How to install a FireWire drive in Mac OS X

OS X supports WD FireWire drives without any special software.

If the drive has been working in a prior Mac OS:

1. Boot the system.
2. Turn the drive on, leaving the FireWire cable disconnected. Wait 20-30 seconds for the drive to spin up completely and then attach the FireWire cable to the back of the drive.
3. The drive should mount on the desktop.
4. To unmount the drive, drag the icon to the trashcan.

If the drive is new:

1. Boot the system.
2. Turn the drive on, leaving the FireWire cable disconnected. Wait 20-30 seconds for the drive to spin up completely and then attach the FireWire cable to the back of the drive.
3. Use Disk Setup in the Disk Utilities folder.
4. To find Disk Setup, access the Applications folder.
5. Next, open the Utilities folder.
6. Click on the Disk Utility icon.
7. When Disk Utility opens up, you can choose Disk First Aid to test the drive, or select Drive Setup to partition and initialize the drive.

Note: OS 10.0 or 10.1 only supports Firewire hard drives up to 137Gb.