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Formatting the Drive
in Windows 98SE or Me
1. Disable any anti-virus software you may have running in
the background.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon. In the My
Computer window you should see an icon and drive let-
ter for the AcomData Drive. (If you are not sure which
icon represents the External Hard Drive, turn off the Drive
and see which icon disappears. Then turn the Drive back
on and wait for the icon to reappear.)
3. Right-click on the drive letter and select Format. In the
Format window, verify the Drive's capacity; it should be
close to the stated capacity of your Drive in megabytes.
4. Under Format type, select Full; everything else should be
left at the default setting. In the Label field under Other
options you may assign a name to the Drive. You should
give the drive a unique name that will allow you to easily
distinguish it from other hard drives or storage devices.
(The name you assign is limited to 8 characters and no
symbols are allowed.)
5. Click Start. The following warning message will appear:
"This device is either a hard disk or a large removable
disk. Formatting it will destroy all files currently on the
drive. Are you sure you want to format this drive?" If no
data was previously written to the Drive or you already
backed up the data you wish to keep, click OK.
6. If you see a warning from an antivirus program, click
Exclude.
7. When formatting is complete, you will be asked to run a
thorough Scandisk. Periodically running Scandisk is a part
of regular hard drive maintenance. If you do not wish to
run Scandisk at this time, close the Format window.
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Formatting the Drive
in Mac OS X
1. Disable any anti-virus software you may have running in
the background.
2. Launch the Disk Utility application (Applications folder >
Utilities folder > Disk Utility). The Disk Utility window will
open with a small window at left and a larger window
with a series of tabs at the top.
3. You should see the Drive listed in the left window. Click
on the Drive to highlight it. Information about the Drive
will appear in the Information window.
4. Click on the Erase tab. In the Erase window you will see a
Volume Format pop-up menu and a Name field.
5. From the Volume Format pop-up, select Mac OS
Extended. (With Mac OS 10.3.x, you have the option of
selecting Mac OS Extended (Journaled). (Journaling is a
feature that helps protect the file system against power
outages or hardware failures, reducing the need for
repairs. We recommend using journaling, if available.)
6. In the Name field, type in a name for the Drive. You
should give the drive a unique name that will allow you
to easily distinguish it from other hard drives or storage
devices.
7. Click Erase. You should see an alert pop up with the mes-
sage: "Erasing a disk will destroy all information on all of
the volumes of the disk..." Click Erase.
Once initializing is complete, you should see the Drive listed
in the left window of the Disk Utility screen with whatev-
er name you assigned. Quit Disk Utility. You should now
see the Drive icon on the Desktop.
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Table of Contents
Troubleshooting
