worth to buylight weight and compact designno need to format neither quick format nor normal format is required for brand new hdd as it comes preformatted since normal formatting may take upto 12 hours to completespeed performance is more satisfactory if you are transferring files hdd to cd drive and same for vice versa but it may take longer time in case of hdd to external item like pen drive memory card hdd etcoverall 4 out of 5