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Posted By: plantsower Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/29/14 10:11 PM
Way back in the summer of 2012 I had a long discussion with several people here about partitioning my external hard drive, using external drives, etc. I re-read my posts, and they didn't help me for this problem.

I need a simple, step-by-step guide. Step 1, 2, 3....

I recently reformatted my external drive. I backed up Mt. Lion onto SuperDuper because I am going to download Mavericks and may not like it.

I went to Disk Utility to partition my drive so I could have one partition for Mt. Lion, one for Mavericks and an empty one.

I clicked on my external drive, clicked on Partition, made 3 partitions, and then got stuck. I don't know how to get my copy of Mt. Lion onto one partition and label it, and then download Mavericks to my computer and transfer is over to the second partition after backing it up with SuperDuper.

I know it's something simple, but I can't see it.

Or, if I choose to not partition the drive at all, how to I get each OS onto the external drive and labeled for future use like booting up from one or the other.

Do I just back up with SuperDuper (I don't want to use Time Machine), and then update as necessary via SuperDuper and not worry about it?

Posted By: tacit Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 12:14 AM
For all intents and purposes, a partition is a hard drive. When you make 3 partitions, you will see 3 hard drive icons on your Desktop.

You label them by clicking on them and changing their name. You install software on them by choosing them when you run an installer.

You can use Super Duper to clone from your internal hard drive to whatever partition you like on the external. You can upgrade to Mavericks by running the Mavericks installer, then choosing the partition you want to put it on.
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 01:11 AM
You are going to end up with four partitions,
  1. Mountain Lion
  2. Mavericks
  3. Emply
  4. Recovery Drive that is automatically installed by Mountain Lion or Mavericks whichever is installed first.
The Recovery drive partition will not mount or show up on your desktop, but it will be visible in Disk Utility and System Information.
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 01:28 AM
I already cloned it with SuperDuper. I just don't know how to get it onto the partitions.

Originally Posted By: tacit
For all intents and purposes, a partition is a hard drive. When you make 3 partitions, you will see 3 hard drive icons on your Desktop.

You label them by clicking on them and changing their name. You install software on them by choosing them when you run an installer.

You can use Super Duper to clone from your internal hard drive to whatever partition you like on the external. You can upgrade to Mavericks by running the Mavericks installer, then choosing the partition you want to put it on.
Posted By: artie505 Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 01:51 AM
I've never looked at the SuperDuper GUI, Rita, but I imagine it's similar to those of like apps, i.e. you first select your source volume (wherever your SD clone now resides) and then select your destination volume.
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 04:07 AM
Hi Artie:

My source volume is my internal hard drive. My destination volume is my external drive. So, I was able to use SuperDuper okay. My copy of Mt. Lion is on my external drive. It's just not labeled and I can't figure out how to do it. I want to label it and maybe partition it because I want to add other stuff like a copy of Mavericks. I'm feeling so stupid right now (as usual).

I meant it when I said I need someone to give me step by step instructions and number them. That's how I work best. Hopefully, someone that works with SuperDuper will take me up on that and consider what I've done already.

I appreciate your wading in, though. smile
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 05:34 AM
OK. I went back and erased my external drive, partitioned it naming the partitions, and am now in the process of copying my Mt. Lion to my external drive.

I guess I did it backwards and transferred Mt. Lion to my external drive before I partitioned it. It looks like you can't go back and do that. If so, I couldn't see how.

I know some people say you don't need to partition an external drive, but I don't know how else to save more than one OS version to it if I don't. Let's hope this works or I'll be back. smile
Posted By: artie505 Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 12:52 PM
That should work, Rita.

You're correct about partitioning in your instance; you can't have more than one bootable version of OS X on a device without partitioning it.
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 04:37 PM
See, I didn't know that. Even my Missing Manual book said it wasn't necessary to partition a drive, but if I didn't, I would have to have a different drive for each OS version. So, it all makes sense now. Thanks, Artie!


Originally Posted By: artie505
That should work, Rita.

