Ext Hard Drive question

[monaco]

Chaps

I have just bought a hard drive and a usb2-ide cable, with the view to use it as an external hd for my laptop.

Question is, do I have to format the hd before it will work ? I have pluged the hd and usb into the laptop, it knows it's there and say's it's found new hardware and it's working, but when I go to "my computer" there is no sign of it??

What am I missing ?? p.s. i'm using win XP.

Cheers for any help.

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