getting started

[kpartridge]

I just downloaded SD today and made my first attempt at backing up from a G4 PB to an OWC 250G Mercury firewire external drive. I did not attempt a partition, b/c I was very unfamiliar with it, and unsure of how much space I should partition. I already have other docs on the external. So I was doing an image. After 3 hours, it still said that it was erasing the image file I was placing it in. Am I doing something wrong or is this how long it should take for the first time. thanks for your help.