Maxtor external drive problem

You don't need the Maxtor bundled software to just use the external HD as a data storage device. For 10.3.x backups, download the appropriate Panther version of CarbonCopyCloner or use SuperDuper! (which works with 10.3.9 and later). (I prefer the paid version of SuperDuper!; the paymeny allows scheduled incremental backups).

If you and/or your friend haven't already done so, I'd suggest partitioning the Maxtor drive using Disk Utility into at least two partitions, with the first one set a little larger than the eMac's internal HD (you can set additional partitions for whatever the intended use will be, say separate movie and music partitions). Clone the internal HD to the first partition on the external HD using SuperDuper! or CCC. Then if you ever need to, you can boot from the external drive using Startup Manager.

You don't have to partition the hard drive to use it as you've described, although Disk Utility does make it easy to create the partitions. Partitions are a logical construct that makes the one physical external hard drive look and behave to the Mac as several different hard drives. The ideal time to create partitions is right after putting the drive in use, since creating partitions afterwards requires reformatting the disk, losing whatever was copied onto it in the meantime. The advantage of partitioning is that you can have one partition set as a clone image of a known-good state of the computer, and leave that known-good clone alone just in case you ever apply a software update that fails and hoses the internal hard drive. The rest of the drive can be used in one or more partitions for an incremental daily backup of key data, a partition for data in active use (music and images), a partition for archived stuff --- whatever uses occur to you. But as you've noted, if you want to keep it simple, you can just use the external as one huge storage location. The only thing that's really essential is to have a backup of anything that irreplaceable, by copying those files to the external drive.

It's prudent to keep about 5 GB free space on the internal hard drive, for such things as Unix cache files, temporary DVD burn images, and if ever needed, space for an Archive and Install.You can easily copy user data from the internal to the external drive by drag copying in the Finder. Music, photo, and movies files are a good place to start. See these Knowledge Base links:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
iPhoto: How to move the iPhoto Library Folder

The short answer is yes, you can just plug in the drive via firewire or USB and it will mount on your desktop. You can then drag any file from your hard drive to the Maxtor and then delete it form the HD to free up space.
If you do have a little extra time, in the long run, you will find it beneficial to plan ahead bit as far as a more organized backup strategy (that's where partitionong, carbon copy cloner, etc comes in) but for the basics, its just "plug and play" - isn;t Apple cool!

Andrew

Macs can read but cannot write to drives formatted as Windows NTFS (which would be the default out-of-the-box format for that Maxtor drive). You just need to open Disk Utility, select the external drive, and reformat it as HFS+ / Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you do want to partition the drive, this is the time to do so.

I am having a weird problem. I upgraded my computer to Leopard and I connected my external HD. It started to smoke. What is the problem? Oh, the power supply is blinking.