An external hard drive is a portable piece of equipment that lets you increase the amount of storage space on your computer.

Your digital life deserves better protection. From photos to work files, here’s how to back up everything with ease.

To format a hard drive before you start using it in Windows, use the Disk Management utility; on a Mac, use Disk Utility.

How do I format a hard drive? A computer hard drive stores your files, allowing you to access them at any time. The majority of the time, you want these files to remain stored properly and safely.