External Hard Drive Mystery!!!

So.....

I was trying to add a new volume to my 500GB external hard drive, I wanted a space for Time Machine that would limit the backups to 225GB. I opened Disk Utility, clicked on the external drive, clicked on partition, clicked the + sign, changed the name of the new volume to Time Machine, changed the size of the new volume to 225GB and clicked apply.....and waited. About 30 seconds later the "screen of death" takes over, slowly fading my monitor to gray......

On with the story....I restart the computer and go back to Disk Utility to continue my original project....But here is where the problem arises. Before all of this there was approx. 125GB of space *used* on my drive....now it shows 350GB used....but no new volume! There is still only my folders with a total of 125GB of stuff in them...It seems as if Disk Utility created the new volume.....and I just can't see it or find it!

So, sorry for the long back story but my real question is....What do I do?

Is there a way to fix this without transferring my data to another drive and then formating the 500GB? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

--M

Are you able to use Disk Utility and try to repair the Ext. HDD?

Soulwar said:

Are you able to use Disk Utility and try to repair the Ext. HDD?

Click to expand...

Latest update.....

I finally did get Disk Utility to complete the repair.....no data loss, so that is good. Now, however, I am stuck again. Every time I try to add the new volume I get the "screen of death." I have tried with nothing else running except Disk Utility.

The drive is a LaCie 500GB, connected via FW800.

I am at a loss. I really need to get this volume added. I want to use Time Machine again but I cannot sacrifice the extra disk space. I need to limit Time Machine.....I wish Apple would just build this option into the software. Why would anyone want to completely fill a drive with backup data?

Oh well, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

--M