Is there a problem with my external drive?
I recently bought a WD "My Passport" drive - 500GB USB2/3 including WD's own Smartware software. I had to replace it. This is what happened.
- I reformatted the VOLUME not the drive, in Disk Utility, from MS DOS FAT32 to Mac OS X Extended (Journalled)
- I created 3 partitions
- I used two partitions to copy the contents of the 2 partitions of my ancient Wiebetech FW drive
- I named the third partition Time Machine
- I spent a whole day creating an encrypted disk image the size of my PB G4's HD in the TM partition
Though very slow, it seemed to do everything. The next day it took forever to recognise the partitions, and the drive kept making a metallic tapping sound. Of the first two partitions, it would show either or both, but trying to switch between them in a Finder window caused Finder to freeze and the computer needed a hard reboot. It didn't show the TM partition, except in Disk Utility.
In the end, I phoned Amazon to say the drive was defective and they sent an identical replacement. This time I :
- Deleted the WD software first
- Reformatted the drive to Mac OS X Extended (Journalled)
- Copied my Wiebetech HD to FOLDERS not partitions
- Set up Time Machine to use the remaining space (plenty of room left)
So far, it seems to have behaved itself. HOWEVER, when I go into Disk Utility, the top level still shows the drive to be MS DOS FAT32. Yet the VOLUME (which is the same size as the whole drive) is Mac OS X Extended (Journalled). Does this mean the replacement drive is also faulty?
PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8), G4, 1.67GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB HD
