How do I format the external hard drive on a Macintosh computer?
To format the drive for Mac OS X 1. Connect both of the USB connectors to two USB ports directly on your computer or powered USB HUB. Connect the other end of the USB cable to the hard drive. The green led should illuminate. 2. Open Disk Utility. (Applications folder > Utilities folder > Disk Utility). Select the hard drive in the left hand column and click on the Erase tab. 3. In the Volume Format drop-down menu, select Mac OS Extended if you plan to use the drive as a media or data backup drive. If you plan to use the drive on both MAC & PC, format it as MS-DOS. 4. Once you have selected the format and have named the drive, click on Erase. You will be presented with a ‘Are you Sure’ dialog. 5. The drive will format and upon completion will be available for use. Note: For the best performance, we recommend using Mac OS Extended format. However, if you will be transferring files between a Windows system and a Macintosh, format the drive as MS-DOS (FAT32).
To format a hard drive using MAC 9.X • Connect the drive to your computer as explained in the user guide. • From the Apple menu, select Control Panels > Extensions Manager. • From the list that appears, uncheck the check box next to the File Exchange control panel. Click Restart. Note: This extension may already by disabled; therefore, you do not need to restart. • After restart, a message appears asking you to initialize the drive. Enter a name for the drive and select MAC OS Extended * from the drop-down list and click Initialize. • Click Continue to confirm drive initialization. • After the formatting process is completed, the drive will appear on the desktop. • Re-enable File Exchange by selecting the Apple menu -> Control Panels -> Extensions Manager. • Select the check box next to the File Exchange control panel and click Restart. • Upon restart, your external drive is ready for use. Note: OS 9 cannot recognize a volume larger than about 200GB. This is a volume size limit, not a
