Just installed new HD in MBP now what?

[Greenhoe]

Hi,
I just installed my new WD 500GB HD in my MBP and I'm trying to now reinstall OS X on it, although when ever i start up the MBP all I get is a flashing folder with a ? in the middle of it.

 

[Greenhoe]

Never Mind, I just googled flashing ? in folder and found out that I needed to hold down "C" during the start up to run from the disc and start disc utility.

 

[Greenhoe]

So now that I've got the 500GB drive working, what format do I want to format my old 250GB drive to use as an external drive for both my Mac and PC?

 

[iLog.Genius]

For both your Mac and PC, FAT32 will work but there will be limitations such as length of file name (this was improved with NTFS). Another solution is to format as a Extended Journaled and then purchase MacDrive for your PC so it can read the Mac format.

 

[ID_Field_Blank]

FAT32 is the best option and works really well - be aware though that it only supports files up to 4gb in size so if you want more than that you need something different and I'm not really the person to ask about that I'm afraid!

 

[Greenhoe]

Thanks, although how would i go about formatting the drive in FAT32 of NTFS? The Drive currently has my old OS X on it, when I hook it up to a Windows computer Vista doesn't even see the drive so I can't format it, and I don't believe I can format a drive to NTFS with a Mac correct?

 

[iLog.Genius]

In Disk Utility, if I remember correctly, you can format the external HDD as "MS-DOS (FAT)" then connect to your Vista computer and format it to FAT32 or NTFS.