Questions regarding setup of new external drive in disk util?

Hello I just got a new HD and external enclosure i will be using for storage. The Drive is a 500gb seagate sata in an Thermaltake max 4 enclosure that is hooked up via usb to my macbook.
Now I have a few questions about how to best to format the drive for use. As this is my data drive I plan to be able to use it on my linux box by mounting it as HFS+ if needed for some rare occasion(ex: macbook breaks and goes in for repair) since this is my only mac.
So the main question is what should I chose as a partition scheme for this new drive?
Is the default Apple Partion Map ok? will linux be able to read it as HFS+(MAC OS Extened(Journaled)) using that scheme. I wont be booting of this new drive so thats not an issue. Also my linux pc's(older boxes) don't have the EFI bios that GUID uses supposedly if that makes a difference.
The last question is do i need to have the Mac OS 9 disk drivers checked when creating the partition? I don't think I need as I don't have OS 9.
I guess the best thing would be if anyone here has any experience using an external drive on both mac and linux using HFS+. How did you guys setup your drives?
Thanks

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I've run into the problem fairly regularly were I format a drive as FAT32 on the Mac, but Windows won't read it. I just reformat it from the Windows machine as FAT32. My Mac always reads and writes to it just fine, so it has never been a problem, just a minor mystery.
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In the meanwhile I saw this page on the Seagate web sites.
https://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seagate.cfg/php/enduser/popupadp.php?p_sid=dLEqXr6j&p_lva=&p_li=&p_faqid=5005&p_created=1195077097&psp=
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You can get dozens of "not me" or "yes" opinions, but you might want to look at reader feedback reports first on MacFixit (subscription required after 3 days) or MacIntouch, or handy olde Google.
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Note: it helps to narrow down and ask/focus on what you are using, I assume by your link, that you are asking about a Seagate case, so issues with LaCie, Maxtor, Initio may or may not apply.
By 3rd drive, I assume same case? rather than disk drive, or same make model in each case?
For the record, years of using Oxford based and no issues, I avoid all the name brand cases in favor of the 'build it yourself' or OWC FireWire/USB Mercury (not that there aren't a few reports of problems, but I think much less).
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http://www.macintouch.com - hard drives a good start.

Cannot see new hard drive in disk utility

Hi-
My original hard drive (less than a year old) when down hard. I bought a new Seagate 160GB SATA drive and I cannot install Tiger (or Panther for that matter) because I have no hard drive recognized in the drive utility. Curiously, I ran Apple basic HW test and mass storage checked out okay...the test just showed passed. Seagate offered no help - I can't see any info regarding jumpers or such... SATA shouldn't need it anyway. My system is completely deviod of 3rd party items - completely stock as shipped.
I then ran the extended hardware test and received error code 2GMC /2/15: built-in.
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Yes, the same thing happened to me. No, solutions yet.
Were you using Software Update to upgrade?
I've tried most of the repair methods listed here and elsewhere. I think my external hard drive (external La Cie 200 gig) was damaged by the update process. As now it can't be read by my laptop either.
Very angry about this. but i'll turn that anger into another post. Good luck, let me know if you find a way to revive disks while i look for something more powerful than Disk Utility (it bails out of even the Verify Disk process).

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I just purchased a Seagate FreeAgent USB 2.0 1.5 Terabyte external hard-drive. I typically partition my external hard-drives into two volumes; one about a terabyte and the remaining 330 GB or so for misc. stuff. I opened disk utility and attempted to format it is using mac os x extended (journaled). After a few seconds in, i receive an error "file system formatter failed". The only way to bypass this is to select only 1 partition volume scheme under format MS-DOS (FAT). My question is will i lose any features or functions formatting into this MS-DOS scheme as opposed to MAC OS X extended (journaled)? I will be backing everything up to this drive, mostly music.
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I just bought the exact same drive. I couldn't format it at first either. It's a known issue by Seagate, they talk about it on their web site at:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=209311&NewLan g=en&Hilite=Freeagent+Desk
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It has worked for me so far. . .

Change the partition of an external drive using Disk Utility?

