Mac newbie setting up time machine.

[CanadianDonkey]

Hello all.

I'm new to the mac platform, and I'm trying to set up time machine.

So, i open up the time machine program, and I'm presented with a switch to turn time machine on and off. and when I turn it on, it brings up a "Drive select" screen. Now, the problem is, I have a 500 GB HDD attatched via USB, but it doesn't appear.

So....I have a external harddrive attached, Time machine won't allow me to back up to it.

What do I do?

 

[tersono]

Make sure the USB drive is Mac-formatted - if it's formatted as FAT or NTFS, Time Machine can't use it.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

Make sure the USB drive is Mac-formatted - if it's formatted as FAT or NTFS, Time Machine can't use it.

Alright, I formated it on a vista computer... how do I go about formating it once I hook it up to my mac?

 

[richard.mac]

Alright, I formated it on a vista computer... how do I go about formating it once I hook it up to my mac?

OS X will do it for you if it asks if you would like to use the external drive for Time Machine. otherwise erase it with "Volume Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in Disk Utility which is in the Utilities folder.