[SOLVED] erasing an external hard drive

[toha409]

hello
using the windows 7 os

i have external hard drives that i use for for backups, about once a month.
when i backup i just remove the old backup and re-do it again.

is it better to just erase the old backup or format the drive?
i believe the correct is NTFS for windows?
dont know if one is preferred over the other? format seems like a convenient option.

thanks

 

[Alabalcho]

"Formatting" a drive in most cases just erases small area of the file system to make it look like new. That's more than enough if you will be reusing these drives for backup. But if you will throw them away, the procedure is totally different.

 

[USAFRet]

If you're continuing to use the drive, you don't even need to format it.
Just delete the old stuff and do your backup again.