How to format an external drive (exPC user)

I've always used PCs & just bought a MacBook.Want to add an external drive for data. May build one myself with caddy or buy "ready-made" - in which case I want to reformat to remove software (have done both for my PC). Have seen some info on different ways to format but not where to look on the Mac to actually do it!! Sorry but I am a Mac newbie... be gentle with me. Thanks for help

Disk Utility will take care of your formatting chores. If you need cross-platform capability, make sure you format it in FAT32 (MS-DOS) within Disk Utility.

Be sure to do this from the Mac because Windows imposes an artificial 32GB limitation on FAT32.

choose filesystem for format

Don´t use fat32! it´s horrible. use ntfs instead.
regards

arthur.m said:

Don´t use fat32! it´s horrible. use ntfs instead.
regards

Click to expand...

While NTFS is a better format, OS X can only read to NTFS drives and not write to them (without adding third party software to OS X)

louishen said:

While NTFS is a better format, OS X can only read to NTFS drives and not write to them (without adding third party software to OS X)

Click to expand...

Exactly. FAT32 does have some limitations, like not being able to store a file larger than 4GB in size, but it is fairly universally compatible. It is also more susceptible to disk fragmentation. NTFS would be preferable (and is the default format for newer Microsoft operating systems), but you would need a third-party driver, like Paragon's excellent NTFS for Mac, which runs around $30.