# WD My Book Essential partition question



## rosiegirl8 (Jan 13, 2010)

i recently bought a new WD My Book Essential (not the mac version) as a backup drive for my imac.  i already have an older My Book that's totally dedicated to backing up through the time machine.  i have an even older one that's full so i need a new one to be used just to upload video directly to and to save photo and video on.

the problem that i'm running into is this:  i can't figure out how to use the drive as storage instead of a backup system. it won't let me create a folder or use the drive at all.


i'm not sure what to do, but after some google searching i see that partitioning the drive might be one solution.  i'm not really sure how to do that for my drive, though.  what settings should i use if it's not going to be used for time machine?


----------



## djackmac (Jan 13, 2010)

The drive just needs to be formatted. Go to applications/utilities/disk utility then select the WD drive. Select the erase tab, then the correct format should already be all set and you shouldn't have to worry about partitioning since its a new drive it has no partition scheme yet so the only other thing that needs to be done is name it and click erase. After that the drive should show on your desktop with the name you've given it.


----------



## rosiegirl8 (Jan 13, 2010)

thank you!  i can't believe i didn't think of it...i'm pretty sure i didn't have to do that with the other drives i have.

i'm about to try that, just wanted to check what format i should choose...it seems the defaults is MS-DOS (FAT).  is that right?


----------



## djackmac (Jan 13, 2010)

Is it showing MS-DOS as the default? If it is you may need to repartition the drive then.


----------



## rosiegirl8 (Jan 13, 2010)

it seems to have the current format as NTFS.  then in the drop-down menu, there's a choice of MS-DOS (FAT), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended, Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Case-Sensitive).


----------



## djackmac (Jan 13, 2010)

You will need to repartition the drive then. In disk utility go to partition, then under partition scheme there is a drop down menu that says current. Select 1 partition. Give it a name, then select Mac OS extended (journaled) as the format. Then most importantly click the options button near the bottom and select either GUID as the partition scheme if you are running an Intel Mac or Apple Partition Map if you are running a Power PC type Mac. After making your selections there just hit apply and you should be all set.


----------



## rosiegirl8 (Jan 13, 2010)

great...i'll try that!  when i partition it, can i make the entire thing one part?  because it's not like i really need it partitioned, right?!

it's an intel core 2 duo imac.

just out of curiosity, why doesn't it work to just reformat as mac OS extended (journaled)?


----------



## djackmac (Jan 13, 2010)

rosiegirl8 said:


> great...i'll try that!  when i partition it, can i make the entire thing one part?  because it's not like i really need it partitioned, right?!
> 
> it's an intel core 2 duo imac.
> 
> just out of curiosity, why doesn't it work to just reformat as mac OS extended (journaled)?



Because since the current formatting is NTFS the partition scheme is Master Boot Record. For it to be successfully formatted to Mac OS extended (journaled) the partition scheme needs to be either Apple Partition Map (for PPC) or GUID (for Intel).


----------

