Got an external hard drive for Christmas.

[callandor1000]

Got a Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB HD for Christmas. Would like to use it. Box says formatted NTFS for Windows XP, Vista and 7. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.

I have Mac OS 10.4.11. How do I make it so that I can use this Hard Drive. Only plan to use it for back up and additional storage. I don't know anything about using external Hard Drives. Please, oh please, help!

 

[ptsube]

Open disk utility. Select the drive in the left pane. Select partition, and create a new partition. Make sure you select Mac OS Extended(Journaled) as the format. Also make sure you go in to options and select GUID.

 

[ss957916]

Plug it in, go to disk utility and format.

Easy!

 

[175170]

Plug it in, go to disk utility and format.

Easy!

That's a much better idea.

If you're going to be using it with Windows, you'll have to partition it.

Notice that you won't be able to "see the files" on the Mac OS X partition from Windows.

 

[callandor1000]

Thanks everyone.

Now I can unplug this and go as often as I want, right?

 

[EndlessMac]

Now I can unplug this and go as often as I want, right?

What do you mean by "go". If you have ever used a USB flash memory stick then it's the same concept. You just eject the hard drive and then unplug it. Plug it back in when you need it. Hopefully that has answered your question.

 

[JacaByte]

Right; never unplug a hard drive, especially one with platters, while it's in the middle of a read/write operation; eject the drive by dragging its icon to the trash can.