Step by step guide to partition an external HDD in two file formats

Question

I just purchased an external HDD (1TB) which I want to partition with two different file formats - NTFS and FAT32 (this partition is for my PS3 backups). At the moment it's a giant 943mb NTFS partition and at the end of the operation I want it to be like:

643 MB NTFS partition (as my main partition)

300 MB FAT32 partition (to house my PS3 backups)

Please can someone help me out? Thanks in advance.

Gparted way

You can use gparted as a powerful tool to accomplish this task. Install it first. Open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and issue the following command

sudo apt-get install gparted

Then open it and follow the pictures-tutorial below.

Attach the external HDD and open gparted. Then select your HDD from the dropdown list.

Unmount the device or else you will not be able to do anything. The "key" must disappear.

Right click on the partition and select Resize/Move

Use your mouse cursor to shrink the partition and leave the space you want. From right to left. From the end to the beginning (always)

After this, right click on Unallocated space and click New.

From the FileSystem drop-down menu select Fat32

Last, click the button in order to apply all pending operations.

Comments

[Alaa Ali]

An advice from a fellow gamer, the FAT32 partition must be the first partition on the hard disk in order for the PS3 to recognize it. If you haven't stored anything on the hard disk yet, once you finish following NikTh's answer, format the first partition to FAT32 and the second to NTFS. If you want to, you can first check and connect the hard disk to the PS3 and see if it recognizes it.

[Tojamismis]

@Alaa how do I make it the first partition?

[Alaa Ali]

Just like I mentioned in the comment. If you don't have any data on the partitions yet, then in GParted, right click the first partition (/dev/sdb1, or it could be sdc1. Just make sure you selected the correct drive from the drop down list) and Format To > fat32. Do the same thing for the second partition (/dev/sdb2) but pick ntfs. Note: this will obviously delete everything on the partitions. If you already have some data on the partitions, just copy them to your machine, follow my steps, and then copy back the data.

[Tojamismis]

how do I make the new fat32 partition the first partition on the hard disk?

[NickTux]

If you don't have any data on the disk yet, you can use almost the same procedure and wipe out the whole disk (unallocated). Then create first the fat32 and the rest space to NTFS.

[rainlover]

@NikTh Hi, very late asking.... I was reading and going with this Help step by step but I stuck at the part where we have to srink the partition by mouse. When I try to drag the space with mouse, it doesn't work. Pointer just leaves the arrow where it is and come back by itself.

[Gayan]

Its 2017 but still related and informative. Thanks!