New External HDD. Format?

Hi.
I just bought a Seagate Expansion external drive, 1TB, USB 2.0.

I will use it for back-up.

Do I need to format it before using it?
Or is there any benefit if I do format it?

I hear that almost all newly bought external hard drives need to be formatted before used, but there's no mention of formatting either on the Manual or Seagate's site.

I am running Win Vista and the HDD had no additional software for it. It doesnt require anything of the sort. Its a "Plug 'n' play" device (as the box says).

Sorry if another thread like this already exists; I searched but didnt manage to find anything to help me in the existing HDD-related threads.

 

You should format the drive to the same as the original system.
Most systems use the NTFS file system. Check what yours is set at and format the same.

 

Well alot of them are pre-formatted

If it says FAT32 I would convert it to NTFS

FAT32 has limits such as 4gb file max

 

You can Mount NTFS in linux but not sure about mac

 

Well I am just gonna use it with Windows so no problem there.
Now I have a different problem.

My defrag program crashes when I try to defrag the external disk. I use Auslogics Defrag.
I later used Defraggler and it doesnt crash. So its just the program?

Sorry to ask dumb questions, I just dont want to risk losing data.