“Do I really need to format it? And, for dummies, why so? (I am thinking I might return the product and don't know it it will affect that)”
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No, it's just a plug n' play. It's good to use the WD drive utillity to check on it though.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I didn't have to format it - I use Windows 10. It was pre-formatted to the NTFS file system, which is the same as my (standard) Windows setup - so, everything is compatible without the need to re-format.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.It is best practice to always format a HDD or SDD prior to loading any info on to it so if for some odd reason there is a bad sector, the formatting catches this and attempts to correct or bypass that sector so you do not have issues upon loading files. Windows will force this action if you are loading win10 and will not allow you to load it to the drive without a format. In all the years I have been building computers I have yet to see a bad sector show up...but if I told you not to worry about it you would have the one in 5 billion that has an issue and might lose valuable information in the future. CYA
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Your backup software should format it for you. On an Apple use Time Machine to do that. You have to format a drive to set up the file system. Whatever the OS you are using, it has to be formatted.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.It comes already formatted NTFS for Windows computers, if you have a Mac you'll probably need to reformat it. (And "for dummies" learn how to look this up on Yahoo or Google.)
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I have two of these. I didn't need to do any formatting on either. My Windows 10 computers see the drives as NTFS partitions.
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