Best Way to Hook Up 2 500GB HDDs

[CaptainCowPie]

I just got my first Mac, a 17" MBP with a 160GB drive, and just got two 500GB drives, both USB (no firewire, but I couldn't pass up the price).

I was wondering what the best way was to set these up. I planned on using one just for backup, and the other for media and miscellaneous. I don't think I will need my windows machines to access these drives.

So, is there any reason to partition these drives? I was assuming to reformat them to, I believe, HFS with journal?

Finally, I was reading about a scratch disk. Is this something that I should set up while doing this?

Thanks for the help on this.

 

[BrittQ]

I would use one for media and one for backup like you said.
As far as a scratch disk... USB would be too slow in my opinion. Should have gone with external SATA drives connected through eSATA via your expresscard34 slot - Maybe Raid them.

 

[CaptainCowPie]

Thanks for the help BrittQ. I was getting ready to format the drive with Disk Utility, and I went under the Partition area. I am going to do just one partition, but what is the best format to choose. I was assuming Mac OS Extended (Journaled), but should I choose the case sensitive option?

Also, under the options, should I choose GUID Partition Table since I have a new MBP?

Thanks again