I need help formating my new external hard drive

[killswitch1698]

Hey all

I just got a 400gb Western Digital HD for my mac, but I don't know how to format it so I can start using it! It said its compatible with mac and it reads it so its possible.

thanks in advance!

 

[miles01110]

Googling your question would have solved your problem fairly quickly.

 

[Fishrrman]

Open Disk Utility.

Select the Western Digital drive on the left.

Choose the action you wish on the right (erase or partition).

MAKE SURE you select the correct drive on which to "act".

 

[bluskale]

a word of advice... on your initial formatting of a new harddrive, it is a very good idea to have the drive attempt to write data to across the entire harddrive (if you have a problem drive, this is one point at which you'll find out). When following the directions from the first link in the suggested google search results, there is a section with "security options". Choose the second, "Zero out data" option before you reformat it. It will likely take a fairly long time to complete (~2-4 hours for a ~1TB external drive), depending on the size of your drive and the speed of the connection.