Re-partition Hard Drive

[nsheikh80]

I have an external 180GB Hard Drive which is currently formatted to FAT32. I would now like to format 60GB of it to HFS+ and leave the rest at FAT32. Does anyone know how I can do this without needing to wipe the entire HD clean and losing all my data?

 

[yellow]

Hmmm... AFAIK, you cannot. Unless you use an app to repartition it on the PC. And then wipe/reformat whichever partition you want to be HFS+ on the Mac. Or maybe this will work with one of the Mac partiton apps (which scare me). Ultimately, you're going to want a GOOD BACKUP of your data on the external, in case something happens. And when you mess with the partion map, something Bad™ CAN happen. And if you back it up... well you might as well repartition/reformat it the safe way.

I'm not sure you can format a partion as FAT32 on your Mac.. only a whole logical drive.

 

[grapes911]

The only way I know how to do it is via linux live cds that come with a program called parted. It's very risky and you can't have have the disk journalized. I'd recommend finding a temporary spot to store your data, then partition it via disk utility and windows.

 

[jeremy.king]

Use at your own risk. I have NOT tried it.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

Edit: this is destructive, meaning you will lose any data on the drive - so back it up somewhere.

 

[iEdd]

iPartition claims to be able to resize partitions with no data loss, but I think that might be HFS only.
Your best bet is probably to back it up, then use disk utility to get yourself setup.