Partitioning an external hard drive issue

Discussion in 'Windows - General discussion' started by aqol45, Dec 1, 2008.

  1. aqol45

    aqol45 Member

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    Hi

    I have a 500gb external hard drive ... i have a spare 100gb & i want to use around 30gb to partition in Fat32 in order to back up my PS3.

    I have tried to use Disk Management - no joy (no option to partition)
    i have tried Partitionmagic - this will only let me create a new partition of about 7.1mb !! (no option to create bigger/samller)

    I dont want to refomat hard drive & start again as i have too much saved data.

    Any ideas ?

    André
     
    aqol45, Dec 1, 2008
    #1
  2. LDee

    LDee Regular member

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    What version of partition magic are you using? I heard the newer ones can do all sorts with fat and fat32 without losing data (including creating partitions up to 500GB).
     
    LDee, Dec 11, 2008
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  3. jony218

    jony218 Guest

    When it comes to partitioning, sometimes you need to convert a partition from extended partition into an active primary (or vice versa) before you can split it.

    That 7.1mb partition you created, more or less proves that the partition next to it is an extended partition. You might have to convert the extended partition into a "primary" then merge it with the 7.1mb partition. When you have that done, then the option to split the larger partition might become available.

    I've had similar problems before and had to modify partitions before I was able to split them. It can be done.

    Make sure you backup any valuable data before you attempt any major partitioning on the hard drive.
     
    jony218, Dec 12, 2008
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  4. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    Merging is an extreme risk to take when using pm,do not attempt without backing up first.Regardless any manipulations you make will require you to create a backup of any data you need.

    The easiest method would be to move the larger partition forward by creating free space at the front by using the slider,then increasing the 7mb partition & converting to fat32,do not do this all at once,do one manipulation at a time

    2nd method tho i'm not sure without trying it is to convert the larger extended partition to a primary this should if i recall encompass the 7mb partition then it's just a matter of creating free space at the front & then a fat32 partiton

    If you like i could do a test run on a spare external & see what happens,tho it'll have to be tommorrow in the avo NZ time,all i need to know is the exact layout of the partitions you have including any unformatted free space
     
    scorpNZ, Dec 12, 2008
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