pull down the list of formats to HFS + Journaled, then click OK.....you can rename the disk to a name of your liking. The result will be a Macintosh - specific formatted hard drive that will perform exactly the way you desire for your Time Machine needs.
[ . . . ] whereupon it immediately opened Time Machine, reformatted the drive* and gave me 120 seconds during which I could choose the option of aborting the first backup, and then went into the backup. It took about 90 sec/GB for the initial backup.
It just did it. No options, no list of formats. It knew where it was going and went there.
I wonder which format Time Machine chose [which you can easily check via a Finder Get Info window (or in Disk Utility).]
The reason i highlighted those sections of your quotes is because —when Time Machine auto-formats a disk image on its own—its "choice" is: HFS+ (Mac OS Extended),
Case-sensitive, Journaled. [sic] Yes, case
-sensitive... which is
not a commonly used/recommended option for Mac users. And it's also not a commonly known fact that that's what Time Machine itself chooses.... at least when it formats a disk image.
So i'm hoping you can tell us (as i'm unsure) what it chose in
your situation (i.e., a direct connection via cable). I'm guessing it might not choose case-sensitive in that scenario, since users might have other uses for their backup volumes. But still, there's a chance...
So could you tell us please? Just select the disk on the desktop (or in the 'Computer' window), and post the full
Format description (just above
Capacity in the Get Info window).
