External Hard drive question

[TorontoSS]

Hello - have a quick question regarding external hard drive. I bought one years ago, maybe 2011/2012. it was a pc one which I formatted and partitioned to use some as storage and some as a time machine backup.

My question is, can I do the same if I get a hard drive for macs? Does it make a difference if i get a pc compatible one or mac compatible one?

Thanks!

 

[AZhappyjack]

Hello - have a quick question regarding external hard drive. I bought one years ago, maybe 2011/2012. it was a pc one which I formatted and partitioned to use some as storage and some as a time machine backup.

My question is, can I do the same if I get a hard drive for macs? Does it make a difference if i get a pc compatible one or mac compatible one?

Thanks!

It makes absolutely no difference whether you by a "hard drive", a "pc hard drive" or a "Mac hard drive". Hardware is platform agnostic. The only difference, typically, is the "throw away" software that comes on or with the drive. Just find the best deal from a major/reputable brand, buy the drive, format it and go to town.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Any external drives I've ever heard of can be formatted any way you want.

Often the "PC" or "Mac" labeling indicates the drive is pre-formatted. Even if I bought one formatted for Mac I'd still re-format it myself…if just to get rid of the crap software that might be on it…as dwfaust alluded to.