How To Split Hard Disk To Pc And Mac Partitions

S

spacefonkey

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Hello i just got an external 120GB usb2.0 HD.
I want to use half of use to backup Mac data and the other half for PC data..

I have no clue how to split is in two with the appropriate partition systems.

thank you.
::angel::
 
Go into Applications/Utilities and find "Disk Utility".

You can partition the disk from there. Set the first partition (the Windows and Mac compatible one) to FAT32 format. The second partition can be formatted as HFS+.
 
You could also use MS-DOS File System, then on your PC reformat this partition as FAT32 or NTFS.
 
spacefonkey said:
can i directly convert one partion to HFS+ and the other to NTFS ??
Click to expand...
You can only convert from FAT32 to NTFS and Mac OS Extended to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Otherwise you will need to wipe the partition and format it to what you want.
 
Not as such. Windows won't create HFS+, and Mac won't create NTFS. A linux/unix system might do it, but its easier just to create the FAT partition then let the Windows machine convert that to NTFS. Or better yet, leave it as FAT32 then you can access the PC partition from your Mac.
 
Remember that Mac OSX can only READ NTFS, so while your PC volume on that partitioned drive will show up under OSX and files will be readable, you won't be able to change, save or write in any way to that volume.

If you only intend to WRITE to that volume from your PC, then that's fine. But if you want to access all the files from both platforms, you might want to decide on a PC format option that fills your needs and is read/write on both platforms.
 
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