Re-format External drive

[tootallUK]

I have a Maxtor One-Touch 250GB external drive, which was originally used with PCs running XP.

It is formatted for MS DOS (FAT32) and shows it has a total capacity of 152GB, of which 2.7GB is used by files currently stored there.

My question is simple. Is this the best file format for a drive connected to an iBook running Tiger?

If not, how should I re-format the drive to give me something closer to the 250GB that should be available?

Are there tools in OS X which can do it for me? Or can someone walk me through the process in words of one syllable?

I would be very grateful.

Thanks a lot...

 

[yogi]

If you intend to use the disk with OS X exclusively, you might want to reformat it using the solid HFS+ file system. It's considered better in performance with OS X, and it's easier for Spotlight to index (I think).

To do that, you can use Disk Utility (search it in spotlight). Choose the drive in the list on the left, then click "Erase Disk..." and choose the "Mac OS Extended File Format" from th edropdown list. Name the disk and off you go.

Remember, using this file system won't let you hook it up to a windows machine anymore.