What is Partitioning?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
1

I was receiving an error message with my current MC with the new external HD plugged in so I followed the steps to reformat and partition it. However, I have not partitioned it only because I am not entirely sure what it is.

Can someone please tell me what partitioning my HD does? I have not put anything on my HD yet.

I plan on using my HD to back up all files on one computer and transfer it to a new Mac, so is partitioning it required/recommended to do this?

Thank you

2

Hi mdigiorgio,

Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on a hard disk or other secondary storage, so that an operating system can manage information in each region separately. Partitioning is typically the first step of preparing a newly manufactured disk, before any files or directories have been created.

You may refer to the link below to know how to partition a drive:

This is a data destructive process.

3

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the response. My follow up is this process required/recommended to transfer my stuff from one Mac to another Mac?

4

It is not really necessary to partition the drive unless you want to create the partition to manage the files.