I wish to change partition scheme, sizes, in an external drive. All the partitions are MacOS extended (Journaled) and they map, according to the layout in Disk Utility, as follows: Partion 1, 2, 3,4 where 1 is at the top and 4, the bottom. I want to make partition 2 larger, so I decreased partition 1 by half. Now the layout is 1 a, 1b, 2,3,4., where 1b is now free space. Disk Utility will not allow me to increase the size of partition 2 by dragging the corner. Which of the following options (if any) will allow me to increase the size of partition 2, without erasing the data, using Disk Utility:
Select partition 2 and manually writing a new value in the size box, equal to the present partition’s size plus the free space?
If I delete partition 1 completely, will I then be able to increase the size of partition 2?
If I delete partitions 1, 3, and 4, will I then be allowed to increase the size of partion 2?
Is there another option?
Thanks
(Actually, partition 3 is an eDrive, a data recovery utility created by TechTool Pro 7, so I don’t really know how it’s formatted.)
OS10.9.4, MacBook Pro, SeagateHD 1.5TB USB drive.

You cannot re-size the existing partitions in such a way that you can take the space from a shrunken partition and add it to another partition. Disk Utility cannot do that. If you have an existing partition that lives above another partition, then you can delete the lower partition in order to expand the upper partition into the freed up space. This concept applies to any additional partitions that are below another partition. Disk Utility can do this. You can resize down, but not up, except when creating new partitions. You would need third-party software such as iPartition 3.4.3 to accomplish that feat.

Problems formatting external drive with Disk Utility

Hi all
I'm having some odd troubles with using Disk Utility to format an external hard drive. For some reason, it is giving me all sorts of errors and problems.
Currently, it will let me format the drive in MS-FAT, but won't let me copy certain files to it (it gives an error code). I'm currently trying to re-format the drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but the status bar give me the following error and continues to do its 'pondering' instead of giving me a progress bar:
!http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5019/picture2csm.png!
It is currently sitting like that, not doing anything (not even going unresponsive).
What am I doing wrong here?
Cheers.

Wait, scratch that, it suddenly started working again.
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Problems transferring Backups to new External HD using Disk Utility restore

I'm having issues using Disk Utility to transfer my backups to a new disk.
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I follow the tutorial in item 18 of the FAQS on this forum exactly (except i didnt check erase destination) but i get an error message each time after about 3 minutes:
"Could not restore - Operation not permitted"
This is what my log says:
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Restore Disk
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Source: “Darkers HD”
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Destination: “Untitled”
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Erase Destination: No
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000:
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Starting Restore…
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating target...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating source...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: Validating sizes...
2009-12-27 17:12:32 +0000: done
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2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000:
2009-12-27 17:14:01 +0000: Could not restore - Operation not permitted
2009-12-27 17:14:02 +0000: Could not restore - Operation not permitted
2009-12-27 17:14:02 +0000:
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Using Disk Utility to Erase an external drive freezes Disk Utility?

When I use Disk Utility to Erase an external drive, Disk Utility freezes indefinitely and the action is not performed.
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To use it on your MBP you need to set the OPTION when you partition it so that it will be the Intel GUID partition scheme, then set the partition(s) you want.
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Disk Warrior is known to work much better. http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/index.html

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I have seen some behavior like this a few times before. When this happens I go to my Linux box and dd a bunch of zeros to the beginning of the drive, this will blow away any partition tables and such.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=100k
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Use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner to backup or clone or archive for each volume.
Clone your system:
How to Clone a Volume
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
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http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
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Were you able to get any help with this problem? My MacBook Pro out of the blue wouldn't boot up all the way and now I'm trying to get a copy of everything onto the new external drive using disc utility but am having the same errors as you! Thank you for sharing any tips!! -Norah

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I'm not very tech savvy but am trying my best to use Disc Utility to copy my hard drive to a brand new external drive and am having the error "Unable to create...(Cannot allocate memory)".
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When I hold down the "option" key for the startup manager the cursor comes up and moves but the actually manager doesn't come up no matter how long I leave the laptop on.
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Where did you get the dvd? What is the number on the DVD?
What machine do you have anyway?
This site provides more information, but lacks security.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
or
This site provides more information, but lacks security too.
"A serial number is a unique, identifying number or group of numbers and letters assigned to an individual piece of hardware or software. It's used for various things depending on the product / brand but what is your Mac's serial number for and more importantly... what is it hiding and what can it do for you ?"
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
( hint by K Shaffer )

Questions regarding setup of new external drive in disk util?

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