Mac OS X: how to create an HFS +, a FAT32, and an NTFS partition (external hard disk)

Introduction:
The purpose of this method is to create an HFS + partition that can be started on any Mac computer (G4, G5-PPC and Intel-based) on an external hard disk, and a FAT32 partition, it is used to exchange data between OS X and windwos without installing any third-party drivers on the two operating systems. NTFS is used for Windows systems.

Currently, on OS X, only data in NTFS partitions can be read. Writing is not supported. To support writing, you must install a third-party driver, such as PARAGON NTFS or NTFS 3G, the one above is the paid commercial software, and the other is the free open-source software. Later I will discuss the software installation and simple troubleshooting. in Windows, third-party drivers must be installed to access HFS + partition data. Currently, macdrive is the best service for commercial billing. the biggest disadvantage of FAT32 is that a single file supports a maximum of 4 GB, which is a huge limit for the time being.

After partitioning, the external hard disk can be used on a Windows PC or on a Mac machine, and can exchange data with each other to facilitate technical staff to access data.

Note:
During the following operations, all hard disk data is cleared and cannot be recovered. Therefore, back up the data first. you must be careful when performing the operation. Otherwise, the data on your built-in hard disk may be damaged.

Operation preparation:
Required device: a Mac OS X machine and a Windows XP machine.

This method has been successfully tested on OS X 10.3 and Windows XP systems.

This operation requires a certain amount of shell knowledge and basic Windows partition operations, and requires strict operation according to the instructions. If you cannot determine whether you have the ability, ask an experienced technician to help you with the recommended method.

The italics below are the commands to be entered, and the purple characters in the figure are all commands entered by the user.

Prepare the following partitions for the following instances:
• One ~ 20 gb hfs + Partition
• One ~ 20 GB FAT32 Partition
• One ~ 40 Gb + NTFS partition

Procedure:
1. connect the external hard disk to your Mac machine through USB or Firewire, run terminal, and enter the following command to use the root user for all the following operations. When the system asks for the password, enter the admin password:
Sudo-S

2. Run the following command to determine the device name of the external hard disk:
Ls/dev/RDISK?
Generally,/dev/rdisk0 is your built-in hard disk device, while your external device is usually/dev/rdisk1 or/dev/rdisk2. the following example uses rdisk1. If you are using ridskn, replace disk1 with diskn.

3. unmount the hard disk. You can use eject from the finder, or use/applications/utilities/Disk Utility. app to unmount the disk. You can also use the followingCommand to remove:
Diskutil unmount/volumes/Mountdrive
Among them, mountdrive is the volume name of the mounted hard disk. You can find it in the/volumes directory.
If the above command cannot be removed, you can add a force, as shown below:
Diskutil unmount force/volumes/Mountdrive

4. Run the following command to create three partitions:
Use the following command for OS X 10.4.5 or later:
Diskutil partitiondisk disk1 3 apmformat HFS + 20g MS-DOS FAT32 20g MS-DOS NTFS 40g
For OS X 10.4.4 and the following versions:
Diskutil partitiondisk disk1 3 HFS + 20g MS-DOS FAT32 20g MS-DOS NTFS 40g
Use corresponding commands for different system versions.
After the preceding command is complete, the three partitions are automatically installed in/volumes/. Use the method in step 3 to unmount the partitions ). in OS x 10.5, note that you need to remove all three partitions, because in OS x 10.4 and earlier versions, all partitions on all devices are removed by default, but not in OS X 10.5.

5. Use the following command to obtain the partition information. Print or copy the data of each item strictly:
Pdisk
EnterL(Note: l in lower case), and then enter/Dev/disk1. Figure 1:

In this case, use the following steps to delete the 5th partitions:

6. InputPTo view the current partition, it should be, Figure 2:

Currently, only five are left.
7. Enter the following command to generate the NTFS partition:

The first line is an uppercase C
The data in the second row comes from the value of the base column in dos_fat_32_untitled_3 in Figure 1.
The number of the third row comes from the value of the Length Column in dos_fat_32_untitled_3 in Figure 1.
8. Check the current partition now, as shown in Figure 3:

Print or record the above data for future use.
Input twiceQUsually, after you exit the pdisk, the system will automatically install the hard disk partition, and use the method in step 3 to cancel the installation.

9. Use fdisk to generate MBR for Windows recognition. Note that MBR can only support up to four primary partitions. Enter the following command:

10. Enter the print command to confirm that all items are correct:

11. Write MBR to Hard Disk:
Write
Then exit:
Quit
12. All shell commands on Mac are completed, the partition installation is removed, and then connected to a Windows XP system. Go to disk management and format the NTFS partition. For details, see

13. After completing all the operations, you can see three disk partitions.