Thanks for the 411, i'll be installing time machine and buying another mybook just for it tomorrow, i really appreciate you guys addressing this issue before i have a chance to experience it and relive my 2000/XP "fun" days.

Keep up the good work!

does anyone know why holding shift and clicking on stacks in the dock opens them in super slow motion? Or is that just on my computer...

I had the same problem a couple hours ago when trying to format my time machine drive. I didn't have to partition it into two drives and partition it back to one. I formated the drive using FAT32 and then partitioned it to one drive and used the settings you used. This might save a bit of time, as you no longer have to partition your drive twice and then reformat it. Though, it may not make a difference.

@lpranal: shift makes all the minimizing and expose and any other window move go in slow motion. That's been something that OS X has done since 10.3 or 10.2

WOW. this makes windows look like crap. like, OSX is flawless! why do people use windows? they're so dumb. Steave Job should be crowned king.

time machine has more issues than we thought. aperture users should check this out:

[digg.com]

@samsonsu: There was a Aperture update this past Friday: [www.apple.com]

Maybe that will fix it?

@foureight84: Actually, it does. Those poor mac users didn't have to buy new computers to run the new OS. What a bunch of idiots! *Throws a Bill Gates pie in your face*:

[news.bbc.co.uk]

I can run Leopard on a Powerbook G4 too, but it doesn't mean it won't be slow as crap. Don't give me that you'll hardly notice it bs.

Just like when you upgrade an pc, Vista of course is going to feel slow as hell.

So you're going to have to forgive me to tell you that if you want both operating systems to run decently, you're going to have to upgrade.

I don't care if leopard runs on your 800mhz g4 or any other slow ass machine. It will still run like crap. You have the same people claiming tiger ran so great on 400mhz G3 B&W model, yeah ran running like 1 program at a time with the cpu screaming. Hell I can make windows XP run on a 400mhz celeron processor too, it will just as well, be slow as hell.

Please people, educate yourself before you make baseless comments like JOHNNYRANDOM above.

I can assure you that just because you get leopard INSTALLED on an old POS does not mean its working well. Even tiger on some of those old 733 emacs made me want to throw out the computer as the osx kept spinning as if it were deciding if it was going to open the program or not.

Got a new OS? Probably will want a new computer unless you've purchased a new computer in the last few years.

@Syndication: Please educate me as to what I said that was "baseless" as I know lots of Vista users that had to get new computers (they didn't have old ones either) or hardware to run the new OS. Btw, I have plenty of macs...including one from 2003 that is running just fine with Leopard: That's almost 5 years old and running smooth. Thanks for SHOUTING my NAME in CAPS too. IT REALLY DRIVES THE POINT HOME!!!

It's expected that users would get new computers to run Vista. What do you expect? That Vista is going to run just as well on that 1ghz machine you bought x number of years ago. Yeah it'll run alright, run like crap.

I have plenty of macs too my friend. 4 powerbooks and 1 macbook pro as well as a B&W G3 400mhz computer.

You've just proved my point, your computer 3 years old runs leopard, big deal. My 3 year old computer can run vista too..That's about all a new operating system will do on an old computer, run. Now if you want to do something, you're going to be fairly limited in how responsive the system is going to be when you put it under stress. Saying that you got leopard on a 3 year old computer is not a feat. Actually finding something useful to do with it running the new OS besides running text edit is a feat.

Blah, got cut off there, which leds me to my point. There's no reason to upgrade old hardware to a fancy new OS when it can't even use most of the features or perform that well. I would've kept tiger on that computer from 2003 you have. Chances are, it might've run a hell of a lot better than it does now.

The fact that you need to upgrade for Vista is the same if you want to use Leopard. So I really don't see a point in saying you can run leopard on old hardware and proving it as advantageous for the mac platform. Hell, the old computers we donate to high schools (400mhz pentium 2's) run Windows XP just fine. So you don't really have a basis for just claiming OSX is optimized for running on older hardware because it sounds like a myth to me.

