new MacBook, no FireWire

[chris_johnsen]

Originally Posted by mkraft

However, can you clarify why you refer to GPT (partition scheme for Intel Macs), whereas the following replier (RonaldPR) said to use GUID for the same?

My first message in this thread includes the text "GPT (GUID Partition Table)". I meant this to imply that GPT was an acronym for GUID Partition Table. When referring to partitioning, GUID and GPT mean the same thing.

Originally Posted by mkraft

Just to see if I've got it right now:

I have an unused -- not Firewire but it should still work) that's pre-formatted for a PC (meaning it's FAT32-formatted, I guess?).

So to use [a Maxtor USB OneTouch III Mini Edition] for backups for my Intel MacBook internal HD, I should run Disk Utility and:

(i) reformat the Maxtor drive as an HFS+ drive, and then
(ii) partition it using GPT (or GUID).

Yes, except that formatting before re-partitioning is just extra work. In the 10.4 version of Disk Utility, the operation you need works like this (nothing is changed on the disk until the last step, so feel free to poke around in the UI):

1. Select the disk in Disk Utility. Disks are not indented, volumes are.
2. Select the Partition tab. If you do not see "Partitions" but do see "RAID", then you have a volume selected, not the whole disk. Go back to step 1.
3. Click the Options… button.
4. Select GUID Partition Table.
5. Click OK.
6. Under Volume Scheme, select "1 Partition".
7. Under Volume Information, give the volume a name, and specify the format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). (HFS+ is "Mac OS Extended")
8. Click the Partition button.
9. After reading and understanding the message that says all the data on the drive will be destroyed, click the Partition button in the sheet that dropped down in front of the main window.

These steps will accomplish both the partitioning (GPT, 1 partition) and the formatting (HFS+). If your backup drive is significantly larger than your system drive, you might want to use more than one partition so you can use the extra space for other data (though you will want to back up this other data to some other device if the data is at all important). If you go with more than one partition, be sure to set the sizes appropriately. Make at least one of the partitions the same size as (or preferably a bit larger than) the volume you will be backing up.