WD 500GB Pro

Hi guys,
As part of the deal at work I got a WD 500-Gig Pro My Book ext HDD,

I was wondering about strategies for use .

I'll use it for back ups and maybe move my music library and Photos.

Should I partition it ?

What about this booting from an extern disk I keep hearing about ?

Should it have it's own partition ? what size ? and how do I do it ?

maybe a link or too would help me

what set up have you ?

I'd love to hear what you all suggest.:black:

can anyone help with this...shameless Bump ....sorry

You seem to have a 500 GB hard drive in your iMac and a 500 GB external now. I would be inclined to use it simply for backup. Since your iMac hard drive and your external match in size, you can literally back up by dragging and dropping your home directory from your Mac onto the external, and that is it! Very easy, no backup software needed.

I do just this myself. I have a 250 GB hard disk in my Mac and a 250 GB external hard drive. Again, the sizes match and I just drag n drop for backup. Nice and easy. Backing up HAS to be easy, or people won't do it.

I don't see any advantage in partitioning and setting up multi boot unless you are inclined to tinkering with computers. That is a personal call.

Firstly thank you. I'm a bit confused . You mean Home Directory and not Home folder? you mention Dragging it to the External disk. From where do I drag it ?do I have to copy it first ? Sorry I'm a bit slow

PS tried to give you a rep but I have to spread them first I'm told

The directory / folder is basically the same thing. Just go to the Mac system disk -> users and you should find your home folder/directory. Drag and drop this folder on your external disk drive and it will make a copy of it on the external disk drive.

Yeah, just what rman says. It is my Linux heritage showing. Directory, folder, what's the difference?

But yes, in Mac parlance, it is your home folder.

Re the drag n drop approach, all you need is two finder windows, one showing your home folder and the other showing the external hard drive.

To get the first one, double click the "Macintosh HD" icon on your desktop and then double click the Users folder. You should now see a window with a few folders in it, one of which is named the same as your user ID. That is your home folder.

To get the second one, plug in the external drive. It will mount on the desktop. Double click it to open it. That is the second window. I would generally advise creating a top level folder called something like "2007-03-21 Backup" (of course, change the date part to reflect the date you are doing the backup on), and double clicking it to open that folder.

Now, one window is showing your home folder as a folder, and the other is open to a blank new folder on the hard drive. To backup, just drag your home folder icon from the first window to the second and release the mouse. Mac OS X will now obligingly copy the entire contents of your home folder to the folder on your backup drive.

It may take a while to do this depending on how much data you have, but it is that easy. Open the two windows, do one drag n drop, wait for it to finish and you are done. Close the external hard drive's window, eject the drive and you are done.

Ok I'll give it a go and report back this weekend
thanks all

Well I had some time on my hands and have fumbled with the disk.
I didn't know what to re format the disk as so I went for GUID partition Table.
But when I went to re install the Button manager the software installer shows me a picture of my HD and the Ext HDD however this has a Red Exclamation mark on it . It won't let me install the software there only on my internal disk.

I tried a home folder back up with .Macs Backup and that went OK until I had to eject the disk...It wouldn't, saying close all applications first. I re booted my Mac and now it dismounts ok.....

Question What is the best Partition format for the disk:

Mac os Extended Journaled (The one I choose)
Mac OS extended
Mac Os Extended case sensitive
Unix file system
Free space
Ms Dos file system (Non starter that one I think)

Any help would be great.

You chose the right one. The "journaled" part is the key part. Journaled file systems are much more resilient in the face of sudden power failures and they also recover a lot faster if corruption does occur. Basically, they keep a copy of every write transaction in an on disk record keeping area called a journal.

If the disk dies in the middle of a transaction, and that transaction is still marked as open in the journal, recovery is usually as simple as "replaying" the journal entry. MUCH faster than scanning the ENTIRE disk for possible corruption. With a journalled system, the Mac knows exactly what it was up to when the lights went out and can zero right in on it to detect and repair any possible damage.

You chose the right one!

One more question Why the red Exclamation point ?

I don't mean to sound stupid, but what red Exclamation point? I didn't put one in my post, and as I review it here, I don't see one. More details please?

From Post Nr 8

But when I went to re install the Button manager the software installer shows me a picture of my HD and the Ext HDD however this has a Red Exclamation mark on it . It won't let me install the software there only on my internal disk.

Click to expand...

It looks like this



I was just wondering if this is normal ?

Didn't find any specific info on the WD Button Mgr installation.
Logically, I would think this should be correct. Device drivers and apps for all the hardware I have purchased install to the OS, not to the device itself.

If you were booting from an OS on the external drive, then it would install to the external.

Thanks Bobtomay, I understand. It's just before I formatted the Extern disk it had the software there. Maybe it's a case of me not understanding the procces. I'll write to WD and ask .

Yeah, remember reading that the software comes on the drive along with the CD. Would think even in this case you would still be installing it to OS X.

OK, I know there are some MyBook users out there, ya'll know anything?

I got a reply from WD

The button manager is a program, that on a MAC must be installed on the internal drive. It needs to install as a normal program on the volume that contains the operating system. It runs in the background to ensure the WD external drive switches on and off normally, but need not be installed on the external drive as it writes to the O/S.

Click to expand...

Just thought you'd be Interested... Thank you for your help

If it is a standard USB or Firewire external hard drive, why is any unique software needed at all? It should work without it just fine. I typically avoid installing any proprietary software that comes with disks, unless it is really needed. I think the old truth still holds that hardware manufacturers don't write software for a living, and tend to give it "short shrift" - the quality is sometimes not there and that can cause issues later. If it isn't needed, why load it?

I do see their response that it is a background process that monitors the drive - I just wonder if it is really needed.

I hear you WD use this Button manager for the fuel gauge (Disk usage) Indicator and the Button behavior ...I just wish they had explained it better to begin with....Still it works just fine so no gripes here.

This drive works horribly with os x. I hate the mybook pro. Its loud and often shuts itself down mid file transfer. I would not suggest this drive to anyone but since you are getting it for free, I bid you good luck. With this drive you'll need it. Hope you have a better experience with it than I did.