I can disable most of the GUI in windows to scale down the load on cpu for graphics. In OSX, this isn't possible, while you can turn off dashboard and make some more tweaks, as well turning down colors from millions to thousands, you are still limited by the nice graphical interface OSX must render to display the operating system properly.

@Syndication: Hey man, not trying to be a dick, but it's almost 5 years old. I was expecting it to run slow, but it's not. It's actually pretty snappy. I remember the 500 mhz powerbook being very dependable. Btw, what do you need 4 powerbooks for? I've been digging Leopard, but won't upgrade both my hard drives on my G5 till Adobe gets their act together in December with a CS3 After Effects update.

@johnnyrandom:

Your name is in caps in case you haven't noticed. Maybe that's why Syndication put it in caps in his reply.

@Syndication: Also: I'm being very careful to list only my own experience and those who I know. I have no idea if the new OS X is buggy as hell for other people. If they were too lazy to do a clean install, maybe they have themselves to blame.

I'm not saying Apple is perfect by any means. I've certainly had some hardware failure issues with Apple gear...laptops in particular. They've also screwed up my favorite program (Logic) on more than one occasion. Apple deserves scorn only when they screw up...but I think the new OS is actually pretty solid.

@chrisvick: ...IT IS. I AM SUCH A DOUCHE BAG FOR NOT NOTICING THAT. SORRY!

Back on topic:

I found this out earlier tonight myself, but it seems the original article/author is making things more complicated than necessary: I don't think you need to set the drive to two partitions at all (unless that's what you are trying to do). Here's my step-by-step instructions:

To format a PC hard drive properly for Leopard/Time Machine you need to use the partition option, NOT the erase option like you would think. In disk utility click on your drive (the "top" volume of your external drive) and then click the "partition" tab (NOT the erase tab). In the "Volume Scheme" drop down menu set it to 1 partition. Then click the Options button below: choose GUID for intel or Apple Partition for Power PC. Name the drive whatever you want to call it and set the format to "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Hit Apply and you are all set.

It sounds much more complicated than it is.

I'm not trying to be a dick either, but it depends on what you mean by slow.

I use both platforms heavily, as well as ubuntu, and all operating systems run relatively the same on older hardware. Slower bootup, slower launching of programs, but I wouldn't go so far to say that Vista is un-useable on old hardware.

It's true that a lot of people have complained that Vista runs poorly on the computer, but this issue has existed forever. People don't understand that you'll need to upgrade if you want top notch performance. Therefore the same idiots trying to upgrade from 300mhz computers from windows 98 to windows xp with the bare minimum on ram are probably the same people trying to upgrade on bare minimum specifications again.

I will give you Apple has solid hardware lines that makes it easier for them to code for specific hardware, but to say that Windows runs dirt slow on old hardware is just as reasonable as saying OSX runs dirt slow on some older hardware too. I wish we never upgraded some machines from 10.3 to 10.4 because there was a definite slowdown. In essence, they both are equally slow because apple optimizes for older hardware and windows allows you to scale down the gui to take off the load off the cpu.

As for me owning 4 powerbooks. They aren't too old, I have one 17" 1.67ghz, and 15" powerbooks varying at (2) 1.5ghz and the other one 1.67ghz.

I do a lot of testing with operating systems so having each laptop configured differently allows me to dedicate a computer to a different purpose. I'm a one operating system - one computer person, I don't like dual booting, so having more computers, while it might seem to be a waste to some is more hassle free for me. While it's true I could probably sell all 4 laptops for another macbook pro or a mac pro. The utility of having 4 laptops (that aren't too old) with 4 bright working screens seems better to me. You could say it's a bit "well why the hell not since the mac pro has 8 cores", but having systems you could place anywhere when space is a premium is a lot cheaper than buying a mac pro + extra video card + 4 screens, though that's what I plan to buy in the future.

