Formatting External Hard Drive

[BinderGang]

OK, so I got a Western Digital My Book Home Edition external hard drive.

Last time I bought the same one and just plugged it in and used it. Now I've been reading that I should format it for a Mac.

I just do this in Disk Utilities and then what?

Also, I'll be moving the files from my previous external to this drive. Will there be any problem in moving the files on the non-Mac formated hard drive to the new one that I'll be formatting for a Mac?

Thanks!

 

[richard.mac]

plug it in and bring up the Get Info window on it. what does it say under format?

- if it says "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" then your good to go! if it just says Mac OS Extended then you can format it to Journaled in Disk Utility if you want better reliability.
- if it says "Windows NT Filesystem" then you wont be able to write to it. format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in Disk Utility.
- if it says "MS-DOS" or "MS-DOS (FAT)" then you can write to it, but just at a limit of 4 GB per file. best to format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).