Easily Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac

 If you have formatted your drive, you can then partition the drive, which will split the drive into two formats. This is perfect for anyone who uses Macs and PCs and wants to transfer files between the different operating systems with an external drive. Here’s how to do that:

1. 1. Open Disk Utility and select the drive that you want to partition. It is best to click View > Show All Devices so you can select the disk rather than a container.
2. 2. In the top menu, select Partition.
3. 3. Then click the plus sign at the bottom of the pie chart. Every time you click this plus sign, a new partition will be created.
4. 4. Choose a name, format and size for each partition. You can also change the size of each of the partitions by dragging the white dots at the edge of the circle.
5. 5. Finally click Apply.

Why Partition a Hard Drive?

Partitioning an external hard drive allows you to have separate drives for Mac, PC, and any other operating system. Now you don’t have to go out and buy hard drives for every computer you use.

A partition also gives you a dedicated space for your Time Machine back-up files or a bootable backup of your operating system. It also helps protect your data if your drive gets infected with malware, as it would be contained within one of the partitions.