 500GB external drive for my father to use for Time Machine backups. I can't find anything conclusive on whether I need to monkey around with the partitions in disk utility, or just send him home with it and let him say "yes" when he plugs it in and OS X asks if he wants to use it with Time Machine.
Apple's knowledge base has an article that makes a passing statement that "GUID Partition Table (GPT) or Apple Partition Map (APM)" is recommended- but it pretty much stops there. Should I do something to this drive before giving it to him to take home, or shouldn't I? I mean, either it is compatible as-is, or it isn't, right?
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Jun 16, 2012
I realized Mac OS X 10.7.4 will only read NTFS partitions (can't write to it). I could install a third party driver or use FAT32. I decided to split the external Seagate HDD into two partitions (NTFS and Mac OS Extended FS).
I went to Mac OS X's Disk Utility, but there was no way to partition the current single 500 GB NTFS partition with my existing data. It seems like I have to erase it with my data, and then partition into two. Is that how it supposed to work? This was on a new Mac Mini with all updates.
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Nov 22, 2010
I've got a 500 GB HD in my Intel iMac. I've got a a 500 GB external HD that Time Machine keeps maxed out. I want to partition the external HD to make room for my iTunes music file. I know that partitioning will erase everything. Questions: 1.
When I start up Time Machine after partitioning, will it do a full back up? 2. How do I move my iTunes music file to the external HD? 3. After I move it, will it still behave the same? Any other tips about what I'm wanting to accomplish will be appreciated.
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Feb 12, 2008
My external has been acting weird lately like crashing and just today it started not letting me trash anything off it. So I investigated more into and fiquired out that when I bought it second hand I forgot to format it for Mac. It's formatted with MS-DOS File Systems (FAT32) all this time. Now I don't if that's the reason for the weirdness lately but I think it should be formatted?
Question-although be it a lazy one, is there anyway to format an external HD with moving everything off of it? it has over 67GB of things on it. I can't move it to the internal, cause my poor little G4 is only 19GB. If there isn't anyway to do it, I will have to start burning DVD's I guess. Just wanted to check though.
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Aug 20, 2010
Awhile back I bought a 500 GB Seagate FreeAgent Go external hard drive to backup my 218 GB PC. I used the automatic backup software that came with it and it works fine. After all this I purchased a MacBook Pro and now, instead of buying another drive and also considering there's plenty of space on the one I already have, I was wondering if I could possibly partition half the drive to be used as a backup with Time Machine without touching the other half. I plugged in the drive to my Mac and opened Disk Utility. It says it is a NTFS file system (I suppose that's normal).
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Aug 19, 2008
When I try to format my Western Digital "MyBook" external drive, I get an error. It says "could not unmount the disk." What does this mean, and how do I fix it? Also, what's the difference between Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and not journaled?
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Mar 20, 2008
I just purchased a new 750GB Seagate FreeAgent drive. I hooked it up via FireWire 400, opened Disk Utility and tried to format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). It gave me an error message saying it was the wrong format (or something like that - I can't remember exactly). I tried every Mac OS option and it gave me the same error message.
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Apr 21, 2008
I have an external external 500gb Seagate hard drive, that works fine as a USB external but I wanted to put it inside my MacPro, is this possible without any need to format, just plug and play?
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Dec 26, 2009
if i can partition my Windows NFTS External Hard Drive. I do not want to format it because i have some important files and programs on my External Hard drive, But I also want to use it for Time Machine Backup. I was wondering if it was possible to Not format my Hard drive, Partition it, And then format the 2nd partition to Mac, and use it for time machine. I am using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8
The Capacity of the EHD is 55.9GB
Available: 37.1GB
Used: 18.8GB
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Jul 15, 2008
I've been having problems with 3 Maxtor 500GB 400/800/USB FW drives. They will randomly unmount themselves -- forcing me to turn them off, wait a minute, then turn them back on. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to when they unmount themselves. All three drives had been formatted using Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and I'm on the most recent version of Leopard.
Thinking I had 3 lemons, I called Seagate (who purchased Maxtor) for tech assistance. The tech guy told me that external drives should not be formatted using Journaled, only Mac OS Extended.
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Jan 24, 2010
I just bout this Western Digital External Hard drive, Passport SE. Anyways, I formatted it to MS-DOS (FAT) so I can use on mac and/or windows. One of the other main reasons I bought it was so I could use it to watch videos on my Xbox 360.