@Syndication: Gotcha. Did you see that thread about the failing Seagate drives? I'm trying to figure out what firmware my Seagate drive in my new MacBook Pro has. I've tried Disk Warrior, System Profiler, Disk Utility...no dice. All I've got is this:

Intel ICH8-M AHCI:

Vendor: Intel
Product: ICH8-M AHCI
Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported

ST9160823AS:

Capacity: 149.05 GB
Model: ST9160823AS
Revision: 3.DAE
Serial Number: 5NK07CJS
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
HD:
Capacity: 148.73 GB
Available: 30.57 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

I switched out my drive out from the stock one, so I don't think I can help you since I sold the old drive, but you know what they say.

Back up early, back up often.

@Syndication: I do so every day on all my machines. I'm so paranoid I've even thought about storing the external drives in a fireproof safe!

Christ, would you people take your flame wars to another topic. There is an issue that some would like to discuss with Leopard. I really don't care how fast or slow it will run on a 5 year old computer. I'm reading this thread so I can find out what the issues are with Time Machine.

Anyway, I don't think the "bug" is technically a bug, but just the end result of trying to use a disk with the wrong partition scheme. Store bought disks are MBR formated, and I believe it says somewhere in the Leopard documentation that the disk must be GUID or Apple Partition Map. I have always used the partition function just to make sure EVERYTHING (excluding the secure erase function, I save that for later) is wiped from a given drive rather than Erase. But you guys are right, that should be made clear when you plug the disk in. It wouldn't be that hard to have time machine say "Hey, you got an MBR here, you want's we shoulds fix it's for ya's?" or at least point you to the right part of Disk Utility. Seems like they should have caught this in the beta stage eh?.

@brandon2084: Do you think Disk Utility and Time Machine should be merged, or just linked? My Lacie drives didn't tweak out on me *knocks on aluminum*.

Lacie drives often come pre-formated for macs. Maybe that was your case?

I was actually thinking just a simple dialogue box and a little applescript that takes you to where you need to be. Sort of like how classic macs would ask you if you wanted to format a disk upon insertion, only in this case it would ask only if necessary and would give a heaping big warning just in case. I think it's best that Time Machine and Disk Utility remain separate, since one deals with the lower level stuff, while the other is something that deals more with everyday tasks. No need confusing the matter by mushing time machine with something most (read: non-geeks) people will rarely, if ever, use like Disk Utility.

@brandon2084: True. On this note, I upgraded my hard drives the other day on my G5 Quad: When I put in two 1 TB Hitachi drives (one at a time) I was prompted immediately that they weren't formatted for my Mac. When I clicked on "format" it opened Disk Utility. It was easy as pie...but this was in 10.4, not 10.5. I don't know if 10.5 behaves the same in this regard.

If you use Darik's Boot and Nuke from your PC and wipe the drive before you put it in your mac, that's probably far less complicated.

Has anyone tried a full wiping of the drive, just one or two passes in Disk Utility?

@onlooker: LOL @ me

I had this problem, but I just backed up and reformatted the drive.

It just works.

any one get the Apple Blue Screen of death?

I had the same bug, and yes, creating a single partition with GUID partition table solved the problem. I've since gone way over 10GB of Time Machine data. (I edit video.)

This isn't a new bug really, I had the same problem in Tiger when I bought a pre-formatted Western Digital MyBook.

I began using it after formatting the default partition to HFS+ but odd things were happening, and I could format it again. I had to create new partitions, two HFS+ and one FAT32 (which I intended to do anyway) and it then worked fine.

I have a PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz and just upgraded last weekend to Leopard. For Time Machine I bought a Iomega 500GB USB, which is FAT 32 formatted. I did not reformat nor did I a partition. I just plugged it into my USB hub and it work like advertised by Apple. My initial backup was around 45GB and no problem with that.

