Hard drive format

[goodtimes5]

My friend gave me a used hard drive of his (he is a Windows user). I want to erase all his stuff from it, and I'm going to use Apple's Disk Utility for this. On the erase screen, I have the option of selecting the volume format (MS-DOS is preselected). Is this the correct format?

 

[Benjamindaines]

My friend gave me a used hard drive of his (he is a Windows user). I want to erase all his stuff from it, and I'm going to use Apple's Disk Utility for this. On the erase screen, I have the option of selecting the volume format (MS-DOS is preselected). Is this the correct format?

Disk Utility automatically selected MS-DOS because that is what the drive is currently. That is only the correct format for you if you plan on going back and forth with a PC and your Mac. If you just plan on using the drive with your Mac then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

--Cheers