Format external HD as Recovery Disk with CCC

Question

Mac OS Yosemite; 2014 iMac 8Mb Ram
I am trying to make a bootable (recovery HD) copy of the system (Carbon Copy Cloner) on my external hard disk, but CCC tells me that the disk needs to be GPT formatted (GUID) to do this
I have done a little research and it all indicated that  the Mac's Disk Utility has an option to partition the disk
i.e. [First Aid][Erase][Partition[RAID][Restore].  I have four of the options showing but not the [Partition] option.
How do I erase and format this external disk (Lacie Porsche Design 1Tb) to use it as a bootable recovery disk as well as for general backup?  It is currently purely backup (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)).
Cheers
Dave

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you need to accomplish. Are you trying to make a bootable installer on a flash drive; clone your hard drive to an external drive; put a copy of the Recovery HD on a flash drive; or create a Recovery HD on a boot disk that does not have one?
If you want to create a Recovery HD on a flash drive for emergencies then you can do so using OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0.
If you wish to install a Recovery HD on a bootable disk that does not have one, then use Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 – Updated for Mavericks | Musings.
If you want to clone your hard drive to an external drive:
Clone Yosemite, Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
    4.  And, if you want to make a bootable flash drive installer:
Make Your Own Mavericks, Mountain/Lion Installer
After downloading the installer you must first save the Install Mac OS X application. After the installer downloads DO NOT click on the Install button. Go to your Applications folder and make a copy of the installer. Move the copy into your Downloads folder. Now you can click on the Install button. You must do this because the installer deletes itself automatically when it finishes installing.
   2. Get a USB flash drive that is at least 8 GBs. Prep this flash drive as follows:
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your flash drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the leftside list. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
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 DU main window.
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.
Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to an hour depending upon the flash drive size.
Use DiskMaker X to put your installer clone onto the USB flash drive. Wait for the process to complete which will take quite some time.