Making partitions and formatting

About to get my Mac and had a question about formatting. My PC HDD will become an external HDD for my Mac (mini w/120GB HDD). It is NTFS. If I hook it up to my Mac, can I format half as HFS+, then copy everything from the NTFS half to the HFS half, the format the NTFS half as HFS? Or do I need to format/erase the HDD in order to change the file systems? (All my stuff won't fit onto the mini's HDD, so I can't copy everything off of the external in order to so a full format all at once).

Thanks!

If you're running Leopard, then Disk Utility should be able to non-destructively resize your NTFS partition. However, you should keep in mind that HFS+ is only supported by Mac OS, whereas filesystems like FAT and NTFS are supported by both.

If you're running Leopard, then Disk Utility should be able to non-destructively resize your NTFS partition.

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As far as I know, Disk Utility can only non-destructively resize HFS and FAT partitions. In order to non-destructively resize a NTFS partition you will need to use either GParted or Partition Magic.

Regards.

chscag said:

As far as I know, Disk Utility can only non-destructively resize HFS and FAT partitions. In order to non-destructively resize a NTFS partition you will need to use either GParted or Partition Magic.

Regards.

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I was looking over the GParted manual, and one part that worried me in the "Creating a new partition table" said:
4. Click Create to create the new partition table. The application writes the new partition table to the disk device. The application refreshes the device partition layout in the gparted window.

Caution
WARNING: This will ERASE ALL DATA on the ENTIRE DISK DEVICE.

That sounds like the whole HDD will be erased?

Maybe I'll try and reduce everything to fit onto the mini temporarily or pick up a second external. Just to make sure, if I have an external formatted as NTFS and one as HFS+, the Mac can copy stuff from NTFS onto HFS, right? Also, can someone give me an idea of how much of the 120GB internal will be free with all the OS installed?

Thanks again!

I was looking over the GParted manual, and one part that worried me in the "Creating a new partition table" said:
4. Click Create to create the new partition table. The application writes the new partition table to the disk device. The application refreshes the device partition layout in the gparted window.

Caution
WARNING: This will ERASE ALL DATA on the ENTIRE DISK DEVICE.

That sounds like the whole HDD will be erased?

Click to expand...

Rewriting the partition table from scratch (new) will indeed erase all data. Don't do it unless you know for certain that the data is backed up. GParted instructions are sometimes not as clear as they should be. I use Partition Magic instead, however, GParted is free whereas PM must be purchased.

Maybe I'll try and reduce everything to fit onto the mini temporarily or pick up a second external. Just to make sure, if I have an external formatted as NTFS and one as HFS+, the Mac can copy stuff from NTFS onto HFS, right? Also, can someone give me an idea of how much of the 120GB internal will be free with all the OS installed?

Click to expand...

Your Mac will be able to copy files from a NTFS partition but take note: The permissions will not be set correctly. The files will wind up being read only which means you'll have to change them.

A complete install of Leopard including applications will use approximately 15 GB of hard drive space (more or less).

Regards.

chscag said:

Your Mac will be able to copy files from a NTFS partition but take note: The permissions will not be set correctly. The files will wind up being read only which means you'll have to change them.

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Thanks for the info. Would it be a pain to change the filed from read only, or could I just do it all at once? Am I missing some easier way of moving my files over?

Thanks for the info. Would it be a pain to change the filed from read only, or could I just do it all at once? Am I missing some easier way of moving my files over?

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Yes, it would be a real pain. They would have to be reset one by one which could take some time.

The best way to move files between a NTFS partition and OS X is to use a third party driver which allows complete access to the file system. (read and write)

Paragon NTFS is commercial software costing $39.95 but it gives you complete access both ways. You can find out more about it here.

There is also a free driver available "NTFS 3G" which now includes MacFuse. Some folks have gotten good results when using it, others haven't. Link

Regards.

chscag said:

Paragon NTFS is commercial software costing $39.95 but it gives you complete access both ways.

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Paragon looks pretty good, thanks! Does that program allow me to move files from NTFS to HFS, ("converting" those files) or will NTFS files remain NTFS and HFS will remain HFS? I was assuming that I would want to have everything HFS eventually, just since that's the native OS X system. Plus, then I might be able to use the 10 day trial of Paragon to switch the files without buying the whole thing.

If I took my PC to a Mac store (which is a ways from our house, which is why I'm trying to avoid that) and had them transfer my files, would they basically be using a program like Paragon to move files from my NTFS drives to the Mac's HFS?

Thanks again for all of the help with this! Trying to make sure I don't have too many headaches with the switchover...

This may help

OK, I think I found the easiest solution...
Decided over the weekend to order a new external HDD, to use with Time Machine. When I get it, I'll format it as FAT32 with my PC, transfer everything from external HDD 1 (NTFS) to HDD 2 (FAT32). When I hook up HDD 1 to my Mac, I'll format it as HFS+, then transfer everything from HDD 2 to HDD1. Reformat HDD 2 as HFS+ as well, as use as my backup. Does this make sense? This will avoid any copying problems, because both PC and Mac can read and write to FAT32, right? I figured I reformat from FAT32 to HFS just to have everything the same. Not planning on using PC/Windows for anything.

One more question: some stuff (old docs, pdf's, etc.) I'm going to burn to DVD since I don't use them that much. Do file system formats affect this? Will the Mac have any problem reading the files on the DVD, since they were originally NTFS?

Thanks again for walking me through all this...I think I've almost got it figured out!

One more question: some stuff (old docs, pdf's, etc.) I'm going to burn to DVD since I don't use them that much. Do file system formats affect this? Will the Mac have any problem reading the files on the DVD, since they were originally NTFS?

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No problem whatsoever once they're burned to DVD.

Regards.