I have a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz and just upgraded last weekend to Leopard. For Time Machine I bought an Iomega 500GB USB hard disk, which is FAT32 formatted. I did not reformat it to HFS+ nor did I a partition. I just plugged it into my USB hub and it work like advertised by Apple. My initial backup was around 45GB and no problem with it so far.

I unknowingly walked around this problem yesterday: I installed Leopard last night on my MBP 17" 2.33Ghz, but before I did so, under Tiger 10.4.10, I formatted a brand new FAT32 500GB Western Digital MyBook to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the Disk Utility Erase tab. I used this drive to copy my home directory, just in case something went awry with the Leopard upgrade. After I installed Leopard (everything went swimmingly), I plugged the 500GB drive back in and Time Machine went about its backup, just as it was supposed to. I let it run over night, and 113GB later, I have no indication of any problems. If you have the option, I recommend you follow my course of action.

Christ, can there be ONE Gizmodo thread about Leopard WITHOUT the fucking Windows/Vista bullshit fighting in comments? NO ONE CARES.

And, thanks for the heads up on this, Gizmodo. Seems like one of those small things (like having APE installed) that can lead to lots of frustration-definitely will keep this bookmarked for when my 1TB drive shows up.

I have no idea what to do for my self. I just upgraded to Leopard, and had planned on using a 750Gb Mybook that I had been using for Time Machine. I hadn't been thinking about Leopard when I started using it, and just left the partition as the default. Now, it has about 250Gb of data that I have offloaded from my computers, and nowhere with enough space to store that temporarily so that I could reformat the HDD to the right partition. Anybody got any ideas on what I could do? Thanks.

This is a great tip- I have my Western Digital Passport drive working but also a third-party portable drive that powers up fine but won't show as a drive on my MacBook Pro. Any suggestions?

Wilson:

You might want to consider filing this as a bug with Apple on either bugreport.apple.com (ADC account required, free ones work fine) or Apple's Mac OS X feedback page to help Apple can squish the bug.

I have os 10.4 for my mac the harddrive died on me and i saw this unbeatable offer for a 500gb harddrive and decided to get it as it said it was compatible for mac's i pluged it all in loaded up setup went into the disc utility and tried to erase it in every format there and each time got the same error insufficiant privlages. I can use it fine in my windows pc but can not get it to format to use in the mac. Please help. Lee

I was able to get my drive to convert properly by changing the partition's Label and Format on the Partition (not Erase) tab, then clicking "Apply".

I think what's happening is that the disk's format is actually two things:
- The partition type code in the master partition table on the disk
- The "format" information that keeps track of the files and free space

FAT32 has a partition type code of "0c", while HFS+ for Intel is "af". The "format" is just data in the partition that tells the OS how to find free space and where files are. The partition type tells it what type of data it should expect to find. If the partition type isn't right the OS won't be able to read the format data since it will be looking for the wrong type of data.

"Erase" is probably just changing the format and leaving the partition type code alone. "Partition" will change both. If the partition type code in the master partition table isn't changed, the partition is still the old type, no matter how it is formatted. That would explain seeing the drive listed as FAT32 (the partition code is still 0c) but formatted as HFS+ (the format was changed).

The bug is probably that "Erase" is showing options for the format that don't match the partition type. For a FAT32 partition, it should only list "FAT32" as a formatting option. Either that, or it has to get smarter and change the partition type as well as the format, like the bootcamp installer does when it splits off the Windows partition.

I'm using a 250gb Iomega drive to back up my Dual 2ghz G5 and Time Machine stops backing up at 10gb for me as well. I tried partitioning the drive using a GUID Partition Table option as suggested, but that didn't work. Any other suggestions?

Thank you very much for this article. As my boss laughed at me struggling with the disk I kept muttering, "this is a Mac, it's supposed to be fucking easy..." Giz saved the day and my self esteem.

this just saved my ass. i just bought a nice new maxtor hard drive, and tried to erase it giving me the errors. after screwing with it for the last 2 hours i was ready to return the fracking thing when i found this post. super awesome.