Snow Leopard Upgrade Partitioning
Somehow when I configured my Mac 500gb drive, I ended up with a drive partitioned using the Apple Partition Table. I don't know how I did it, but turns out, it was a mistake.
The Mac installer, and Snow Leopard will likely be no different, refuses to upgrade an Apple Partition Table-partitioned drive. And you don't get the option to simply change the partition table format: You have to blow away the existing partitions and create new ones, losing all your data in the process.
So to get ready for Snow Leopard, I spent a chunk of the weekend doing a full backup to Time Machine, repartitioning and reformatting, and restoring my backup. It went smoothly, but took a good chunk of the weekend.
Next stop: Snow Leopard!