Need a Second Partition for Windows that OS X will read.

[chrismacguy]

Okay, I don't know if this is possible, but..

I have a White MacBook with a 120GB Drive, currently partitioned into 2, a 20.8GB ish Windows Vista Ultimate Partition, and a 90.9GB ish Mac OS X Leopard Partition. The problem is I've run out of space, and need a extra 5gb partition, that both OSes can read. I can shrink the Mac OS X partition with Disk Utility, and I can add a new FAT32 partition under Windows, problem is Mac OS X wont see it, or mount it, it just sees empty space.

1. Why is this?
2. How do I persuade it to read and mount the partition?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[windels]

you could just shrink the mac partition, and enlargen the windows partition. than you instal macfuse and ntfs 3G. that way, you'll be able to read and write from the mac side on your windows partition.

 

[chrismacguy]

windels, the only way to do that involves erasing the drives at least as far as Disk Utility goes, which I really don't want to do.

 

[Infrared]

Okay, I don't know if this is possible, but..

I have a White MacBook with a 120GB Drive, currently partitioned into 2, a 20.8GB ish Windows Vista Ultimate Partition, and a 90.9GB ish Mac OS X Leopard Partition. The problem is I've run out of space, and need a extra 5gb partition, that both OSes can read. I can shrink the Mac OS X partition with Disk Utility, and I can add a new FAT32 partition under Windows, problem is Mac OS X wont see it, or mount it, it just sees empty space.

1. Why is this?

Windows doesn't add an entry to the GUID partition table.

I think that's why it is not seen.

If you can turn that free space into a FAT32 partition under
OS X, you should be good to go. Just take care to read any
warnings Disk Utility gives you and proceed with great care.

I once had two partitions on an MBR scheme disk. When I
reformatted one as FAT32, Disk Utility destroyed the other...

 

[chrismacguy]

Infrared, first off, thanks, same goes to windels . Second, Infrared, how do I manually edit the table, as Disc Utility will only create a second Macintosh Formatted partition. Are there any Windows Drivers to read Mac OS Formatted Journaled Disks?

 

[Bill Gates]

Infrared, first off, thanks, same goes to windels . Second, Infrared, how do I manually edit the table, as Disc Utility will only create a second Macintosh Formatted partition. Are there any Windows Drivers to read Mac OS Formatted Journaled Disks?

Make the partition under disk utility and then reformat it under Windows. Formatting a partition does not touch the partition tables.