You're correct about partitioning in your instance; you can't have more than one bootable version of OS X on a device without partitioning it.
Posted By: grelber Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 06:49 PM
Originally Posted By: plantsower
... Even my Missing Manual book said it wasn't necessary to partition a drive, but if I didn't, I would have to have a different drive for each OS version.


Reread your Missing Manual. It explicitly states that you require separate partitions for separate OSs — but also points out that Disk Utility allows you to repartition on the fly in order to accomplish such.
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 07:07 PM
You may be right. I was going by Page 458 in my book which states [color:#CC0000]"There are some very good reasons not to partition a drive these days. A partitioned hard drive is more difficult to resurrect after a serious crash, requires more navigation when you want to open a particular file, and offers no speed or safety benefits."

"On the other hand, there's one very good reaosn to do it; Partitioning is the only way to use Boot Camp........"


Where would I find the info in the book about the different drive for the different OS's?

Thanks for your help.


Even my Missing Manual book said it wasn't necessary to partition a drive, but if I didn't, I would have to have a different drive for each OS version.
[/quote]

Reread your Missing Manual. It explicitly states that you require separate partitions for separate OSs — but also points out that Disk Utility allows you to repartition on the fly in order to accomplish such. [/quote]
Posted By: grelber Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 07:21 PM
Check MM's Index under 'partitioning', specifically 'installing Mac OS X'.
[I'm using MM for Lion, but most of the MMs only adjust as needed for the MM version.]
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/30/14 09:34 PM
When the Missing Manual says it is not necessary to partition a drive these days, they are absolutely correct as far as DATA goes. In fact it is preferable not to partition the drive for many reasons. However, if you are going to have multiple boot images they either must be on separate volumes (partitions) or drives. A good reliable external HD with 1 TB (that is TeraByte) of storage can be had for $100 plus shipping and handling from OWC if you have a USB 3 port. Firewire runs the cost up another $20 or $30.
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/31/14 04:32 AM
When I first tried to help myself via MM, I looked under partitioning and backing up and couldn't find what I needed. I finally looked under Hard drive and then found the partitioning section. That's what I quoted to you earlier. Anyway, I finally figured it out, so thanks again for your input.




Originally Posted By: grelber
Check MM's Index under 'partitioning', specifically 'installing Mac OS X'.
[I'm using MM for Lion, but most of the MMs only adjust as needed for the MM version.]
Posted By: plantsower Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/31/14 04:34 AM
Hi JoeMike:

I already had a Western Digital 1 T. external drive which is what I used. Thank you. smile


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
When the Missing Manual says it is not necessary to partition a drive these days, they are absolutely correct as far as DATA goes. In fact it is preferable not to partition the drive for many reasons. However, if you are going to have multiple boot images they either must be on separate volumes (partitions) or drives. A good reliable external HD with 1 TB (that is TeraByte) of storage can be had for $100 plus shipping and handling from OWC if you have a USB 3 port. Firewire runs the cost up another $20 or $30.
Posted By: tacit Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/31/14 03:35 PM
I question why a partitioned drive is "harder to resurrect after a serious crash." I would say it's either no different, or slightly easier.

For example, I have a backup drive partitioned into three sections, one for OS X 10.6, one for 10.7, and one for 10.8. The 10.8 partition developed a bad sector--a form of problem where data written to one part of the disk couldn't be read--but because the drive was partitioned, the 10.6 and 10.7 partitions were safely isolated from the bad sector.

In other cases, I have partitioned internal drives, then when one partition developed disk directory problems, I was able to boot from the other partition to run repair utilities.
Posted By: artie505 Re: Partitioning External Hard Drive - 01/31/14 07:53 PM
I keep 4 partitions on my internal...

1. My main bootable volume.
2. My music, docs, and 3rd party apps & installers.
3. A clone of my main volume.
4. An empty spare.

That second partition saves me an enormous amount of time in the event I either need to or want to reinstall OS X.

Yeah, sizing the partitions has gotten me into trouble in the past, but with the size of today's HDDs, it's a snap.
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