Can't open several things - missing files?

Question

Hello - Have just read an article which said you shouldn't install new software if you already have problems and of course that is just what I have done! I have an Emac G4 10.39 1 GHz 256 MB SDRAM - no extra memory installed. I have a mouse, keyboard and modem 330 installed - ADSL Broadband - a scanner (not used recently) an HP Deskjet 5100 and now a new HP Photosmart D7360. I had been having problems with Classic and couldn't open it for a while. Then it reappeared but I couldn't save any Microsoft Word documents. I could create them and open old ones but not save.
Before buying my Photosmart I installed Tiger. Safari, I Photo and I Tunes stopped working. I couldn't get onto the Internet even after reinstalling the Modem software. It turned out the Modem isn't compatible with 10.4 so I reinstalled the original software and updated until there weren't any more upgrades. I reinstalled ILife and the applications (except Safari) now work. (I don't care I've got Firefox.)
I installed my new printer but the printer utility kept bouncing in and then out of the dock and then 'unexpectedly quitting'. I had other problems with the new printer which I had to take back and have replaced. I uninstalled the software and reinstalled with the new machine. I had the same problem but otherwise the printer is fine. I decided to try printing from different applications and successfully printed a few pictures from I Photo and from the Photosmart Print Application - all the time the Utility was bouncing out of sight and the error message was coming up. Then the printer stopped responding and I discovered I couldn't look at the print queue. I can't delete the name of the printer from the list - the online support suggests checking to see if the printer is in the system profile which is when I discovered I can't open the system profiler.
Looking at one of the threads on here I went to Terminal and did the recommended but that hasn't fixed it.
I have been to Disc Repair and fixed the Permissions ( several times over the last few weeks) I have booted from the installer disc and Disc Utilized also but I still can't open the system profiler or open the printer utility. (Ihave uninstalled the printer software.)
I have just checked to see if I can print from the 5100 and I can but it said 'Printer Proxy unexpectedly quit'before it did.
Can anyone out there help - I only know some stuff - it might be a case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!!.....

Answer 1

I may have been right to be disappointed - look at this page on their website:
Link
I don't know if you can use that as it was so long. so I have copied it - It is possible to use a Western Digital external hard drive on both a PC and a Mac. There are a few things to keep in mind if you want to do this.
The external drive comes preformatted with one large FAT32 partition. Windows 98SE and later should not have a problem accessing this partition.
Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier will only recognize FAT32 partitions that are smaller than 128-gigabytes. Multiple FAT32 partitions smaller than 128-gigabytes will need to be created in order for Macintosh Operating System 10.3.x or earlier to recognize the partitions. You will need to use a Windows based computer to create FAT32 partitions, as Macintosh does not have the ability to create them.
Macintosh Operating System 10.4.x or later can recognize FAT32 partitions over 128-gigabytes.
If you will be using multiple partitions, create the partitions while the drive is connected to the PC. If you are planning to transfer files larger than 4GB to the drive, there will be a 4GB file size limit on both the PC and Mac if the partition is FAT 32 . This is a file system limitation and there is no way around it.
If you use a PC running Windows 2000 or XP to partition and format the external drive, keep in mind that both of those versions of Windows can only create FAT32 partitions that are 32-gigabytes or smaller. This is an operating system limitation. To delete the existing FAT32 partition on the drive and create multiple, smaller FAT32 partitions, use Disk Management in Windows 2000 or XP.
You can download and use our FAT32 Formatting utility located in our Download Library to partition and format the external hard drive as FAT32.
Please Note: The Western Digital FAT32 Formatting utility can only create a single FAT32 partition the entire size of the external hard drive.
I'm not sure what any of that means but if it means I have to link up to a pc I may be stuffed. (quaint English expression which might mean scr**ed in US)
Help - please log in quick!!
Tricia
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