Need help reformatting an external drive

*http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2311807&tstart=0*
I have been up all night trying to figure out how to help myself - with no success. I posted a question earlier (see above) but didn't give it a useful title, so I'm trying again in hopes of attracting more readers and some tips. The details of my dilemma are explained in detail at the above http address.

Hi sauble
OK you set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but it sounds like you have not set the Partition Map Scheme to *GUID Partition Table* using the Partition Tab in Disk Utility when you Formatted the External HD.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/9014.html
Note the Info from System Profiler for one of my Maxtor External HD's, it has two Partitions (Snow Leopard Clone and Tunes/Photos). But in order for one to Install or Clone the OS X onto it for booting, the Partition Map Type (scheme) must first be set to *GUID Partition Table.* <<<<<<----
*OneTouch III SBP-LUN:*
Capacity: 300.09 GB (300,090,728,448 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table) <<<<<<----
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
*Snow Leopard Clone:*
Capacity: 180.51 GB (180,514,353,152 bytes)
Available: 45.81 GB (45,806,546,944 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk2s2
Mount Point: /Volumes/Snow Leopard Clone
Tunes/Photos:
Capacity: 119.1 GB (119,098,183,680 bytes)
Available: 14.09 GB (14,087,548,928 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk2s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/Tunes and Photos
Dennis

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breathe joy:
There's a way to have your photos on the external drive but have a library on your Mac using iPhoto 6's alias mode. That keeps the bulk of the file size off your Mac. I have 17,600 images (27G in size) on an external HD and my library is only 1.6G in size. Check out these Tutorials on how to go about setting it up. The caveat is that the PC user, as JMEH pointed out, should not work on the actual files but save any edited versions to another locations. Those files should be read only for all users.
Do you Twango?

Need help reformatting an external drive

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