Partition External Drive

[evo32]

Is there a way to partition an external drive without actually wiping the content of the drive? If so, can one partition be HFS and the other FAT32?

The data on the drive is backed up, but if I wipe it to just partition and move the data back it would take 6+ hours to restore the data.

Note:
The drive is 2TB and the OS I'm using is Snow Leopard.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Is there a way to partition an external drive without actually wiping the content of the drive?

Sometimes. Not always. Yes in some cases, no in other cases. Look into PartitionWorks to see if it fits your usage:

http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6

If so, can one partition be HFS and the other FAT32?

You can have as many partitions on a drive as you like, each formatted as their own filesystem. This is assuming you start from scratch and erase the drive first -- if you are repartitioning a drive, it may not be as straightforward... but the sentiment is the same: partitions are separate entities, and can be formatted however you like.

The data on the drive is backed up, but if I wipe it to just partition and move the data back it would take 6+ hours to restore the data.

6 hours for "safety" is a good trade-off, in my opinion. The "best" and "safest" way to get what you want is to take the data off of the drive, repartition and reformat the drive however you like, them move the data back.

Using "re-partitioning" programs that do non-destructive partition editing/resizing/adding/deleting may be a nice shortcut to get you where you want to be, but may come with some level of risk involved -- so either way you go, I would recommend a full backup of the drive before moving forward.

 

[evo32]

You're right, 6 hours is not bad. I just went ahead and formatted the drive instead. It took about a day to do everything but it worked. Thanks for your help.