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I have a 2 TB hard-disk partitioned as:

  • HFS+ (1 TB);
  • FAT32 (500 GB);
  • NTFS (500 GB).

I’d like to wipe out the NTFS partition and format as HFS+. Is there a way to do this without modifying the rest?

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It theoretically should be safe to reformat the NTFS partition with gparted or other utility (probably run from another drive such as a USB Linux ISO drive*), though it may be necessary to first mark the partition as unformatted, empty space, and then reformat as HFS+.

That stated, I would recommend that a complete disk image first be made (and checked!), so that you can revert if the unthinkable happens. [Murphy's Law states data is damaged only when there is no backup, so you should be OK.]

*As @AFH states, it's possible to format an inactive partition, but if you want to consolidate space or reallocate it amongst other partitions, running from another drive makes it feasible.

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    Actually, since you are formatting only a partition, then a system running from any of the other partitions will be able to format it, provided it is not mounted or otherwise in use. But this doesn't in any way diminish the necessity of backing up: valuable data must be backed up, or vice versa data that are not backed up are not valuable. It can't be stated too often.
    – AFH
    Dec 23, 2017 at 23:12

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