Formatting the Snow Leopard Drive

[Ceesar]

Hi,
I had got a clients computer. It is not working properly. The problem here is that after running the system I found that it has Snow Leopard in it. Now I am not so much familiar about the Snow Leopard system. I have to initialized the hard drive the make the system work again properly. I am not clear on this terms. So before going any further what all things are included in formatting a hard drive in Snow Leopard.

[SalVatore]

Initialize means that you will erase the entire contents of your hard drive. In other words, once initialized, your hard drive will be blank. Both say it is strongly recommended to backup your files prior to removable media. You can do that on a CD, DVD or USB stick for example, or even an external hard drive. So that you can reinstall later once your hard disk deleted, it will not be possible to go back. Be very careful then before setting our entire hard disk or just a partition of it.

[Dr. V]

Initialize and formatting are one the same thing. In this you get a choice to choose between the types of format you want. I suggest you format Mac OS Extended or Mac OS Extended Journaled. SNOW LEOPARD also formatting Sensitive (Journaled or not). This option allows including spotlight to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, and so the system does not treat similarly the data or commands as they are entered in uppercase or lowercase.

[Devasis]

Here partitioning simply means that you are dividing the entire disk space to different parts. But there is a vast difference between Windows and MAC. Both uses different standards of formatting. In such case I will recommend you to go via a disk utility or any other software which offers you a easy way of formatting. One thing also keep in mind that you will loose out your data. So first take out the backup of essential things and then do the needful.

[MrChris-]

I will recommend you to create and use multiple partitions here. Because in this case if your single partition crashes or infected with virus then atleast you can move your data to a different drive and there you go. You get a chance to save your date. In this case, it is preferable to install a clone from a partition on another drive than where your main OS X partition (an external hard drive firewire or USB 2 for example).

[Calvin K]

It is not necessary or compulsory that you should partition your drive. You can keep a single as needed. But the only issue lies that if the drive crashes then you loose everything you have. In this an regular backup on a external drive or disc saves your time. You can also install programs and schedule backups for the same. There are multiple benefits.