Format Ext.HardDrive Into HFS+ & NTFS Partitions

[sitalchauhan]

I have got a 60gb external usb hard drive that I use for general files and with my xbox 360. It is currently formatted to FAT32, as the xbox 360 does not support ntfs.

However, the fat32 file system does not allow you to have files larger than 4gb.

I want to play HD movies on my xbox 360 from my hard drive. However, they are all over 4gb in size.
The solution I found was to use MacDrive to format the hard drive to HFS+ (the mac file system), which does not have the 4gb limit and the xbox 360 supports it.

However, you can only view HFS+ partitions on a windows system if you have got MacDrive installed. This is a problem because I also use my hard drive for general transferring of files to friend's computers, but they cannot now read my hard drive as it is HFS+, which windows does not support without MacDrive. It is a real pain installing MacDrive on all of the computers that I am going to use the hard drive on.

I was just wondering, would it be possible for me to create 2 partitions on the hard drive. One 30GB HFS+ partition, and the other a 30gb NTFS partition. Therefore, allowing me to use the HFS+ partition for my xbox 360, and the NTFS partition for general file transfers between computers.

I have tried both MacDrive and TransMac, but both only allow you to format the drive into Mac file systems only, and not a mix of a mac file system with a NTFS/FAT32 partition.

Any help would be much appreciated,
Sital

[peterb]

Hmm - tricky. I found this link

OSXFAQ :: View topic - How to partition a drive for HFS+ and NTFS

which states that the basic partition table structure is different (I may be wrong but I think Apple use a guid partition table which would preclude mixing HFS with anything else other than perhaps an Itanium system - but this is not something I have looked at in any detail.) However since HFS+ is a file system, it may be possible to create that in a 'traditional Partition structure.

Gparted has some limited support for HFS and HFS+. It can't create HFS partitions but it can shrink them, so you might be able to create the HFS partition using your usual apps, then use Gparted to shrink the HFS partition, then create an NTFS partition in the spare space. Not something I've tried, so I don't know if it would work - think you are going to have to experiment. If it works, let us know!

[directhex]

IME the 360 (and ps3) are not happy about usb drives containing partition tables - they expect the entire drive to be a single file system

[sitalchauhan]

I managed to boot gparted off a usb flash drive and repartitioned it into an HFS+ partition and a NTFS partition. Everything shows up correctly in gparted. However, when I boot back into windows, only the HFS+ partition shows, and the NTFS partition shows up as unpartitioned space in Desk Management.

I guess this is just one of those things that isnt possible. Hopefully Microsoft will add support for NTFS usb drives in the future...

Thanks for the help guys

[directhex]

I managed to boot gparted off a usb flash drive and repartitioned it into an HFS+ partition and a NTFS partition. Everything shows up correctly in gparted. However, when I boot back into windows, only the HFS+ partition shows, and the NTFS partition shows up as unpartitioned space in Desk Management.

I guess this is just one of those things that isnt possible. Hopefully Microsoft will add support for NTFS usb drives in the future...

Thanks for the help guys

ntfs usb drives are possible. mixing gpt and mbr tables, hfs and ntfs partitions, all on the same drive, is more than a little hairy

[subarudog]

I have got a Mac Mini Intel Core Solo 1.5GHz running OS X Leopard 10.5.2. I formatted an external Maxtor 320GB usb HDD to read on an Xbox 360 using "Disk Utility" under the "Utilties" under "Appliactions".

The settings were:
.select partition tab under the usb hdd
.select '1 Partition' under volume scheme
.give it a meaningful name like 'media'
.under format menu select 'Mac OS Extended'
.under options button select 'Apple Partition Map'
.click 'Apply'

Now copy some media to test on the xbox 360.
all should work.

This is not to go against the excellent guides done by the Windows guys. BOTH METHODS WORK WELL.

[BlackDwarf]

HFS+ and NTFS must work somehow... Thats the way my mac is partitioned for OS X and Boot Camp.

As had been mentioned before though, getting the 360 to read the partition table seems the problem.