[bpl323]

I'm trying to partition my external HD so that I can cap Time Machine backups at 100GB, but I keep getting an error when I try to partition. Currently I have two partitions (100GB for iTunes and 368ishGB for other files). I would like to split the larger partition into 100GB for Time Machine and 268GB for other files, but when I try to do this in Disk Utility I get an error ("Partition failed with the error:No space left on device"). There are 125+GB of free space on the partition I'm trying to split so I'm completely confused. Any ideas?

[dougster]

-Hi,

I've never tried to partition/split part of a volume thats already been partitioned using Disc Utility. But I believe you must start over with your partitions and THEN add your additonal volume. Of course you'd have to backup the data since you'd lose it. I don't know of any other way to split a partition.

[smax013]

To my knowledge, Leopard does have non-destructive partitioning...but I have only finally recently installed my upgrade to Leopard, so I have not specifically tried it. Once my MacBook Pro is done cloning to my external drive, I might try playing with it some.

I believe that you must first "shrink" your 368 GB partition down to 268 GB, leaving a 100 GB partition, a 268 GB partition, and 100 GB of "unused" space. Then you should be able to turn the 100 GB of unused space into a 100 GB partition.

And you, of course, need to have enough free space to do the operation. I don't know what the free space is...whether something just over 100 GB is enough or if you need more.

And I would DEFINITELY recommend backing up the drive before doing ANY partitioning (unless the data on the is not important). While the partitioning might be non-destructive, partitioning is a MAJOR league disk operation and things can go wrong and toast your data.

And if we cannot get it done non-destructively, then your other option is to wipe the drive, partition it, and restore the data (this would REQUIRE a backup, of course).