Now I've seen tutorials online with windows how to re-format it to FAT32 so it works properly on xbox 360 but cannot figure it out on mac? On some of the tutorials they use certain programs to do it, is there something like that for mac I can download? Is fat32 and fat the same? I know there has to be a way for me to be able to format it to FAT32 using mac.
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Mar 18, 2012
I have an external hard drive which I first used with my pc. It is formatted for NTFS. Now with my new MBP, I want to back up data, and I am having no luck. The external hard drive is a Verbatim brand, 500GB. On their website FAT32 download dosnt work! I have tried disk utility with no luck. What am I missing?
Info:
MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Apr 14, 2012
I am, I hope, at the end of a 36+ hour formatting process with this WD Elements 3TB external drive. I decided to zero out the drive and when I went to bed last night at around 12am, there were about 6 hours left in the process. This morning at aroud 9am I went to check on the drive, expecting it to be ready to go, but I found it writing a temporary file. The progress bar is about 90% done. Is this part of the normal zeroing out process? If so, how long should this take? If this ISN'T part of the normal process, what should I do?
Info:
Mac Mini 2 GHz intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 512 MB DDR SDRAM
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Jun 5, 2012
what are the disadvantages of formatting an external drive as FAT32?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Sep 2, 2010
I just bought a new external hard drive and backed-up my computer onto it. Then today I realized that I didn't format the drive. All I did was follow instruction for hooking it up. Also, I'm a Mac user. Is it customary to do a full and proper format of newly purchased external hard drives? The most I did was verify the disk in disk utility when I first plugged in the HD to my computer. Is that enough?
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Dec 27, 2010
I bought a WD My Book Essential to do Time Machine backups. It is formatted for a PC but I was told I need to format for my IMac before I can use it. How do I do that? Is it a complicated process? I have only been using a Mac for about a year now and am still learning about them.
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May 16, 2012
Ive recently purchased a new external hard drive. I plan to use it on both Apple and Windows OS.
I was told that if I do, then i could corrupt the files/data that I will be accessing on both computers.
Is there a "universal" format for an external drive which would prevent/avoid this kind of thing happening ? How should i format it or which format should i use so that i can use the drive both OS ?
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7)
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Jun 26, 2009
Can I use time machine to back up my data without formatting the external hard drive .. If not please let me know if there is a way to back up to hard drive without using time machine.. Thank you
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Nov 27, 2009
I have an external hard drive that I use to watch movies on a Nintendo Wii and some of the movie files are over 7GB, which means when I format the drive to FAT32 I cannot copy the larger files. What are my options for getting around this problem? I have VMware fusion but I cannot easily see my external drive in XP. Is it possible to format the drive in XP and then transfer everything via VMware on XP?
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Apr 8, 2010
got a real basic question to ask and you're gonna think im an idiot for asking...I just bought a 320gb western digital elements hard drive and want to reformat it so that its compatible for both mac and pc's. i intend to format it as NTFS-3G as it would allow me to use it on the 2 platforms without having the 4GB file size restriction that fat32 has, anyway.....
when I go to reformat my external hard drive in disk utility, I see my external hard drive to the left, and there's a "sub" hard drive as a child of the external hd listed uppermost. just wandering which one of the two do i select before going to Erase>Windows NT filesystem (NTFS-3G)>erase? Do I select the uppermost drive and erase that or the lower one? or both
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Jul 27, 2010
I just got my new Seagate 640gb external hard drive and am in the process of formatting it on my MBP. However, I am not sure which format to do? My main use for the hard drive is for transferring media files back and forth between my MBP and PC using just one partition on the drive. I already know I'm not supposed to pick 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' because I believe that is to use it as a boot drive. So should I pick 'Mac OS Extended' or maybe 'Free Space'?
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Jan 19, 2008
I have an external hard drive that I was previously using on PC, having attempted to use it on a Mac, it will not write to it. I've found that I have to format to FAT32, which I think i can just about manage (yes, im a girl) but my concern is, if i format through the MAC, will i then lose what's on the hard disk as the tab says 'erase'? I have a lot of images on the hard disk so am a little petrified! Any advice for this really basic question would be appreciated!
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