Help setting up External Hard Drive

I just bought a WD 500 gb "My Book Premier" external HD for my iMac G5. from Costco. ($279)
After installing it according to the Mfr. instructions, it does back up some files, but not all.
For instance it does not appear to back up anything from iMovie, and also many iPhoto files.
Am I missing something?
I've read on some other posts that I need to reformat the new external HD, but the Mfr's instructions say it should be compatible with the Mac right out of the box.
Any help would be appreciated.
PowerMac 8,2   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Hi - your drive should be formatted as HFS extended - Journaled which you can do using Disk Utility. I would also use SuperDuper!, which will clone your HD to your external drive and permit it to be used as a boot (providing it's a FireWire) drive. SD will also make scheduled backups, and is in general, a very useful app.
Do post back with results,
Miriam

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