External HDD Formatting Question

i8change

I would be grateful if anyone could advise on formatting Portable HDDs.

I want to format my Iomega USB 320GB HDD and have done internal HDDs before in Windows 7, but as it is a portable I have a few questions:-

Should I use the New "Simple Volume Wizard" in Disk Management, or simply right click on the HDD and select Format?

If I use the New "Simple Volume Wizard" in Disk Management:-

1. Allocation Unit Size - Is "Default" OK?
2. Volume Label - Is the default "New Volume" OK if I don't wish to name it?
3. Enable File & Folder Compression - Should I leave unchecked, so not enabled?

It will be NTFS. Many thanks for any replies.

fwor

1. Yes - only change this if your use is "atypical" (e.g. very many very small files).

2. You can leave it as it is. Though it can be useful to give it a label, you don't have to.

3. If you enable this you will (obviously) get more data on the HDD, but at a cost, in that access times will be slightly slower.

i8change

Thanks for the info fwor, all seems fine now and I am busy filling the drive.

Named it "Iomega Backup" as it's easy to identify.