No partition option in disc utility

Hi all... my first post.
I'm trying to partition a newly purchased Lacie external drive.
I've followed instructions on Help and gone into disc utility, where I am instructed to select the Lacie and then "click partition"
My problem is, that there is no option in my disc utility to partition! I only have "first aid", "repair" and "erase"
Could someone please advise where I'm going wrong?
Many thanks
Simon
imac g5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Simon,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Make sure the drive is connected and on. Then ensure that you are selecting the Lacie Hard Drive and not the Lacie Volume in the drive/volume pane of the Disk Utility window.
The Lacie Hard Drive icon will be directly underneath your Macintosh HD in drive/volume pane of the Disk Utility window.
If the icon you are selecting is a disk and not a volume you will see the partition option.
;~)

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Here it goes...
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I'm currently spending a summer abroad in South America, and have had issues with my Macbook Pro (early 2011 version) no longer starting up after some virus experiences last week. The computer hangs itself during loading on the white screen w/ grey apple and the spinning dial. In contacts with Apple Care as well as some Mac-saavy friends, the following situations have been tried:
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I tried adding in a bunch of information about what your troubleshooting steps meant, but the server went into maintenance while I did. So, here it is again:
"Opening in safe mode - The loading bar (added at the bottom of the grey apple screen) loads about 1/4 of the way, disappears, and the computer hangs itself."
     This is FSCK running, and gives you an indication of it's progress.
"MacAuthEvent en0   Auth result for: 00:23:cd:1e:f2:c4 No Ack"
     This is either a failed DHCP request or ARP request.
"Command+option+r+p"
     Command+Option+P+R - Resets PRAM. That's why p+r.
"Inserting the disc and holding "c" at startup results in the cd drive whirring the disc for a few moments, and then remaining hung at the same white loading screen."
     This problem indicates that the disc is too old to boot your system. The reason for why this disc cannot boot is because it doesn't contain the necessary drivers for your model MacBook Pro. My mom and brother have similar models, and my brother had similar issues while in Japan. He went and got an install disc as well, which failed, I ended up stepping him through so that it would boot in Safe Mode, and then got it working in Normal Mode remotely.
FYI: Sophos has a free Mac Antivirus program, that is very processing friendly, and will scan in the background. You may wish to consider it as an alternative to Avast! if it continues giving you problems. Though I suspect it may be coincidence that your computer had problems shortly after Avast! cleaned up files. Let me know how it goes. You may wish to open up Disk Utility and check your S.M.A.R.T. Status. You want to make sure it says "Verified" If it doesn't say "Verified" then you have a problem.
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Using Disc Utility to Make a Bootable Clone

Need some help, please.
OS 10.4.6.
I have an external hard drive partitioned to 3 volumes; I back up 3 computers on it to keep off site. Following instructions Kappy has posted, I initially set up as follows:
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
7. Select the startup volume from the left side list.
8. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
9. Drag the startup volume to the Source entry field.
10. Select the external volume from the leftside list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
11. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Then when I would do a backup of one of the computers, I would essentially follow steps 4 - 11 above: erase and zero out that volume, and also make sure that the "Ignore Privilges" box was unchecked (Get Info) for the external volume I was backing up to (cloning to), and in Disc Utility/Restore, making sure "Erase Destination" is checked.
Also, I have always disabled Spotlight, and clone in Safe Mode (per some help Dr. Smoke has provided).
Had no problems making new clones until today. All 3 clones are at 10.4.6. Went to reclone one of my computers (just to make sure I was 100% current) so I could try 10.4.8, using the above sequence, and at about 3 minutes into the "restore" consistently got an error: "An error occurred (2) while copying. No such file directory."
Well, I erased again and tried again; rebooted and tried a 3rd time and a 4th and kept getting that same message.
Checked the website for the external and no new drivers out there.
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
I did a CCC just to be safe, but MUCH prefer a Disc Utility clone ( I also have another external I do a Retrospect Duplicate on, but I really want a good solid Disc Utility non incremental, fresh of the hard drive clone).
Thoughts?
iMac CDRW Mac OS X (10.4.6)

For What its worth, here's my Disc Utility Log:
Oct 3 10:19:54: Disk Utility started.
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Determining correct file permissions.
Permissions repair complete
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
Oct 3 10:36:58: Disk Utility started.
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
Preparing to zero disk : “iMac”
Secure Erase completed successfully in 31 minutes.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Oct 3 13:14:34: Disk Utility started.
Name : iMac
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s12
Mount Point : /Volumes/iMac
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : FireWire
Partition Type : Apple_HFS
Device Tree : fw/node@48302e2010531/sbp-2@c000/@0:12
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 928B5ADE-157B-3375-835F-2E16048B6B0F
Capacity : 49.6 GB (53,213,077,504 Bytes)
Free Space : 49.5 GB (53,172,117,504 Bytes)
Used : 34.6 MB (36,241,408 Bytes)
Number of Files : 2
Number of Folders : 3
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 12
Starting Restore…
You must authenticate in order to restore.
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
Oct 3 13:27:38: Disk Utility started.
Oct 3 13:28:01: Disk Utility started.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
Oct 3 13:49:36: Disk Utility started.
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Determining correct file permissions.
Permissions repair complete
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
Preparing to zero disk : “iMac”
Secure Erase completed successfully in 30 minutes.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)
Oct 3 15:49:25: Disk Utility started.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Preparing to zero disk : “iMac”
Secure Erase completed successfully in 31 minutes.
Preparing to erase : “iMac”
Initialized /dev/rdisk1s12 as a 50 GB HFS Plus volume with a 8192k journal
Mounting Disk
Erase complete.
Verifying volume “iMac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume iMac appears to be OK.
Mounting Disk
1 HFS volume checked
Volume passed verification
Preparing to secure free space : “iMac”
Creating Temporary File
Securely erasing file
Secure Erase Free Space stopped after 36 seconds.
0.5% complete.
Erase complete.
Starting Restore…
Preparing source…
Copying…
An error (2) occurred while copying. (No such file or directory)

I need to return a external drive to windows NTFS uncompressed but disc utility keep formatting in NTFS compressed

I need to return an external drive (Seagate GoFlex Satellite) to windows NTFS uncompressed format but disc utility keeps formatting in NTFS compressed.

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I messed up badly by trying to restore my brand new macbook pro by doing restart then command R and choose disc utility repair now when I start ,all I get is the white screen with a folder and a question mark,What can I do???help please

Can you still boot to the Recovery partition using Command and R whilst booting? Or did you wipe the Recovery partition as well?
If your Recovery partition is still intact, you can simply boot to it and reinstall the OS via the Internet. If you wiped the Recovery partition, you can hold down Command, option and R keys whilst booting and boot into true Internet Recovery mode. You'll be able to reformat the hard drive, erasing all partitions (format it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" with a dingle GUID partition) and then reinstall the OS that shipped with your machine.
Note that you should use a physical Ethernet connection when restoring over the Internet - it's three times slower if you use wifi.
Try your Recovery partition first and if that doesn't work, use Internet Recovery.
Clinton

No partition option in disc utility

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