I'm trying to format the new drive right now and can't find - m

[ssledoux]

exactly what I'm supposed to press. The new hard drive is showing up in disk utility. What do I actually need to press to format it?

[jdc]

erase

[BigGuynRusty]

Darn!
I wish Apple would build in some sort of "Help Menu".

BGnR

[ssledoux]

Why would I press erase to format an already empty - new - hard drive? And, if so, after I press that, what do I do?

[lafinfil]

Top tab - "erase"

It will ask for your formatting option there

[ssledoux]

Unfortunately, when I click help, nothing happens - there is nothing to choose from. So, if that was intended to make me sound like an idiot who doesn't look for the help menu, sorry...

If it wasn't trying to make me look stupid, sorry for taking it that way.

[GGD]

[quote ssledoux]Why would I press erase to format an already empty - new - hard drive? And, if so, after I press that, what do I do?
Because it's brand new and it doesn't have anything written to it yet, not even an empty Macintosh file system or partition map.

You might want to use the Partition tab rather than the Erase tab, and chose 1 Partition, format MacOS Extended (Journeled), and also click on the Options... button and make sure that it's selecting GUID Partition table.

[ssledoux]

Okay, my options under volume format are:

Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Mac OS Extended
Mac OS Extended (case-sensitive, journaled)
Mac OS Extended (case-sensitive)
MS-DOS File System
UNIX File System

What about this GUID (or something like that) partition mentioned to me below?

[jdc]

first one

[ssledoux]

I did that, gave it a name, and clicked erase. It said it was partitioning, and now the named drive shows up with an icon under the main one. Does that sound right?

Now, do I just load the OS onto that drive or what? Should there be two?