WD My Book HDD & iMac

Hi guys,
I realise this may be a stupid question, but i am not tech savvy in the slightest and don't have anybody else to ask this to.
Basically my question is, is it possible to hook up a WD my book external hard drive to a mac and use it to keep all my video files, also play them from without having to transfer all the files to my iMac when i want to play them? I guess i'm essentially asking can you use a WD my book hard drive to act as a hard drive such as the one already store in the computer. Is it easy to run and use and all that?
Sorry for the question, i'm just very curious, and being 54 years old i don't know too much about computers.
A great thanks to anyone who can shed some light on my inquiry.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

1. Is the WD formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) also known as HFS+?

2. Does it show up on the desktop and Disk Utility when connected to whatever iMac you have ~ we need information on the model iMac and operating system also.

3. How are you connecting - USB3, USB2, FW800, TB etc?

And at 54 years old you are only a youngster!

Hi Harry B

I haven't got around to getting one yet. I have so many video files and such that i have to keep either deleting them or putting the more precious ones on an old hard drive my son gave me.
I just don't know how these WD hard drives work.

Hey! Age has nothing to do with knowing about computers! I am older than you (and I won't say by how much ;D ) and there are a lot more on this board who are even older than me. Us "old" techies have to stick together!!!!

Anyway, yes you can use the WD external on your mac. You may have to reformat it. Mac's will read but not write to a NTFS drive (Windows formatting). This is very easy to fix.

The drive needs to be formatted as either Mac OS Extended or extFAT. Mac OS extended would be preferred if the drive will only be used on macs. If the drive will also be used on a windows computer use extFAT.

As to can you store your videos on the drive and play them from the drive - absolutely no problem. You will not have to move then to the mac's internal hard drive to play them.

Just make sure when you attach the drive to the mac, if you want to un-attach it, make sure you open Finder and click on the little up arrow next to the drive name, to unmount it first, or you will potentially mess up the drive and it's files.

If you need more help just post your questions.

Lisa