Do I need identical OS on my internal and external hard drives?

[Guest]

I have bought a WD external hard drive for storage. I have a MacBook Pro using OS X 10.5.8 but can't find the OS install DVD. Can I use my friend's OS X 10.6.2 to reformat the WD external hard drive?

 

[d1rtyju1c3]

The external HDD dont need an operating system installed if it is just being used for storage. All you need to do is plug it in and it should automatically detect it.

 

[lihuahellen]

I have bought a WD external hard drive for storage. I have a MacBook Pro using OS X 10.5.8 but can't find the OS install DVD. Can I use my friend's OS X 10.6.2 to reformat the WD external hard drive?

Mac computers can use WD external drives to boot into the Mac OS; however, not all WD drives can boot both Intel and PowerPC Mac computers. Below is a listing of drives that have been tested with a Mac. The tables separate drives based on their interface (USB/FireWire) and capability to boot Intel or PowerPC Mac computers.
The following external hard drives should be bootable on Intel-based Mac computers systems through USB:
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Premium ES Edition
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio

 

[zxxxt]

I have bought a WD external hard drive for storage. I have a MacBook Pro using OS X 10.5.8 but can't find the OS install DVD. Can I use my friend's OS X 10.6.2 to reformat the WD external hard drive?

Why do you need to find the OS install DVD?