Moving stuff from 1TB to another 1TB

Hey guys
I have a 1TB external with a ton of stuff on it, but it is FAT32 formatted. So, I need to change that to MAC journaled or non journaled- still not sure of the difference. I know the easiest way would be to buy another 1TB and format that one to MAC and then move everything over to it, but then I am stuck with a 1TB that I don't need right now, which I guess, I could then format mine to MAC and move everything back to it and return the other one back to Wal-Mart for a refund, but is there a better/more ethical way of going about this endeavor?
thanks
jared

If the stuff is important, you will need to have it backed up anyway so why not use the new drive as backup in the future?

mail the old one to me..

Yep, if that 1TB drive is not backed up currently, your next post could be asking us if there is any free way to get that data off a failed drive and not finding any good answers.

Sell the redundant one on M-F Buy/Sell/Trade, you have enough posts to qualify, someone will leap at it!

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but I have a similar problem coming down the pike. In a month or two, I'm going to give this iMac to my wife, and buy a new one (27") for myself. I have an external Lacie 1TB drive with some backup stuff on it, and my wife probably doesn't need all the programs and utilities I have on the iMac either. This machine will really be more than she needs without any external goodies.

So is there any way to re-configure the Lacie so whatever Time Machine data is on it gets saved to the 500G on the current iMac? I'd like to use the Lacie with my new iMac when I get it, so in a (nearly) perfect world I'd simply drag the TM stuff onto the HDD inside the iMac, and then use the Lacie with the new machine. I'm not anxious to buy another external drive just yet.

I had to do the same thing before, I bought a second external with 500gb and moved everything over after reformatting the drives, but then I made the mistake of deleting everything on the old one by doing a zero out all files on the drive. It never worked afterwards...