Oops, wrong partition map scheme (and SD suggestion)

[knutsen]

It seems I chose the wrong Partition Map Scheme for my newest Firewire drive (see attached), and now I can't resize/add partitions.

What I have at present are two partitions: "Bootable Tiger" (my last Tiger backup; I may be kidding myself that it's bootable, given that this drive is MBR) and "Flux Capacitor" (for Time Machine; "it's what makes time travel possible"). I want to split the latter in two so I can have a "Bootable Leopard" backup as well.

I think that my only recourse is the following:

1) Whittle "Flux Capacitor" partition down to size by throwing out old backups (I just learned how to do this w/the Action menu in TM; very cool)
2) Back up both partitions to my network drive (ReadyNAS; not shown)
3) Reformat, repartition (as GUID) & restore

Step two is in progress; someone please stop me if there's a simpler way!

BTW, Dave: given that there's a TM feature that lets me get rid of old backups on demand, perhaps there's an API for the same thing? That might help answer the problem I've seen discussed here where SuperDuper might fail to back up to a sparse image on a TM drive if the drive is too full. You could provide an option for SD to automatically free "enough" space for the backup to succeed.

[dnanian]

I don't know of any better way: I don't think iPartition or its ilk can change the scheme yet.

There's virtually no public API for anything in Time Machine, unfortunately, except for managing an application's own files (to integrate into its UI, mark things as "don't backup", etc).

[knutsen]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I don't know of any better way: I don't think iPartition or its ilk can change the scheme yet.

Hey, thanks, I'd not heard of that product. http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php says, "Works with Apple, GUID and MBR (NEW) partition schemes with the ability to convert between the schemes."

I should give that a try. I have nothing to lose, given my new backups.

Originally Posted by dnanian

There's virtually no public API for anything in Time Machine, unfortunately, except for managing an application's own files (to integrate into its UI, mark things as "don't backup", etc).

That's too bad. You might consider making SD smart enough to notice the backup might fail for lack of space and suggest the user check the manual for tips about purging TM backups.

[dnanian]

Glad they've added that to iParittion: quite useful.

[knutsen]

iPartition changed my partitioning scheme and created a new partition in seconds. Highly recommended.

SuperDuper then produced a bootable backup of my main drive. Also highly recommended