To use your drive with Time Machine and also for additional storage make two partitions on your drive, name one TM Backup and select any suitable name for the second partition. When the drive is partitioned configure Time Machine to use the TM Backup drive.

Connect the external drive to your computer using any available connection, usually either Firewire or USB 2. There should now be an icon for the drive on your desktop.

Formatting Instructions

2. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (this is the entry with the icon, the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the Disk Utility main window.

3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the Disk Utility main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The formatting process may take 30 minutes or more depending upon the drive size.

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