Can you partition external HDD NTFS&HFS+ ?

[whosgotsoul]

I have an external HDD that is currently NTFS.

Can I partition this drive and split it into two partitions (one NTFS & one HFS+)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[theBB]

Yes, but Disk Utility greys out (at least used to grey out, I have not checked in a a while) all the options for erasing disk if it is in NTFS format. I had to use a Windows XP machine to partition the external and tell it to keep the first partition in NTFS and the second one FAT32. However, XP puts an artificial limit of 32GB on FAT32 formatted partitions, so I ended up with about four partitions. One NTFS and three FAT32 ones.

Afterwards, I just hooked up my harddisk to my Mac, started Disk Utility and told it to erase two of those FAT32 partitions in HFS+.

If anyone knows an easy way to partition a FAT32 harddisk without a 32GB limit, I am all ears.

 

[SC68Cal]

Yes, but Disk Utility greys out (at least used to grey out, I have not checked in a a while) all the options for erasing disk if it is in NTFS format. I had to use a Windows XP machine to partition the external and tell it to keep the first partition in NTFS and the second one FAT32. However, XP puts an artificial limit of 32GB on FAT32 formatted partitions, so I ended up with about four partitions. One NTFS and three FAT32 ones.

Afterwards, I just hooked up my harddisk to my Mac, started Disk Utility and told it to erase two of those FAT32 partitions in HFS+.

If anyone knows an easy way to partition a FAT32 harddisk without a 32GB limit, I am all ears.

Don't use Windows to partition it. I have a 120GB hard drive that I use for Windows games and movie projects in OS X

 

[theBB]

Don't use Windows to partition it. I have a 120GB hard drive that I use for Windows games and movie projects in OS X

Well, there was one snag, my harddrive was already in NTFS format and disk utility refused to erase it.

BTW, I remember reading somewhere that Windows may not be able to read the partitions done on OSX. Let me make sure I understand you correctly if you don't mind. You have used OSX disk utility to have two partitions and erase (format) one of them in HFS+ and the other with FAT32. Then you hook that external drive to a Windows XP machine and format FTA32 partition to NTFS and everything works fine. Is that correct?

Are there any restrictions, such as the first partition needs to be FAT32 or something of that sort?