Formatting hard disk queries

[poisoncell]

I just bought a hard disk can Can I know how to format it? MAC system says that it hasnt been formatted.

I went to disk utility and there are so many for me to choose.. MS-DOS... extended (journal).. MAC extended... I also duno which one is correct.

After that what must I clicked? AFter formatting is it ONLY can be used on MAC? NOT on PC anymore?

is it better to put in partitions?

Thanks for all your help ! please help me !

 

[rman]

I believe, if you format the disk using FAT32. Both your PC and your Apple will be able to use the disk drive.

 

[poisoncell]

I believe, if you format the disk using FAT32. Both your PC and your Apple will be able to use the disk drive.

how to format it using FAT 32?

is it MS-DOS? or how shall I do it? There are many different formatting and I am not sure with the rest like extended journaled etc...
Thanks !

 

[radarbob]

You want FAT32 as this is what "modern" Windoze uses. As for working on the Mac, format and find out. I suspect it will, if the Mac disk utility was able to format it in the first place. Mac OS has been able to read (and format) PC floppy disks for over 10 years, I imagine a HD is no different.

As for partitions, I've heard some folks like separate partitions for each OS when they have multiple OSs installed. However I assume you're talking about an external HD, and probably a USB, not firewire drive, yes? It won't be bootable, so there's no point in installing an OS on the drive - thus no point in partitioning, IMHO.

 

[baggss]

how to format it using FAT 32?

is it MS-DOS? or how shall I do it? There are many different formatting and I am not sure with the rest like extended journaled etc...
Thanks !

Yes, selecting MS-DOS will format the drive as FAT-32.

For just Mac use, you would want MacOS Extended Journaled.