Setting up external hard drive with os 10.4.11

[erwanda55]

I searched for info on this but didn't find exactly what I need. I have a macbook running 0s 10.4.11 and just was given a seagate freeagent desk external drive to use for backing up. I downloaded backup (I have a mobile me account) but it doesn't want to use the external hard drive. I haven't formatted it or anything-didn't understand how to do that. The original cd for this machine is back at college (!)-do I really need it to format?

Thanks....

 

[Collin Bl]

Welcome to the Forum. While we need to know what Mac u have, Intel or PPC, it would also be worth considering which options are best suited to your intended operation.
For me having a Bootable Back up that allows incremental changes is more important than going back to a previous version of a document which has been overwritten. If you want bootable back ups then with a PPC Mac you need a Firewire Ext HD to boot off. With Intel units USB drives will do it. Best speed is with a 800 Firewire drive but 800 Firewire is only on Intel units.