About the EHD

[Pinkly Smooth]

Hi all.
So I was advised to buy two External Hard Drive (EHD) for my iMac that has 2tb so therefore, twice the size of it, hence the EHD to be 4tb. My question is, I went to the shop to buy them from, and the guy there said that because the computer I am using is apple, the EHD will have to be formatted. Is this true? And is it normal for this to happen for an apple computer? How exactly does the EHD become formatted? Thank you!

 

[Cookie18]

It's very simple although it may not actually need formatting if you're buying it new. Most external HDDs these days are ready out of the box.

If you do need to format it you can follow the instructions here: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-format-drive-for-mac-3541758/

It will take a minute or so for you to do it.

 

[casperes1996]

All drives will need to be formatted, regardless of whether it's for a Mac, a Windows PC, a TV, a PlayStation or anything else. most of them just come with either NTF or ExFAT already on them. NTFS is Windows' file system, ExFAT works pretty much anywhere.
If the drive will exclusively be used with a Mac, you can format to Apple File System, APFS or HFS+. If it will also be used with Windows or other devices, choose ExFAT. GUID Partition Table, GPT, is advised in any case.
Formatting can be done through the Disk Utility app on the Mac. If the drive is plugged in without a recognisable file system by macOS, it will even automatically ask if you want to "initialise" the drive.

Within Disk Utility, select the view option to see all devices and volumes, select the disk and click Erase and enter the settings for how you want the drive to be, and you're done

 

[Pinkly Smooth]

Thanks guys