why partition an external hard drive for mac

If you resized an existing Time Machine partition, Time Machine should automatically keep using it for backups. RELATED: How to Back Up Your Mac and Restore Files With Time Machine Warning: This process will wipe all the files on the drive! You’ll have to start using Time Machine from scratch, so you’ll lose any old backups and personal files that may be stored anywhere on the drive. Create two clearly labeled partitions, choosing Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive) for the Time Machine partition and ExFAT for the file storage partition. Open the Partition tool for the drive, then delete any partitions that exist. If you’re setting up the drive from scratch, or don’t mind wiping your Time Machine backups and starting over from scratch, you can also do that. Press Command+Space, type Disk Utility, and press Enter to open it. You’ll need to use the Disk Utility built into your Mac to work with partitions. You can also make the files partition an ExFAT partition, which means you can use it with Windows PCs and practically any other device you can connect an external drive to. This will ensure your Time Machine backups don’t grow too large, so you’ll always have room for your personal files. Use one for Time Machine backups and another for your personal files. The ideal way to do this is to create separate partitions on the external drive. RELATED: What's the Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT? A Better Option: Create Separate Partitions for Backups and Files Time Machine will also work toward filling up the entire drive, not leaving extra room for your files.

Don’t place anything inside the Backups.backupdb folder-Time Machine automatically deletes files and folders inside there to free up space, so you may find your personal files deleted if put them there.īear in mind that Time Machine requires the drive be formatted with the Mac’s HFS+ file system, which means you won’t be able to easily access these files on Windows PCs or anything else that isn’t a Mac. Place personal files and folders outside the Backups.backupdb folder.

Why partition an external hard drive for mac