How Do I Switch Journaling On Or Off On A USB 2.0 HD ?

The drive must be formatted in HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) to enable journaling.

According to the help file, you just select the disk and click on the Enable Journaling button in the toolbar. If it is not available, then I don't know why not.

disabling journaling feature has been buggy since leopard if not earlier. it can be done but only in the following sequence.
select a hard drive in disk utility.
press and hold option.
then go to the file menu and select "disable journaling".

if you go to the file menu before pressing "option" then "disable journaling" menu won't show up even if you press option afterward.

Ian R. Brown wrote:
Brilliant! Thanks V.K.

you are welcome!

Incidentally my DU Help menu has very little info and nothing like that.

unfortunately, that's hardly unusual for Help menus. they hardly ever document all hidden shortcuts. this one is even trickier than most hidden shortcuts because it's buggy and only works in specific order.

Is there some benefit gained by turning off journaling?

Donald Palmer wrote:
Is there some benefit gained by turning off journaling?

see this post by Bob Harris.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8817319#8817319
it provides an excellent explanation of what journaling is and why you may or may not want to keep it turned on. IMO journaling on the system drive is a must. journaling on other drives is up to you.

Message was edited by: V.K.

I didn't read any minuses in the link, only pluses.
So, it stays on.
Thanks,
Don