IPARTITION ALTERNATIVES MAC OS X
IPARTITION ALTERNATIVES WINDOWS 7
IPARTITION ALTERNATIVES WINDOWS

Simplifying a bit, the GUID Partition Table scheme is intended for Intel-based Macs, the Apple Partition Map scheme is intended for PowerPC-based Macs, and the Master Boot Record scheme is intended for Windows compatibility. When formatting a disk, OS X 10.6 Disk Utility provides three options for the partition scheme: Using Disk Utility to reformat I discovered I had another decision to make: which partition scheme to use (this applies regardless whether you want multiple partitions or only one). Grasping at straws and after exhausting all my other ideas, I decided to reformat my WD external disk in the hope it would clean up some undetected problem preventing Bootcamp/Windows 7 from recognizing the disk. There may be thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds?) of people who know that Bootcamp/Windows cannot read a disk partitioned with the Apple Partition Map scheme but I stumbled onto the fact after hours of experimenting and false steps. Problem solved additional background information below if you're interested.

IPARTITION ALTERNATIVES MAC OS X

After re-partitioning (which, with Disk Utility, also requires reformatting) I can read/write the disk after booting into Mac OS X and I can read the disk after booting into Bootcamp/Windows. I continued to use the Mac OS Extended-Journaled file system. Using Apple OS X and Disk Utility I repartitioned the disk to use the GUID Partition Table scheme (still with only one partition).

Windows, even with Bootcamp drivers, cannot read a disk partitioned with the Apple Partition Map scheme. My Western Digital My Book Studio came from the factory pre-formatted with with the Mac OS Extended-Journaled format (aka Journaled HFS+) and partitioned with only one partition using the Apple Partition Map scheme. Here's the cause of the problem and the solution. Can anyone confirm this or (better yet) educate me to solve the problem? (I've already spent a few hours searching the Web including Apple and Western Digital forums and I've seen many related complaints but no solutions that work for me.) It appears to me that Window 7 under Bootcamp cannot access an external drive (USB 2.0 or Firewire 800) that is formatted as Journaled HFS+. Under these conditions the external drive is listed as a network drive in Windows Explorer and it does not show up in Device Manager or Computer Management.

IPARTITION ALTERNATIVES WINDOWS 7

I can also access the disk when I boot into OS X, run Parallels Desktop 6, and run Windows 7 inside Parallels. I can readily access the same external disk when I boot into OS X and use OS X applications.

The disk does show up in Device Manager and in the Disk Management pane of the Computer Management utility, in each case with the status 'Not Initialized.' However, Device Manager says the device is working properly. This external drive has both USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 interfaces and I have connected it to my iMac each way with the same results. I cannot 'see' the external drive in Windows Explorer. However, I cannot access a Western Digital My Book Studio external disk drive formatted the same way. When I boot into Windows I can readily access (read-only) the OS X partition on my iMac disk drive (which is formatted as Journaled HFS+). I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with Bootcamp 3.2 on a late 2009 iMac running OS X 10.6.6.

Ipartition alternatives