MacOS 8.1 and Extended HFS+ Disk Format

When formatting a drive with Apple’s new Extended Format (see announcement above) be sure to keep a back up disk with system 8.1 available. If for some reason you have to boot off of another system (Gee, why would that ever happen?) it must be System 8.1 or higher in order to recognize extended formatting. It is very easy to get in trouble here (as I did) if you don’t think all the way through the process. If you have a System 8.0 CD-ROM and have downloaded the update you will need to create an entirely bootable disk on another drive before you reformat your internal system drive. That other drive needs to have the disk formatting software, the System 8.1 update installer, and preferably (though not required) the System 8.0 installer. Be careful.