Don't quite understand how to format external HDD

So I've just purchased an external 300GB SeaGate firewire/usb drive - using via FW of course, BUT, it's pre-formatted to windows fat32.

Now I know there are lots of threads talking about formatting HDD's and HFS+ (?) - I've just spent about 15 mins searcing and reading different threads etc.. etc.. but what I don't quite understand is, how do I do it.

I went into Disk Utility, selected the drive, clicked on "erase" and it then presented me with a drop down for which type of formatting I want.

All I saw was 3 different types of "OS X Extended" and another option, but none of them meant anything to me.

I'm not too bothered about haring it with any windos PC's, it's just really to backup my mac stuff (email archives, music, photo's) and probably to edit video's from using iMovie etc..

Which option should I choose? And what are the differences between them?

Thanks very much for your help.

mad jew said:

Apple says to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) unless you specifically need to use something else, but I can't find any reasoning. I guess because it's the most recent and best optimised formatting type for OSX. However, Wikipedia has some background on HFS if you're interested.

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ahh nice one!! hfs is the codename for mac os x extended now i get it