Installing an additional Hard Drive

[jelow]

Hi.

I recently installed a new 250 GB WD internal hard drive in my Dual 1.25 GHz, G4 Mirror Door.

I'm not sure what the next step to using it is.

When I restarted my computer it said it "could not read" the new drive and asked me if I wanted to initialize....

The new hard drive shows up in Disk Utility and in "About this Mac" but I can't find it like I can my start-up disk.

Are there steps I need to take in order to start using this new hard drive?

Initializing, partitioning, etc...?

 

[McGiord]

With disk utility you can define the type of volume you want it to be.
Use the Help Menu for detailed instructions.

 

[toolbox]

IF it's a new disk with no information on it, the system will ask you to initialize it which i believe partitions it for you. It then mounts it on the desktop.

If you want to partition it in a different configuration say 2 or 3 partitions, you have to go into disk utility and go from there.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hi.

I recently installed a new 250 GB WD internal hard drive in my Dual 1.25 GHz, G4 Mirror Door.

I'm not sure what the next step to using it is.

When I restarted my computer it said it "could not read" the new drive and asked me if I wanted to initialize....

The new hard drive shows up in Disk Utility and in "About this Mac" but I can't find it like I can my start-up disk.

Are there steps I need to take in order to start using this new hard drive?

Initializing, partitioning, etc...?

As McGiord mentioned above, the help menu is a good thing and will give you some good information. That being said, I thought I would add a little more to cover some other circumstances.

Most drives comes formatted for immediate use in a PC (hence the "can't read... do you want to initialize it?" routine). I just wanted to say that "initializing" the drive through this dialog is not the same as using Disk Utility to do it correctly. Initializing through the first dialog does format it with a method the Mac can read but does not update the drive's partition map to a Mac scheme.

So, select the drive in Disk Utility and use the "Erase" tab first- then reselect the drive and look at the information at the very bottom of the window. If it says anything but "APM" or "Apple Partition Map" for the Partition Map Scheme:" (since you have a PowerPC processor computer) you will need to go one step further to establish the correct partition map.

To do that, select the drive and use the "Partition" tab. Note that at the bottom of the window there is an "Options" button that will initially be grey- we need to have that black though! If you want to keep this drive as a single partition then go up to the top where it says "Partition Scheme" and it reads "Current". Change this to any number other than 1 and then immediately change it back to 1. Sounds stupid, but after doing this you will notice that the "Options" button is now black, thus clickable. Click that and select "Apple Partition Map"- then proceed with the partitioning and all will be well.

BTW- If you want to have multiple partitions, the "Options" button will automatically turn black when you select the number of partitions- so go ahead and select "Apple Partition Map" and proceed.

Enjoy your additional space! 🙂